The Dry Erase Calendar

The dry erase calendar is widely used in offices, homes, schools, and other locations. It provides a quick and easy way to keep track of upcoming events.

You can find a dry erase calendar for one week, for one month, for three, four, or six months, and for one year. These calendars come in many different sizes, and they are made out of several different materials. As a result, the price range is from very inexpensive (under twenty dollars) to hundreds of dollars.

They come with different decor. The ones meant for office and professional use typically have black lines, where the ones meant for home use come in various colors. For education use, whether at home or in a school, there are also cheerful, brightly colored styles.

Some companies offer customized dry erase calendars. These are special order items, where you send in a photograph, usually via email. The company tells you the size and resolution specifications they need, and they may advise you on the kinds of photos that will come out best. Since you will be writing your calendar notes over the design, a relatively simple design that will look good with pale colors is the best choice. You can also buy a dry erase calendar which already has an attractive background on the board, and these are nice because you can see what they will look like when you select one.

You can get a magnetic dry erase calendar which attaches easily to a refrigerator, metal cabinet, or similar surface. Some of these are also mounted so that you would hang them on a wall with some hooks. Both types are useful for putting notes on them. (Of course, you can also use small notes with sticky backing on any kind of dry erase calendar. There is always more than one way to do things.)

What do these things look like? Here is a Dry Erase Calendar selection at Amazon.com

Why Use a Dry Erase Calendar?

Anyone who has become accustomed to relying on this kind of calendar can tell you that one major advantage they have over paper calendars is that it is easy to erase something and change it. Since we do seem to  change plans frequently, it's very convenient to be able to just have the correct information showing, rather than having to figure out what is happening with a bunch of marked-out lines like you get on a paper calendar.

A dry erase calendar can be used by a group of people -- such as a family with several children or a real estate office with several realtors -- where each person uses a different color dry erase marker, so you can see what each person's appointments are at a glance.

One possible disadvantage of dry erase calendars compared to paper ones is that you don't end up with a permanent paper record. An easy way to overcome this would be to take a digital photograph of a month before erasing it.

Naturally, toward the end of one month, you will need to write in things for the following month. Many people like to use two calendars to accommodate this fact, one for the current month and one for the next one. Another two-calendar arrangement is to have a weekly one and a monthly one. Some of the calendars have space at the side or at the bottom where you can write notes for any purpose, including upcoming events.

In sum, the dry erase calendar is a useful tool to help us keep track of our plans. And who doesn't need that?