Free Family Planner (Fillable PDF, Word, Excel)

What is on the family planner

One row per person

Six write-in rows across the seven days, so each person's week is a line you can read left to right, and the household's week is the whole table. Pets and visitors get rows too.

Dinner row and to-dos

What is for dinner each night, decided once on Sunday, and the household jobs for the week with a name against each.

Monthly grid, birthdays, bills

Six weeks of cells, Monday start, with the month's birthdays and events listed and the bills with due dates and a paid tick.

Chore chart

Twelve chores, who does them, and a tick box for each day of the week. Printed, it is the end of "I did it last time".

Dinner rota and contacts

Who cooks what on which night, and the eight numbers everyone needs: school, doctor, dentist, grandparents, neighbors, sitter, vet.

Household facts

Wi-Fi, bin days, school run, bedtimes, allergies, screen time. The lines a babysitter or visiting grandparent reads first.

Running the week from one sheet

Sunday evening, ten minutes, everyone within earshot. Fill in the weekly schedule from the school calendar, the work diaries and whatever the children remember at the last minute. Write the dinners along the bottom at the same time, because knowing Tuesday is tacos answers Tuesday's 5 PM question before it is asked. Add the week's jobs with names. Then it goes on the fridge and stays there. During the week, anyone who adds something writes it on the sheet, not in a message that one person reads. By Wednesday the sheet is scribbled on and that is how it should look.

The monthly calendar sits next to it for the longer view: birthdays, school dates, bills. It changes slowly and gets filled in once at the start of the month, mostly from last year's dates and the school's term calendar.

The routines page

The routines page is the one that does not change every week, so it's laminated or slipped into a plastic sleeve and written on with a whiteboard pen. The chore chart settles the argument about who does what. Assign chores by day, tick them off, and change the assignments every few months so nobody is stuck with the bins forever. The dinner rota shares the cooking and the planning. The contacts block and the household facts are for the people who aren't usually in charge: a grandparent staying for the weekend, a new babysitter, the older child home alone for the first time. They can run the house from that one page.

Fridge or binder

The weekly schedule and monthly calendar are landscape and designed for the fridge or a cork board at adult eye level. Print them on plain paper and replace them; the week sheet is meant to be written on and thrown away. The routines page is portrait and lasts months, so print it on card or laminate it. For a tidier setup, a clipboard on a hook for the week sheet and a frame for the routines page works well. The family command center printables are a matching set for a wall display: a week-at-a-glance board, a chore chart and an information sheet.

Filling it in on a screen

Every field is fillable, so the family planner also works typed. Keep the weekly schedule as a PDF on a shared tablet, or type the fixed items (school, work shifts, clubs) once and print copies with only the variable items left to write in. The Word version is the one to edit if you want the children's names printed in the "who" column, more rows, or a different set of chores. The Excel version lays the same tables out on a grid; useful if you keep the contacts list and chore rota as a file and update them there.

Related pages

For food planning in more detail, the meal planner has a weekly plan with a grocery list and a monthly dinner grid. The household chore chart is a larger chart with points and rewards for younger children. Bill due dates for the whole year go on the monthly bill tracker, and every birthday and anniversary on the birthday and anniversary tracker.

Questions

How many people does the weekly schedule fit?

Six rows with a write-in name column. Use the spare rows for the dog, a grandparent, a lodger or a shared row for "everyone". Add rows in the Word or Excel file for a larger household.

Is it dated?

No. Write the week or month at the top and the day numbers in the calendar grid, so the same file works all year.

Does the week start on Monday?

Yes, Monday to Sunday, so the weekend sits together on the right. Move the column in Word or Excel for a Sunday start.

Can I type into it?

Yes. Every cell, line and tick box is a form field. Type the fixed items once and print, or keep it on a shared tablet.

What is the difference between this and the family command center printables?

The command center set is designed as a wall display: a week board, a chore chart and an information sheet. The family planner is the working version for the fridge and the binder, with more writing space and the monthly calendar.