Create a Family Summer Bucket List - Creative Home Keeper

This year let’s create a haven at home with the 52-week home project. Small, managable weekly tasks and challenges to create a space that promotes peace, inspires creativity, nurtures your family and is not only more organized but also runs with more purpose and intention.

To catch up on all the previous projects, head here.

Last Week’s Project

This week’s project is going to be light but still intentional.

With summer upon us, one of the best things we can do as a family is to make a plan of how to spend this season together. So this week to keep it light you and your family are going to create a summer bucket list!

Project #18: Create a Family Summer Bucket List

Print off this summer bucket list form, or create your own.
Schedule a time to sit down together as family.
Have each family member list 2 to 3 things (maybe more) of specific things they would like to do over the summer
Pull out the calendar and schedule some dates in!
If you have to purchase tickets, make a plan to set aside money from your budget to purchase those.
Display your bucket list on the refrigerator or even place in a nice 8 x 10 photo frame in a prominent place in your home.

My Progress and Results

We sat down, we made our list and I wrote several dates down in the calendar. Sitting down with the calendar also reminded me just how quickly this summer is going to go by, which is exactly why it’s important to have dates in the calendar!

Some of our summer bucket list items include:

weekly visits to the pool
visiting the new splash pad opening near our home
go to the “beach” – even though we live smack dab in the middle of the country, there is a lack nearby where they have set up a beach near the shore.
visit the farmstead
go to the zoo with friends
go to a Royals game
attend 3 of the library’s special summer programs
set up our own water toys in the backyard
family vacation to Great Wolf Lodge
anniversary date for Mommy & Daddy
visit 3 new, local parks

What’s on your family’s summer bucket list?

A New Project for a New Week

Each week I’ll share a new challenge to help us tackle one small area of our homes.

Some weeks it might be a deep cleaning task, some weeks it might be a decluttering task, some weeks it might be a challenge to help you create a space you love, and some weeks it might be a combination of a few different challenges.

The goal for the 52-Week Home Project is to have a home that is not only more organized but also runs with more purpose and intention and just feels more peaceful and calm.

The Next Project

Family photos are the main way we remember and cherish yesterday’s memories but thanks to digital cameras and our phones, we can instantly see the photos removing the urgency to print them off. As a result, hundreds (maybe even thousands) photos sit in the depth of the internet storage system called a cloud. Many are never heard from again.

Last year I had a wake up call when I dropped my phone and was met with the black screen of death. I panicked, how I would I retrieve all those precious photos?!?!

Thankfully a tech guy was able to restore my phone but I knew that I needed to get into the habit of regularly backing up my photos in case I ever lost my phone or it was unrepairable.

Project #19: Photo Organization {Archive & Backup your Photos from January – May}

We are going to spend the next two weeks on this project because I have a feeling photo storage is a bit of a project for most of us! This week we will focus on backing up all the photos and next week we will focus on archiving them in a photobook or your method of choice.

Start with the device that has the most photos on it, whether that be your phone, a family member’s phone, or your nice camera.
Decide where you will store your photos if you’ve never backed them up before. Many use DropBox, iPhotos, Google Drive, or back them up straight to a photo storing app like Shutterfly (it’s what I prefer).
Go through each picture, delete the duplicates, blurry, or photos that aren’t of anything as a result of a toddler grabbing your phone. Be ruthless about duplicates! I know it’s hard to delete good pictures but you only want to keep the BEST photos.
Once you have whittled your photo collection down to the best photos, back them up! I know on my phone, it helps to plug my phone in to be charged while backing up because it takes so long (thanks sketchy internet connection). I also prefer to backup my photos at night while I’m sleeping when I know I won’t need my phone.
After you have packed up your photos (and ~~doubled~~ tripled checked that they are in fact backed up!) delete them to save memory and create room for summer photos. I keep a few beloved photos on my phone only because it’s nice to scroll through me with my kids but 98% off all photos are deleted once they are backed up.
Next move on to your next device and repeat all the above steps until every single digital photo you have is backed up and stored correctly.

Next Sunday I’ll share my progress as well as give our next challenge in the 52-Week Home Project so be sure to stay tuned.

Missed a project in the 52-Week Home Project? Head here to see the complete list of all 52 projects!

How did you do with your 52-Week Home Project this wee? Share your results in the comments below, including a link to your blog post or photo you shared on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter with the hashtags #The52WeekHomeProject