My life on the fridge

I have just come across an article detailing the fact that women may be moving away from electronic personal organizers and returning to paper based filofax type ways of ordering and sorting their lives. I am so far behind any type of organizational trend that I may catch up my more methodical sisterhood by default for I regret to say that my filing system consists of a combination of the fridge and scraps of paper.

I have in fact made a new resolution that my life must move from the fridge to a more reliable and portable method of recording the daily trivia of everyday life. As it is I envy people with huge, all singing and dancing, American fridges – not because of the instant ice cubes, but for the space afforded for party invitations, plumbers’ names, library opening hours and bin collection day notices. I am a sucker for any kind of magnetic giveaway so if you need to order a tandoori chicken, consult a vet, ring a variety of schools or make a dental appointment my fridge is the frost free yellow pages.

Magnetic witty slogans, given by well meaning friends and relatives as presents, and rather revealingly dealing with my attitude to housework and/or alcohol, peep bashfully round motivational photos of myself. On the motivational side I haven’t been able to decide whether I am less likely to raid the fridge if my eyes light upon a picture of me looking like Ten Ton Tessy prominently displayed or whether I should go for the carrot approach as it were, with one of the far rarer photos where by a trick of the light I actually look quite a Slimcia Girl. Actually I can happily report that having tried both options that neither works when the remains of the last night’s pudding are calling me.

Part of the problem with my fridge personal organizer is that for sentimental reasons I am using three separate calendars; the Scotsman calendar placed so I can sigh mournfully and think of the ancestral homeland, portrayed in snowy beauty, whilst reveling in 28oC heat; the school calendar complete with obligatory offspring’s artwork, and finally, the secondary school calendar that has all the important dates (eg holidays) on it. As I use all three calendars on a random rotational basis as the fancy takes me it’s hard to gain a reliable overview of life without a major page flicking routine.

In defence of my chilly filing cabinet, the photos of family and god children stuck all over the surface give colour and purpose to my day and my life is an open book to any friend looking for milk, butter or a cold bottle of wine. What electronic organiser can do that?