Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Homemanagement Binder...My life in a notebook



Well...sort of. I've always used a filofax/dayrunner system that I kept my calendar and little notes to myself in. As the size of my family grew, well so did my system. I needed something to keep everyone's needs, schedules, to do list and just the day to day stuff straight. At one point I had a lot of info on my sony clie pda, that is until my dh "borrowed" the power cord without telling me and it powered down and dump all my info. I was devastated. I don't think I could trust technology to that extent again. I mean I had tons and tons of info on there. I was furious to say the least. However, not to be deterred, I rebounded and began to think about the type of person I was...I'm not a techie...I like a visual, I like writing things down (I really believe it helps me remember them better) so maybe a notebook would be better. So, I got online and googled Home management notebook. Stumbled across some great sites, free printables and a really inspirational blog. I looked at tons of other notebooks, flylady, I looked at stuff I had been using (The Amy Knapp family planner among others) and made a list of what I thought I needed in my notebook. Next I went to Big Lots to gather my supplies. I got a Mead 3 ring zippered binder, a heavy duty zipped pouch, page protectors and plastic subject dividers w/pockets. That was a good start. I later added card holders and a bunch of stuff to the pouch (glue, scissors, tape, post its, hole punch, pencils, sharpie, pens and a calculator just to name a few). Then I got to work deciding which printables to use in my notebook. I found tons that work well for me on Organized home.com and Delightinreallife.com. Then I began to put it together.
The breakdown of my binder is like this

Calendar/Schedule
I have in a page protector the current month's calendar and on the reverse side the current year's calendar.
In this section I also have a 7 day calendar that I jot down my weekly plans.
In the pocket of the divider I keep a stash of blank 7 day calendars

Pending/To do items
Just what it says...things that I need to do, file away or what have you.

Phone numbers/Contacts
A list of emergency numbers, numbers of friends and family and business cards stored neatly protective sleeves ( intended for baseball cards).

Homekeeping
All generic things related to keeping the house
My house cleaning schedule
A copy of the flylady routine
A stain removal guide
Master grocery list
7 day menu planning pages

Takeout menus

Budget
Master spending plan
Manila envelope for receipts
A page protector that I store coupons in until I can organize them in my coupon binder
A home budget book
A pocket for bills that need to be entered online to be paid

Projects and Interest
A page for household projects
My personal project goals
Clippings, articles, craft patterns, notes on things I want to try or make

The parents
Stuff pertaining to me or dh
My work schedule

Health and wellness
An exercise journal
Info on diet and nutrition

That's pretty much what's in my main home management binder.

I also keep smaller separate binders for the kids that contains all their school stuff, schedules and forms that need to be dealt with and another one for recipes I've gotten online or from magazines (I put them in page protectors to save them from messy cooking).
So, that's it in a nutshell. It's how I stay partially sane and organized while working and caring for my large family. If you're on the hunt for a system, I hope you'll give the notebook system a try. It's changed my life...really.

Now here's a pictorial of some of the items in my notebook just to give you an idea of how it looks.








1 comments:

Unknown said...

Oh wow, what a great job you did. I love my binder and it go so big I had to break them up into different categories. I know have the home binder, the ideas binder and my recipe binder. I just have to remember to weed them out once in a while.
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