Without a schedule, keeping track of a busy family can quickly get out of hand. Sometimes, even if you have a schedule, it can still feel hectic and overwhelming if you’re not well-organized. Whether you’re dealing with one child, children from a blended household, or a collection of children and furry family members, it’s imperative to stay organized. Here are five tips to help you get better organized.

1. Plan ahead.

The most important thing you can do for your family and your sanity is to plan ahead. You can plan your grocery list, child activities, and specific meal plans all before the week starts, leaving you with much more mental capacity for other things during the week.

2. Make a master family schedule.

In a multi-person household, especially one with two or more adults, it’s important to have a master family schedule that everyone can see. Your schedule can be a customized dry erase board in the kitchen, or it can be a digital organizer, such as Sortifyd. Sortifyd is an app that will give everyone quick access to the master family schedule, no matter where they are.

3. Have a “home base”.

When I say home base, I don’t just mean a physical home base, I mean a digital home base, as well. This home base is where you keep important information, such as birth certificates, driver’s licenses, receipts, car registration, and more. For some things that require a hard copy, you’re going to need a filing cabinet somewhere accessible in your home. However, other things, such as medical records and appointment information, can be stored digitally in a secure app, so you have access to them all the time.

4. Keep information readily available.

The key to keeping your whole family organized is to make sure that the information they need to stay organized is readily available at all times. This makes a family organization app one of the best things you can invest in. Organization apps like Sortifyd allow you to share information in real-time, update lists, and send notifications to make sure everybody understands what’s going on. Because this app makes it very easy to stay in touch with your family members, it leaves no excuse for not having the correct information.

5. Have some downtime.

Last but not least, your family still needs some downtime. Don’t forget to schedule some quality family time and forget about sticking to a schedule. It’s okay to set boundaries, so it’s okay to decline the fourth New Year’s party or skip out on a couple of birthday parties to have a family game night instead.