November 5, 2024

How To Make a Home Management Binder

October 1, 2013 by

Home Management Binder …also known as a Household Binder.  The first question you may have is, “What Is It?”

This is where I keep things that are important to me; things that help me manage my home more effeciently. My Command Center, so to speak. In this binder, I keep things such as:

  • Schedule
  • Meal Planner
  • Recipes
  • Cleaning Schedule
  • Kid’s Stuff
  • Contacts
  • Blog Schedule
  • To-Do / Projects

Binder1
For this project, you will need the following items:

3-ring Notebook – 3-inch
Sheet Protectors
8 Divider Sheets
8 Index Dividers

Directions:

You will begin by inserting your dividers into your notebook, and attaching the index labels. You will label each of your index tabs with the categories listed above.

Then you will begin adding in your inserts. I’ve listed several below, with links to take you to the free downloads, in some cases.

The first thing you will see when you open my binder is the Homemakers Creed, and a lot of other marriage or family-oriented inserts found on Darlene Schacht’s website (Time Warp Wife). Click on the link above to be taken to this awesome FREE printable!! You will find a lot of the inserts in my binder are from Darlene’s website.  Just click here: www.time-warp-wife.blogspot.com and click on the Freebies tab.

The freebies I have downloaded from Darlene’s site, and have added into my binder are:

  • Homemakers Creed
  • The Proverbs 31 Woman
  • The Ultimate Marriage Vow
  • Marriage Manifesto
  • Mommy Manifesto

SCHEDULE
The next thing you will see is the first section of my binder: Daily Planning Goals and Calendars. I find my calendar printable, again from Darlene’s website. Click on the link above to download your free calendar printable. This particular calendar from her site is awesome! Each monthly calendar includes the calendar, a To-Do list, Hope-To-Do List, Prayer Requests, Reminders, Thinking Ahead, Bible Reading, Groceries, People to Call. I love these calendars!!! You will also find my Birthday calendar. This calendar lists the birthdays of all family members.

MENUS
In this section of my binder, you will find:

  • Grocery List
  • Meal Planner
  • Coupon Pocket
  • Freezer Inventory
  • Pantry Inventory
  • Freezer Storage Cheat Sheet
  • Produce Buying Guide
  • Internal Cooking Temperature Cheat Sheet

RECIPES
This is where I store printed recipes that I love!

HOME CLEANING ROUTINE
In this section of my binder, you will find:

  • 60 Uses for Baking Soda
  • Daily Housekeeping Schedule (time warp wife)
  • Weekly Chores for Life (time warp wife)
  • My Zone Cleaning Schedule from FlyLady.com

If you haven’t tried FlyLady.com yet, give it a try! Each week, you are given a zone in your home to clean. She gives you a complete list of what to accomplish in each of those zones. Pretty cool stuff!

Binder2

KIDS
In this section of my binder, you will find:

Quick References for Kids

  • House Rules
  • Chores Chart for my kids
  • School District Directory
  • School Lunch Menu for each month
  • School Calendar – I tore this calendar apart so I could put each month in a sheet protector. Since it is the calendar for our school district, I went through each month and highlighted our school’s events for the whole year, including PTO meetings, holidays, spring break, early dismissal, and so on.
  • Classroom Handbook from our daughter’s teacher
  • Birthday List of each student in class

I have also included things for my own personal use that will help me pray for and encourage kids that come through our home through the Safe Families For Children organization, as well as my own kids and grandkids!

  • 31 Ways to Inspire Your Children
  • 31 Ways to Pray for Your Children
  • 31 Prayer Card for Your Children (time warp wife)

CONTACT LIST
In this section of my binder, you will find:

  • Contact List from my husband’s work
  • Medical Staff & Provider Directory for our community
  • Ultimate Contact Sheet that lists the numbers for grandparents, doctor, dentist, hospital, pharmacy, school, coaches/teachers, vet, housekeeper, insurance agent, miscellaneous. I downloaded this document from SimpleOrganizedLiving.com

BLOG
In this section of my binder, you will find information for my personal blog:

  • Monthly Blog Schedule
  • Weekly Blog Schedule – breaks my month down into Ideas/Projects, To-Do’s, Weekly Statistics, Bloggers to Encourage. It’s always a good idea to find bloggers to encourage. Blogging can be a pretty lonely job sometimes!! 🙂
  • Website Log-ins sheet
  • HTML Codes Cheat Sheet

TO DO / PROJECTS
In this section, you will find nothing but notebook paper. I use this section for things like vacation to-do’s, home projects, holiday/birthday shopping ideas, and more.

