Organizing Chaos

Despite my love of sleeping in and lazy days, I get antsy when I have too much free time with no mental stimulation. Thus, I have a tendency to pack my days with lots of interesting projects and adventures. Since I wear many hats (full-time professional, part-time photographer) and am now adding part-time student to the mix, I have had "optimizing desk setup" on my to do list for some time.

Chief among my concerns was establishing a solid calendaring and planning system, since I will be juggling multiple priorities come October. While I rely primarily on Google calendars synced across all of my devices, I find it hard to "zoom out" and plan beyond a month at a glance, which results in missing key checkpoints along the way for lower priority projects. I've found that an effective way for me to manage more than 1-2 projects on my plate effectively and simultaneously is to plan out checkpoints so there isn't an automatic prioritization... because if there are 10 things on the to do list and the priority level never changes, some things will inevitably fall off the plate and never get done.

Thus, I knew I wanted a wall calendar of sorts, but I didn't like the options readily available for purchase. The printed year-specific laminated calendars have to be replaced every year and the generic templates require effort in writing in each month and day. I also wanted this surface to be magnetic to post other important documents of miscellaneous origin using magnets I collect from trips and have enough space for the occasional post-it note. Basically, the solution was to make a custom wall calendar board to meet all of my needs and wants.

This wasn't the most inexpensive of home projects, and there were some hiccups along the way, but I love how it turned out.

April - December... since I purchased my laminator in April and didn't feel the need to work backwards in time.

The calendar consists of:

2 large (24" x 36" visible surface) poster frames
Magnetic primer
Printed & laminated Google calendar pages
20 neodymium magnets

I wanted laminated sheets since I could write on them and erase the marker if my plans changed. It was also right around this time that I developed a hilarious fascination for home applications of lamination after I had to get a few things laminated for work... so I purchased an Amazon Basics lamination machine for $18 and some pouches.

I originally intended to purchase galvanized sheet metal, but that didn't pan out once I went to the hardware store and realized it wouldn't come in sizes I wanted and the edges were sharp and needed to be finished. On that trip, I discovered magnetic primer, which I incorrectly thought would be the easy solution to my project desires. It was quite expensive ($20 for a small can) and not very effective since all reviews said to use ~6 coats for a mildly magnetic surface - it took the whole can to coat these two frame backings with 6 coats. Additionally, while my fridge magnets managed to hold their own weight, they gave up when even just 1 sheet of paper was involved.

Once I determined the magnetic primer wasn't enough, I stepped up the game and ordered stronger magnets of the neodymium variety.

Let me just post the disclaimer right now that these rare earth magnets are dangerous and shouldn't be in a household with children, small pets, anyone with metal medical devices or implants, or near sensitive electronic equipment or devices. Getting two of these magnets too close to each other can result in them snapping together with such force that they shatter into tiny pieces.

That being said, these are amazing and scary strong magnets made from neodymium (a rare earth element), iron, and boron. As I mentioned above, these magnets are serious business: each tiny, dime-sized magnet shown below pulls with ~6 pounds of force and can cause serious bodily injury including broken bones. They can also wipe data from credit cards and damage sensitive electronic equipment. Despite the careful handling necessary quality, they can be very useful tools in the right application. Sadly, even with neodymium magnets, the magnetic primer just didn't have enough iron to hold up a magnet with a laminated sheet.

At this point, both my boyfriend and I were looking at the frames when he came to the realization of the perfect solution: to use a pair of magnets, one on each side of the frame, to hold up laminated sheets on the front surface. This kind of solution is the perfect simple genius I love, so elegant in its simplicity and effectiveness.