Keeping your family organized can be a chore, and the old method of pen on paper using a digital organizer simply doesn't cut it anymore. You can have a shared family calendar that everyone can access on their individual devices, but Costco has a neat device called the Skylight Calendar that can serve as the organizational central hub for everyone in the household.
It's available in a 15-inch size bundled with a classic black snap frame, stylus, and $20 Instacard e-gift card, providing everything your family needs to get started. There's also a larger 27-inch size that is ideal for wall mounting, making it an underrated instant kitchen upgrade.
You can use the Skylight Calendar to log appointments, sports activities, trips, chores, and lists, or even for grocery and meal planning. It's easy to add items right on the calendar, from the app, or sync it with apps like Outlook and Cozi so that any items you add from your device instantly appear on the Skylight calendar, too. It even syncs with Instacart so you can add grocery items right from the device's interface and have them delivered. To be able to use all the functions, however, you will need a subscription to Skylight Calendar Plus — but both versions come with six months free. I reviewed the Skylight Calendar last year, so I have a good handle on how it works and how it can help busy families.
How the Skylight Calendar can help your family
The Skylight Calendar makes organization easy by syncing with calendar apps or letting you add items using its touch-screen interface. Assign each family member a color for easy identification, like Billy's baseball practices, Molly's school concert night, and dad's work trip. Use this coding for chores, too, so the kids know what they have to complete each day and can check each chore off as they do them. That might be recurring daily tasks like emptying the dishwasher and dusting the furniture, weekly ones like vacuuming and cleaning their rooms, or non-recurring ones like shoveling the driveway or changing the battery in the smoke alarms. One color can correspond to "Family" for entries that apply to everyone.
If you have an upcoming vacation and need a checklist everyone can reference, or if you want to curate a grocery list so it's ready for the next shopping day, this digital wall calendar can upgrade your planning. Position it in a high-traffic area, like a corner of the kitchen counter, or mount it on the wall in the front foyer so it affords easy access at eye level for everyone. It's an essential Costco gadget for remote workers, too, who can use this as a separate desk calendar to keep track of appointments, virtual meetings, and more. While you can use the Skylight Calendar without a subscription, having one unlocks additional functionality, which you can enjoy out of the box with that six-month trial.
What you get with a subscription
A subscription to Skylight Calendar Plus includes Sidekick for importing events, recipes, and lists through a photo or e-mail. I added hotel reservation details by snapping a photo of the PDF confirmation, and recipes by uploading the URL to import their details. With meal planning, you can set a schedule to avoid the dreaded "what do you want for dinner?" conversation. Choose recipes or ask it to provide ideas based on the type of meal and dietary restrictions. Relevant ingredients can automatically be added to the grocery list. Additionally, kids can collect virtual stars for completing chores, which you can use for rewards, like Friday night ice cream. Also, use the Calendar as a digital photo frame, displaying a static image or slideshow when you're not checking on calendar items.
Without Plus, you can still use Skylight Calendar as a synced calendar that everyone can access, providing a much cleaner setup than a fridge-mounted whiteboard or separate device calendars. Based on my experience, while it's pricey, busy families will see value from the Skylight Calendar. It eliminates the need to constantly message back and forth asking when Sam's dentist appointment is or what time Mary's wedding starts. It keeps everyone on the same page, in one central location with remote app access, too. Getting it from Costco affords worthwhile extras, including a longer Plus trial period and a discounted price along with the added items noted above. There are alternatives to the Skylight Calendar, but Costco's deal is tough to pass up.