*****

I hope you have enjoyed a sneak peek into my Home Management Binder, and a little bit into my own personal life! I think having a good system like this is important, as it can help us stay organized and focused on the things that need to be done. I always feel good at the end of the day when I can look back at my list and see the items that have been checked off! I can go to sleep feeling quite an accomplishment has been achieved! A very good feeling!

Blessings,

Christi

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If you would like more housekeeping, home organization tips, recipes, and more from Christi’s personal blog, visit her at:

www.ChristiWilson.blogspot.com

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

At Home with GCH – Household Binder, Part 2

January 22, 2013 by

hb1

Last week, I gave you a tour of my household binder. (If you missed it, just click HERE.) This week, I’m giving you another peek into my binder, and am sharing my daily cleaning routine. Let’s get started!

I want to share a secret with you. It is life-changing, and is what has helped me more than anything else in keeping a clean home. FlyLady. If you have never heard of the FlyLady before, do yourself a favor and get acquainted. Just click on “Get Started” at the top of the FlyLady’s page. (By the way, making a household binder is one of the steps to get started! She calls it a “control journal”.) You will see on my daily routines, that one of the first things I do in the morning is check the Launch Pad. This is the foundation of my whole system. Another wonderful tool that has been valuable to our family is Cozi. You may have heard of it. It is a very popular web-based calendar and organizer. We’ve been using it for a long time, and last year, we switched to FlyLady’s Cozi. (They partnered up! Genius!) So between FlyLady’s Cozi (there’s an app!) and my household binder, even the most domestically challenged person can get their house clean and organized!

Let’s take a look at my daily cleaning routines.

cleaning routines

You’ll notice that each day is dedicated to a certain set of tasks…

Monday: Zone Cleaning, Menu & Blog Day 

Tuesday: About Town Day

Wednesday: Just the Basics Day

Thursday: Weekly Home Blessing Day

Friday: Paperwork & Clean Out Day

Saturdays & Sundays are my days to relax, so I only do the basics – cooking, cleaning up after meals, loading the dishwasher, etc.

If you click on the picture above (then click on the one that pops up) you will see what I do every Wednesday. Don’t let the amount of the words on the page overwhelm you! I have almost everything I do in a day on these charts. I am not a slave to my house. 😉 In fact, I find plenty of time in the day for hobbies, catching up with my friends, watching a show on television, playing games with my family, etc. The chart just lays everything out for me and keeps me on task. And should I get sick, my girls can look in my binder and see what needs to be done any given day!

Let’s take a closer look at Wednesday.

You’ll see that after I’m dressed and have my daughter fed and off to school, I check my binder, and then I check  FlyLady’s Launch Pad. The Launch Pad tells me what “zone” I’m cleaning that week (this week it is the master bedroom) and it also gives me a “mission.” For example, this Wednesday’s mission is to dust off the tops of the door jambs and windows. Easy peasy! So on Wednesday mornings, I do my everyday tasks like laundry & dishes, and then after lunch I get my cleaning done.

To see each day’s detailed list, click HERE.

And as promised, here’s another peek into my binder:

hb3

On the left is “My Monthly Bill Planner” from the “Finances” section of my binder. In the left column, I write down everything that is due each month. Then in the boxes, I write down what day each bill is due (if it’s always on the same day) and simply check it off once it’s been paid. If the payment is the same every month, I also write that in the left column.

In the middle is a picture of my beautiful daughter, Gabriella. I made a cute printable for each family member and slipped each one into a sheet protector. These act as the dividers in our “Family” section. Behind each person’s picture is important information that pertains to them. So for Gabbie, her medical, school, and cheerleading information is in her own dedicated section of the binder. This makes life so much easier!

On the right is my “Weekly Menu Planner” from the “Menu Planning” section of my binder. I do meal planning on Mondays, and each day’s breakfast, lunch, and dinner is written down on this chart. There’s a section for snacks on the far right of the chart, but I don’t police what everyone munches on when they want a snack. I simply write a variety of things at the top that I need to plan on having in the pantry.

