Dry Erase To Do List Tutorial

I'm getting ready for the new year, and one of my resolutions is to be more organized. One of the conclusions I've come to in 2011 is that although my mind is all over the place, I can rein it in by keeping a to do list. For the past several months, I've kept a list on extra sheets of used paper hung under my kitchen cabinets. But my newfound addiction to Pinterest gave me a better idea.

One of my friends had pinned a to-do chart made from sticky notes and a picture frame that she found on the blog Modern Parents Messy Kids. Cute and simple.

Of course, I had to take it one step further because I like to make things hard on myself. I made a dry-erase to do list from a picture frame, scrapbook paper, and sheets from a grocery list pad. It's super cute (even Big T swears he likes it as long as it gets used), it's attractive enough to hang in a busy part of the house where it will actually see some action, and it's big enough to fit all the stuff I have to do.

I created it from an extra 18" x 24" frame that was taking up space in the closet. Below is a tutorial in case you want to make one to get yourself organized in 2012.

Making a Dry Erase To Do List (A Tutorial)

Get your supplies: A frame of any size (mine has plexiglass in it, but glass would work even better); pretty paper, such as scrapbook paper, and post-it notes or pages from a grocery list pad. You'll also need some kind of adhesive. I used double-sided tape.

Decide how many categories you want. I wanted three different categories, plus an area for days of the week at the bottom. I laid it out in my head and cut three pieces of coordinating scrapbook paper to size for the categories at the top. You'll have to measure based on the size of your frame and the number of categories you have. I wanted two separate sub-categories within my categories: a list with the heading "soon" and a list with the heading "someday." I tore off pages from the grocery list notepad, then I cut plain beige scrapbook paper to put behind it as a background. (This is going on patterned paper, so I need something to break up the busy-ness.)

Write your headers on the "list" pages and adhere them to the background pages.

Now I had to figure out how to incorporate space for the separate days of the week across the bottom. I wanted to use Post-It notes, but I couldn't find them, so I cut pieces of bright orange paper to fit across the space. I also cut beige paper to create a neutral background. I used double-sided tape to stick the paper onto the background.

Now I just needed some blank space to write in the days of the week. I tore off strips of sage green paper and stuck them across the tops of the orange papers I had cut for the days of the week.

I decided not to write the To-Do List categories or the days of the week on the paper itself. Instead, I wrote them in dry-erase marker on the plexiglass after I assembled the frame. The categories may change, and I might change my mind about days of the week and change it to something else down the road. Now I can quickly add tasks I have to do to my to-do list, and Big T can join in when he has a project going on. This is what the final To-Do List frame looks like:

And it fits well with my decor. You can choose whatever colors and patterns you want and make it as complex or as simple as you need. It's really easy to make and totally flexible.