Creating a home management binder

creating a home management binder

There’s something about Back to School and New Year’s that gets me on an organization kick.  Probably because both of them represent new starts.

Well, one thing that has been consistently working for me (when I don’t misplace it) is my home management binder.

{This post contains affiliate links.  See my full Disclosure statement for more information.  I was given a copy of this planner, and I love it.}

 

What is a home management binder?

Why thank you for asking that question, let me tell you (I must warn you as I write this I’m operating under a very silly mood, so yes expect a very odd tone).

A home management binder keeps your life organized so *theoretically* you don’t lose things or are late, or things like that.  You can put whatever you want to into your binder.

 

Things I’ve seen in a home management binder

  1. Menu plans
  2. budget, gift giving lists, lots of money stuff
  3. appointments
  4. chores to do
  5. emergency numbers, and such
  6. recipes
  7. homeschool plans
  8. field trips
  9. whatever works for you

Usually my home management binder is just calendars I googled for or whatever random files I find.  This year I’m using Cornerstone Confessions EVERYTHING planner {affiliate link}  (it’s over 200 pages).

 

Here’s what I’ve got in my Home Management Binder (and why I’m using this one)

2 year planner

First I open up to a 2 year overview.  This is solely so I can have an idea of when things are when someone asks me “What about ______?”  Also, there are a few things I’m already thinking through for 2015, only in the vaguest sense, but I wanted to have a general idea.

[Side note, my is put together using my super duper cool binding machine.  Most people use a 3 ring binder, but I LOVE my binding machine.  I’ve even written an ode to my binding machine]

tabs in home management binder

My first big tab is FOOD, yes very originally named.  I picked up a couple of packages of the Post-it Tabs {affiliate link} and put them on the side of my notebook so I can quickly get to the different divisions.  This works much better than the scotch tape tabs I’d made originally….

menu plan calendar

I love the different menu plan options.  There’s about a million of them, I chose to use this one that has a place for breakfast, lunch, snack, and dinner.  I’m rather guilty of not planning lunches and just staring at the frig saying “What will we eat? what will we eat?” for 5 minutes.  I’m trying to work on that.  I’m also hoping to build up to planning an entire month at a time.

There’s a grocery list, which I’ve printed out on cardstock, and…. misplaced……  My plan is to laminate it so I just use one sheet for all time.  On the other side I’ve put some blogging stuff to go through once and only once……..  I’m sure I’ll find it in a minute.

 

Blogging editorial calendar in my home management binder

Okay, one of my goals is to have a better idea of what I’m doing and when for writing.  I’m horrid at telling someone I’ll write something and not keeping good track of stuff.  Horrible at it.  I’ve got several guest posts I’ve almost turned in late because of it.

blogging calendar

Here’s the blogging editorial calendar.  What I like:

  • an easy to achieve weekly goal/chore.  I don’t have all of those, so I don’t have to worry about some of those things, so I can ignore that week. CHECK!
  • Holidays are made note of in small print.  So if I have a seasonal post for that holiday I can make sure to get it out early.
  • I love that each month has an encouraging verse to go with it.  Pretty much every page does.  That’s kind of cool.
  • Unrelated to this section specifically, but I like that it’s in gray scale already.  I always print in grayscale unless it’s a special thing.  I tend to add color on my own with my Prismacolor Colored Pencils {affiliate link, amazon has one of the best prices for the sets}

editorial blogging calendar

There are SO many pages for this calendar, I didn’t print all of the possible ones.  Actually there’s an entire budgeting and homeschooling section I didn’t even print from because I don’t need them right now (I’m probably going to go back and print out the gift one though, because my current plan is NOT working).

So, the blogging editorial calendar ones I printed off: statistics, evergreen content, twitter addresses (I’m trying to be on there at least a little), pinterest addresses (to tag people), financial register (I need to keep better records), mileage tracker (if I go anywhere for blogging, it WILL happen).

Appointments in my home management binder

Right now I keep most appointments in my phone, which ties into my Google calendar, but I kind of want a paper one as well.  I don’t know why, but I like the look of a paper one.

home management binder

This is my church section.  I’ve got all of my lessons written in through December, hey if I’ve already got a syllabus written out, I should use it.  On each month there’s a section to write out chores I need to do.  For my church stuff that’s mainly going to be craft supplies to get.

043

In my appointments section, I’ve printed off the pre-suggested chores.  I like having a suggestion already made for me.

 

Spiritual section of my home management binder

My big goal for my spiritual life is to be still in God.  In the story of Mary and Martha, I’m Martha.  I like to do and go and be busy.  I’m not good at sitting still.  My mind wanders if the prayer goes too long because I don’t have a visual to focus on.  So, I’m going to use these pages she’s included in the planner:

daily spiritual guide

Daily prayer guide, I probably won’t use it every day, but it gives me some good suggestions.

prayer request journal

Prayer requests.  I want to actually write them down and be able to look back to what happened afterwards.  I’m horrid at remembering things if it’s not written down.

gratitude journal

Finally I want to keep track of what I’m thankful for.  This has been a tiring fall, and I know God is stretching and growing me in many ways.  But in the midst of it I want to remember what God has already given me.  So, I’m going to fill out as many of these sheets as I can this year.

 

So, that’s my home management binder.  I love it, and it’s really working for me.  It’s one of the few organized things in our house.


Comments

9 responses to “Creating a home management binder”

  1. maryanne @ mama smiles Avatar
    maryanne @ mama smiles

    This is awesome, Ticia! I have wanted a binding machine like that for a while – not sure I’m ready to cough up the money quite yet. Need to think about it, though…

    1. With your kids, you will love the ease it makes for them to make books and write stories. Your kids would love it.

  2. I need to figure out how to keep track of everything too. Strangely, I didn’t find the system yet that really works for me except Microsoft Outlook. Good luck to us both in becoming more organized in 2014 🙂

    1. Fingers crossed it works. I just finished writing out my overall goals for the year….. Hopefully I’ll actually achieve them.
      I’ve never quite been able to get the hang of Outlook, so it sits unused on my computer.

  3. Lucinda @ Navigating By Joy Avatar
    Lucinda @ Navigating By Joy

    Ooh, I feel organised just reading this! (Does that work, do you think?)

    I love your ode 😀 I’m an Evernote gal but I must admit your system of having everything in hard copy in one place does look very tempting. I might just have to get out my binding machine…

    1. I wish it worked like that, reading other people’s organization stuff never got me organized, much to my chagrin.

      Get it out, you’ll love using your binding machine.

      My brother swears by Evernote too, but I’ve never quite figured out how to make it work for me for organization. Pre-pinterest I used it for organizing stuff I’d found online, but it just got so bulky and slow on my computer. I need to try culling some of the stuff there, pinning it, and maybe organizing better.

  4. One of the best things I ever did as far as homemaking goes was to make a Food section in my planner. I listed out all the meals we like to eat on a regular basis. Then when I am making my grocery list and menu I can just look at that list to get ideas. Otherwise I just sit and stare like Pooh saying “Think, think, think.”

  5. Ticia, thank you so much for the wonderful review. I’m so glad you have found the planner helpful. I just wanted to let your readers know that right now you can enter to win one of these planners on Cornerstone Confessions and that I’m also sharing a “secret” code for 25% all the planners as well. They can learn all about it and enter to win via myGoody Bag. Thanks again friend.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *