HOW TO USE TRELLO FOR FAMILY ORGANISATION AND KISS GOODBYE TO STICKY NOTE HELL!

HOW TO USE TRELLO FOR FAMILY ORGANISATION AND KISS GOODBYE TO STICKY NOTE HELL!

Let me try and set the scene:

You are in desperate need of finding a way to be more organised when it comes to family life.

Your current ‘system’ – and that’s a very loose term for it – involves sticky notes, a wall calendar, your iPhone calendar and notes, a diary that someone brought you for Christmas oh and getting really stressed and shouting in exasperation at your husband/partner/kids every now and then.

How am I doing?

Right, it’s time to get you sorted once and for all.

I have one word for you:

TRELLO.

It’s my family organisation life-saver.

WHAT IS TRELLO?

Trello is free to use project management and collaboration tool.

It is simple but oh so powerful.

It can be used on desktop, web or mobile app.

Trello is a favourite project management tool for many businesses around the world and it’s becoming increasingly popular as a way for people to organise their personal lives.

I started using Trello a few years back when I launched my startup and once I got set up I found myself starting to use it more and more for organising my personal life and then my family life.

It’s now a part of my daily morning routine to spend five minutes looking at my Trello Family Hub board to plan what needs to be done for the day.

If you’re keen to give it a try, you can grab my free guide to getting started with Trello for family organisation at the end of this post.

TRELLO PUTS THE ‘TEAM’ IN FAMILY ORGANISATION

In short, if you’re looking for a really simple way to stay on top of family admin and organising every aspect of family life, Trello is the way to do it.

One of the things I love most about Trello is that it allows you to pull your family together as a team, whether that team is just you and your husband/partner because your children are still really young, or whether it also includes your kids.

That’s certainly how we use it in my family household.

Time and again I see and hear how busy working woman with kids end up doing the lion share of family admin and family organisation.

And it’s not always necessarily because your husband/partner and kids aren’t willing or able, it can be because without a simple way to stay organised it feels easier just to do it yourself.

Trello can help you and your family collaborate more effectively and help you stay one step ahead rather than constantly playing catch up. 

Ways that you can collaborate include:

• Assigning tasks and delegating
• Sending reminder and info notifications via the Trello app or email
• Sharing information and drawing attention to information using tagging with an @ mention
• Improving how you communicate when it comes to getting stuff done
• Sharing a sense of satisfaction when tasks and projects are completed

You can collaborate with anyone who has a Trello account, you can send invites from Trello for them to sign up using an email address.

HOW DOES TRELLO WORK?

Trello is based on a workflow management methodology called Kanban.

Kanban is a Japanese words that translates as ‘billboard’, which gives you a clue as to how visual Trello is as a way of keeping track and staying organised.

Trello is made up of three main elements:

• Boards
• Lists
• Cards

The most simple way to use Trello is with the Kanban methodology of using three lists:

• To do
• Doing
• Done

However, there are so many more inventive ways to use Trello.

Here’s a snapshot of one of my most used Trello boards, my meal planning board. This shows you a Trello board and the lists on it.

And here’s a snapshot of a Trello card on my meal planning board.

I CAN HELP YOU GET STARTED USING TRELLO

It is super easy to get started using Trello as a very basic organisation system.

However, whilst Trello is simple on the surface, there is a LOT more to Trello that makes it really powerful as a way to get organised.

It took me a while to discover how to get the best out of Trello.

So, to help you get a head start, I’ve created a free PDF Trello guide with the ten steps you need to give yourself a head start at getting a really slick family organisation system set up. Scroll to the end of the post to download your free copy.

WAYS YOU CAN USE TRELLO FOR FAMILY ORGANISATION

You can practically use Trello for organising anything if you put your mind to it.

Here’s a list of some of the most popular ways to use Trello boards for getting your family life organised:

1. FAMILY HOLIDAY PACKING LIST

When the days of flinging a bikini and a spare pair of pants in an overnight bag are long gone, it’s easy to get really weighed down with packing before a holiday.

But this is one way that Trello really can take the pain out of an often laborious and painful pre-holiday chore.

I usually create a clothes packing list with a card for each family member, a toiletries and meds list and a sundries list.

2. GROCERY LIST ESSENTIALS

I use Ocado for our groceries and tend to use the Ocado app to just add stuff for each weekly shop. But I find it too confusing to have everyone in the family have access to the app to add stuff.

So I have a Trello board set up for groceries and the rest of the family can add stuff to it, so that I can then manage the weekly grocery shop.

It’s kind of like the digital version of having a notepad stuck on the fridge. But the beauty is that I can access the list from anywhere and I can also send out a reminder for everyone to add their requests.

3. MEAL PLANNING

As I mentioned earlier in this post, meal planning is one of my favourite uses for Trello.

It makes it so easy.

I have a list with a card space for each day of the week and then I’ve created a recipe library, with a list for different categories, like meat and fish recipes, desserts, vegetarian recipes, Instant Pot Recipes…

I make use of Trello’s label system to help me easily search the recipe library.

Take a look at my post on how to get started with an easy meal planning system on Trello.

4. HOUSEHOLD CHORES

This is another of my favourite uses for Trello, it has literally helped revolutionise how we get through the housework as a family.

I’ve got a Trello chore master list that is broken down into weekly, monthly and bi-annual/annual chores.

Trello allows me to divide the chores up between us all, because I can use it to assign tasks. Which means that we all do our share of the housework.

5. KIDS SCHOOL AND ACTIVITIES

School admin used to be the bane of my life.

I still don’t love it, but Trello has at least helped me to contain it and stay on top of it.

By school admin, I mean anything from the 101 emails the school sends to homework deadlines and important dates in the school calendar.

I also use the same board for kids’ activities, I’ve got reminders for when subscriptions need to be paid, term dates and what kit is needed when.

5. HOME RENOVATIONS

We’ve got a big renovation project planned for later this year and have a Trello board that I’m using to plan the project and will use to project manage it as well.

6. PARTIES, CHRISTMAS AND GIFT LISTS

I honestly don’t know where I would be without using Trello for planning Christmas and kids parties. It’s an absolute life-saver.

I use it to keep a running list of gift ideas, both for family and for friends.

Plus it makes organising parties so much more straight-forward.

7. BUDGETING AND FAMILY MONEY MANAGEMENT

I use Trello in conjunction with google sheets to manage our family budget and money. I’ve got a board set up with a list of all the financial commitments we have, when annual stuff needs renewing or reviewing and reminders to check our family google sheet budget once per month.

So that’s just some of the ways that you can use Trello for family organisation.

Trello really is a life-changer. You just need to take a little time to get it set up and to know all stuff you can do to make it super automated and useful.

DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY OF MY BEGINNER GUIDE TO TRELLO FOR FAMILY ORGANISATION

If you’re already a subscriber to Mums Make Lists you can go right ahead and click the image or link below to download your FREE copy of my guide to getting started using Trello.

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