Household Binder

I started a Household Binder as the very FIRST step of my Organizing/Establishing Routines in 2011.  I had a binder that I had shoved some important stuff into when we moved in last year.  I was pregnant and could only do the minimal for any given job.  Well, I've been wanting to revamp it and add more important information so that Hubs or a babysitter or anyone that happened to be here would be able to find what they needed.  I SHOULD have had it done before C was born so that the grandparents would have had it when they were watching J.  But, C was on his own time schedule and there were a LOT of things that didn't get done before he was born.

Anyway, I googled and read TONS of blog posts about Household Notebooks.  It seems like a cheesy thing to do.  I'm not really the 'Suzy Homemaker' type, but I did/do feel I needed a central place for all important info (school, medical, household, etc.).  I'm a binder person.  When I was teaching everything I used was organized in binders.  I think it makes it easier to keep things at my fingertips.  So, I took the concept of the household notebook/command center and set it up in a binder.  Then I made all sorts of cute pages to use and laminated them and hole punched/sheet protected everything.  Then, I had to buy a bigger binder and scrapbook paper that matched my kitchen.  And then I had to divide the binder up so that each boy had his important info in his own binder.  See, I'm planning ahead.  For school.  And, I know I won't want to redo the whole system from scratch later on.  Plus, I like things to match.  So, each boy will have a binder.  J's is already done.  C's is started - just need that cute cover!  I'm rambling.

Here are a BUNCH of the blogs/websites that I used for inspiration.  Some of them I just read.  Some of them I took their idea for a 'form' and I made my own in my scrapbooking software. (sbcStudio) Here's a list of what I remember accessing.  I'm sure it's incomplete...

Tipnut

Organized Home

Simple Mom

I went to a lot of the links within these links.  But, I think this is the most basic list of my resources.  Here's how the household binder turned out:

This is the front of the notebook.  I still need to put a title on it.

 My (handwritten) tabs.  I LOVE these tabs.  They are the Avery repositionable ones.  I can just plop them on the end of my sheet protectors and change them whenever I feel like it.

This is my Daily Docket.  I totally stole this idea from Simple Mom.  Of course hers was a straight forward Word Document that was perfectly functional but not as pretty as I would like it to be!   I used by sbcStudio software to make it pretty.  The idea is that I will fill this out the night before with all the things I need to remember for the next day and a simple schedule.  I've done it a few times and it has helped to keep me on track.  Now I just have to remember to fill it out at night!

This is my weekly reminder sheet.  I like being able to look at a week and see what we have scheduled or what I need to remember.  I mainly use my iPhone as my calendar but I am a visual person so the more I can see something the better chance I have of remembering it!

 This is my daily checklist of things I want to accomplish.  On a good day I've been able to check off at least 5 things.  Again, the goal is that by the end of the year I will have all these routines DOWN!

This is a break down of my weekly cleaning list.  Let me say right now -- I haven't even attempted this!!  I'm pretty sure it needs tweaking.  And, I glued some of the lists down on the wrong day.  I'm going to be remaking it soon.  But, you get the idea.

This is the beginning of J's binder.  I have yet to finish C's cover and actually stick things inside.  But, I have all their medical info, school info, and other misc items in here pertaining to each boy.

This is my monthly menu plan.  It's a loose guideline.  I'm not good at always following it exactly because I get an idea in the middle of the day and then make that for dinner instead of what is listed.  But, I got the idea for a monthly instead of a weekly plan from Controlling My Chaos (by the way this lady is HILARIOUS!).  I had been using my meals from Time For Dinner.  But now I realize their meals are really high in Weight Watchers points.  So, I joined e-mealz and I've been trying out their menus.  So far they've been pretty good.  However, I'd really like to get the points recorded on my own recipes.  My problem is that most of my go-to recipes are in my head and I don't really follow a recipe or even make it the same way twice (Thanks Mom!!).  So that will a project for another time!

And that's my start on the Household Binder/daily tasks.  I will get it down and I will have my routines -- eventually!