I have been using Amy Knapp's family organizer planner for 3 years, but I never tried the Big Grid organizer calendar until now. I have been using the Plan-It wall calendars for the past 3 years, but this past year noticed a dramatic decrease in quality. So I decided to try the Big Grid organizer this year and am glad I made the change.
I am posting a few more close up photos of what the calendar pages look like on Amazon to help those who might want to see more of this calendar.
Differences between Plan-It Calendars and Amy Knapp's Big Grid Family organizer:
---Plan-it has an area on the far left where you list each family member's name (up to 5 people) and then you are supposed to put that person's schedule on their grid line. The Big Grid Organizer does not have this. However, when I looked at my usage on the Plan-it, many times I ran out of space and wrote things all over day area. So now I use different color markers to designate different family members on this calendar and it seems to be working just as well.
---Plan-it gives you a full space for each day of the year. They do this by "moving" the last few days of a month to the next month's page, where a traditional calendar has triangles or divided spaces if a month spans 5 weeks. Big Grid, has the traditional layout with smaller spaces on the 5th week. However, their grid size is much bigger than Plan-it. But I still think I am going to miss not having full space on each day.
---Big Grid has an area on each grid to put your daily dinner menu. This is similar to the Amy Knapp Family organizer planner. Not sure if I will use this or not.
---Big Grid has tear off "to do" lists in the back of the calendar.
---Both calendars have special event stickers, but I rarely use them.
---Both calendars have a section for phone numbers in the back.
---Only Plan-it has the handy built in magnet hanger and VERY handy paper pocket to store loose papers. However, with the lower quality of my last Plan-It calendar, it was falling apart after 9 months of use and was unable to use these features during the last few months. I hang my new calendar from a hook on the fridge that has command adhesive. You could also put up a hook magnet to hold it up. I will miss my paper storage pocket though!
---Only Plan-It has blank notes pages in the back of the calendar. I am going to miss these also. I am using one of the "to do" list pages in the Big Grid calendar as a general notes page.
---Only Big Grid has space on each month page for monthly notes and reminders. I really like this. I was writing montly reminders in the margins of the Plan-It calendar.
---Big Grid has a much bigger grid, but some of it is taken with the menu planning space.
And finally the Big Grid calendar is printed in the USA, so you are supporting American jobs by purchasing this calendar. The pages are sturdy and thick and ink doesn't bleed through. The binding is a nice strong spiral. This is a big improvement over the quality of the Plan-It calendars.