Peace of Mind Organizing

Quick & easy checklist

20 July 2016

Last month our standard poodle, Bix, had an issue with his eye that required ointment be applied three times daily. My schedule is variable so my husband and I shared responsibility for giving him the medicine. So I knew there had to be a way to keep track of whether it had been given.

Ointment is tricky because there’s no way to tell by looking at the container whether it’s been used. So I created a quick checklist to post in the bathroom. It was so easy and useful I thought I’d share it here.

Here’s a photo of it:

And here’s how I created it—it took maybe five minutes.

1. I created a table in my word-processing program and printed it out.
2. I put the sheet in a sheet protector.
3. I clipped a binder clip to the top of the protector.
4. I grabbed a magnetic hook and put in on the set of four metal towel hooks we have hanging on the bathroom door.
5. I hooked the binder clip over the magnetic hook.
6. I placed a dry-erase pen on the metal hooks.

The idea was that when Bix got his medicine, we’d check it off. It had the double advantage of helping us keep track of whether he’d received his medicine while also reminding us to give him his medicine.

As you an tell from the picture, even with this tool it was hard for us to keep up with applying the medicine three times a day. But I’m sure we did it more than we would have in the absence of the checklist. The good news was that he had a re-check and the vet reduced the frequency to an easier-to-implement once a day.

If we hadn’t had those metal hooks. this wouldn’t have been so easy-peasy. But I could have used Command hooks for the checklist and a pen.

There are higher tech ways to create checklists, but this was quick and (pretty) effective for us. Maybe it’ll help you too.

Tagged with: checklists, diy, pets, reminders

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