Hearth Display: This Organizer Fixed Our Family's Daily Schedule Chaos

Forbes

21-07-2025

Hands down, the number one question I get asked by all three of my kids every single day is: 'What are we doing today?' It's quickly followed by, 'What's for dinner.' As the household keeper of the Google calendar, paper calendar and mental calendar, I quickly grew tired of saying, 'Check the calendar' on repeat. And with a trio of school-age kids who all play sports and maintain robust after-school lives, keeping up with all those shifting schedules and separate calendars was becoming impossible. Add in chore lists, adult to-do lists, family doctor appointments, work events and meal planning—and I was completely overwhelmed. So a little over a year ago, when I got the opportunity to test the Hearth Display, I was all in. Deemed a 'family organization solution,' for all that 'invisible labor' of the primary parent, this sleek screen is now my all-in-one family to-do list, organizer and calendar that we simply can't operate without as a busy family of five.
The Hearth Display is an all-in-one family organizer that's beautiful and functional. Illustration: Forbes / Photo: Hearth
It took the place of all the whiteboards, paper calendars, sticky notes, digital calendars, apps and more. I'm not exaggerating when I say it's changed my life as a working mom, too. It's the first thing my kids check in the morning and before going to bed to know what's happening the next day—and it looks beautiful on my wall, which they may not care about but that certainly makes me happy. Keep reading for my Hearth Display review and to learn all about my yearlong experience with it.
The calendar is by far the most used tab of the Hearth Display in my house, by adults and kids alike. I love how easy it is to add new events, so if my kid has a playdate, I can tell them to just add it to the calendar.
Adding things to the calendar is easy enough on the display that my kids now do it on their own, and it also syncs to both my Google and Apple calendars. I also sync my kids' sports calendars from other apps like Band to keep it all centralized. You can add new events directly on the screen, through any of your synced calendars or via the Hearth app. For visual people like me, you can assign a specific color to each family member so you can see your calendar's entries color-coded by person.
A feature I haven't taken enough advantage of is that you can take a picture of a schedule, say for example, a handout you get with your kid's soccer game dates on it, and text it to the Hearth Assistant, which will then put them onto your calendar for you instead of you painstakingly manually inputting each one. The couple times I remembered to try this, it worked out flawlessly. Just note it doesn't happen right away—it takes a day or two to process it. You can also text the same AI assistant to add singular events here and there, but I find it's easier to just add them myself.
Hearth Display Hearth Display
My youngest has been using the Routine tab of the Hearth Display since before she was 5. You can program kid-friendly visual cues to remind little ones of what they need to do in the morning, afternoon or both. This may be one of my favorite parts of the Hearth Display, as it's clearly designed with young children in mine. I have things like do your homework, put your lunchbox away and pick up toys for the afternoon routine. She loves clicking the 'done' button under each one to see the fun confetti sprinkle over the screen.
For my older kids, who started using this when they were 9 and 10, the routines were fun for a few months, but like all things, they lost interest and had to be reminded to check it daily. That's likely a parenting task that no product can take off your hands.
The Routines part of the Hearth Display is easy enough for even little kids to use on their own. Forbes/Esther Carlstone Lists
Creating to-do lists, grocery lists and custom lists (like birthday party supplies) are another option within the Hearth Display. You can assign each list or a specific task on each list to different household members. Admittedly this is a part of the Hearth Display that I wish were more utilized in my family, and I think if my kids had their own smartphones for it to pop-up reminders to them from the app, it would be handy. Until that day, however, I have to remind them to look at the lists and complete the tasks.
They do add things we need to the grocery lists, which has been convenient, and having all the to-dos in one centralized spot to look at—even long overdue home maintenance items—is helpful to my family. Meal Planner
The addition of the Meal Planner section is a recent update that I'm sure was much requested by current Hearth Display users. The only downside? My kids think it's hilarious (or hopeful) to leave meals they want us to make. Rewards
Another new addition that's been fun and given my older kids (and the younger one, too) renewed interest in completing their routines and to-dos has been the addition of rewards. They can 'earn' a certain parent-designated number of coins for specific tasks and when they collect a certain number (again, that number is set by you), they can earn various prizes. Hearth gives you some ideas to start out with like a movie night, 15 extra minutes of screentime and more but you can add anything you can think of to motivate them. Weather
This may seem like a tiny feature, but it was one I was so glad to see appear during an update a few months ago. My kids are constantly asking what the weather will be like and what they should wear, so it really helps foster that independence of checking for themselves and making a decision based on what the weather says. Sleep Mode
You can upload a family picture, or any other picture, to be displayed when the monitor goes to sleep, leaving it to look just like a digital photo frame, which I love. It's also handy when you have guests over and you don't necessarily want them to see your family's endless to-do lists. Today's Wellness
This is the newest feature added to the Hearth Display—so new that I haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but I'm excited. Meant to promote emotional wellness, you can add it to your child's routines to prompt them to pick an emoji that corresponds with how they're feeling right then. I love that it's an opportunity for them to take a beat and reflect on their feelings and build emotional intelligence. Final Thoughts On The Hearth Display
The first six months I owned the Hearth Display, there were a few hiccups, like the touchscreen not responding smoothly when we tried to add new items or freezing every once in a while, but since then there have been a number of software updates that seem to have addressed all of those and added some really cool new features.
The Hearth Display isn't the only digital organizer and calendar out there these days with competitors like the Skylight Calendar and Cozyla Calendar also offering a way to streamline multiple calendars and to-do lists into one efficient display. Other editors here have tested those smart calendars, but for me, I honestly can't imagine going back to my old pen-and-paper-wall-calendar life. Not only is the Hearth Display aesthetically pleasing (visitors frequently ask me about it), it's intuitive, easy to use and actually helps to reduce the daily mental and paper clutter of my life, which as a busy parent, makes it 100% worth it.