The Maker of Lists

I feel somehow inadequate if I'm not making a list for some thing some where. I really do. I have lists for every kind of situation a mom and manager of the household needs or even wants. The neat part about making lists, is that it's okay that my brain gets a bit fried as I get older...I can just refer back to the list!

Back in college, I used to make lists on any scrap of paper that was available. You can already see, eventually, you'd have a house full of scraps of paper and not know one list from another. In fact, I do have a few purses from my college days, and do you know, I recently found a 22 year old list!

I quickly graduated to the more organized notebook mode. I have a small notebook and a day planner (also small) with a note section in my purse. I have another notebook by our computer and another by our bed...In bed seems to be where most of us do our thinking when we are not otherwise engaged, don't you think?

Just perusing some of my lists, in my dayplanner, I have lists of:

• Books I want to read/authors I like
• Movies I want to see
• Local attractions we still want to try to visit before we leave (with directions/address & sometimes phone number)
• Cleaning schedule
• Favorite recipes with ingredients listed (so go ahead and shop last minute if you have to)
  
• Project list for around the house
• Every measurement for every filter, thing or clothing involving my family or our house
  
• Grocery shopping list (I do have a paper pad on the side of the refrigerator and as we run out of stuff, it gets put there and later in my planner)
  
• "Other stuff" shopping list

In the notebook next to our computer, I have:

• Homes recently sold in our neighborhood (with price, sq footage, sold date and address)
• Websites to check out
• Internet comparison shopping (whenever I want to make a major purchase)
• Investments I want to compare
• Longterm planning list (what events are coming up with date noted and other ideas)
• And a variety of chicken scratch where I go off on some tangent
  

Of course, the true brainstorming happens late at night, so of course, have to make sure I have a notebook by our bed. Sometimes, more often than not, I can't understand what I wrote the next day but somehow, it does make me feel more productive. Even if I occasionally get something useful out of the exercise, that's good enough for me. I catalogue:

• Blog ideas (I write these in all the notebooks; I need all the help I can get)
• Unusual dreams (just the main gist of what was going on; I have a friend who interprets dreams and lots of times I do need a good laugh)
• Last minute errand or task for the next day
• The latest dreamed up project for around the house
• Packing list (if I have a trip coming up)
  
• The latest idea in general; I am constantly coming up with inventive ideas, but it's too bad that when I do a patent search, I already find it patented...my latest was the two chambered spray bottle...sigh...already invented
  

What kind of lists do you have? Do you find they help you or do they drive you crazy?