That wraps up our household binder. I know some of you have started making yours, and others are updating theirs. I’m so glad this has been a help! It’s also fun to see what others have done with theirs as it may give us new ideas!

I’ve really enjoyed the comments that you’ve been emailing me! If you have any questions, or would like to know how I manage something in particular that hasn’t been covered, just ask away in the comments below, or send me an email.

You’re welcome to share a picture of your binder with me as well!

Love & Blessings,

Shandy

Be sure to visit Shandy’s personal blog Aprons ‘n Pearls for crafts, recipes, homekeeping tips & more!

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If you would to send a private email to Shandy in regards to this blog, please email her at Shandy@GirlfriendsCoffeeHour.com

 

Filed Under: At Home w/ GCH Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

At Home with GCH – Household Binder, Part 1

January 15, 2013 by

household binder Recently, I’ve had several people ask me about my household binder and for help in getting a system in place that will help keep their homes clean and organized. Today and a week from today, I will be sharing my binder with you. You will get to see what it looks like, how I have it organized, and what I use to keep my home in order. Plus I will share with you where I purchased all my supplies and where I found some of the printables it contains. Grab a pen and a notepad, find a cozy spot, and read on… and in just a few minutes, you’ll be on your way to a more organized home!

The first thing you see when you look at my binder is an adorable cover, personalized with my monogram. I found this over at lee, me, and the girls. Does your binder have to be cute to be functional? Absolutely not, but it sure helps!

bcollage

Open the cover, and you will find an assortment of labels, tabs, sticky notes, and a pouch… all from the Martha Stewart line at Staples. (I also bought my big Avery binder and sheet protectors there years and years ago when I first made my binder, and it still looks new!) I just went there to replenish supplies, and I thought maybe I was in Heaven. I love, love, love this line of products! The young man at the checkout figured that out fast. The first words out of his mouth were, “You must like Martha Stewart!” Why, yes. Yes, I do. In fact, I drove an hour one way just to get these items. No Staples near me. Booo! But I digress. Inside the pouch are my favorite Paper Mate Flair pens (another Staples find.) Colorful, and they don’t bleed through the paper! A set of twelve lets me color-code everything to my heart’s content!

Next, we come to the first section of my binder… “Family Planner.” It contains:

calendar

The next section is called “Keeping House.” In this section, you will find:

  • the Homemaker’s Creed
  • my daily routines
  • detailed cleaning lists
  • many, many, MANY reference sheets regarding cleaning
  • a special section for my Shaklee product information

Then, I have a section titled, “Blog,” specifically for my personal blog. It includes planning sheets and more.

Next up is my “Ministry” section, with sub-sections for Girlfriends Coffee Hour and projects I work on throughout the year for various ministries (church, Operation Christmas Child, etc.)

Our family’s “Directory” is next. It includes:

The very important “Finances” section is next. In this section, you will find:

Our “Family” section is next. It includes sub-sections for each family member with tabs for:

  • medical
  • school/sports
  • work

The family section also includes:

  • a cemetery info tab so I can keep on top of my dad’s and grandparents’ graves (maintenance, flowers, etc.)
  • online info tab

Last is my “Menu Planning” section, which has:

  • weekly menu planner
  • perforated task list sheets (Martha Stewart line again!) – I can plan my meals on these awesome sheets, and write the ingredients I need to buy at the store on the right side, which then tears off to take to the store!
  • secure top sheet protectors (you guessed it… Martha!) – These are divided in half, so I get two “envelopes” per page, where I keep my coupons organized by category.

That’s it in a nutshell! Be sure to come back next week to learn about my cleaning routine, to find out what has been the single biggest help to me with cleaning, and to get another peek into my binder! In the meantime, you can start thinking about what you want to have in YOUR binder. Start brainstorming! Then have fun gathering or shopping for the materials you need to make one of your own. If you have any questions, just ask away in the comments below, or send me an email at: shandy@girlfriendscoffeehour.com

Love & Blessings,

Shandy

Be sure to visit Shandy’s personal blog Aprons ‘n Pearls for crafts, recipes, homekeeping tips & more!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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