Home Management Binder: Various Sections

The next three sections in my binder are pretty easy ones, but are still essential.

In the School section I keep the kids' special class schedules so I can remember when they need to wear tennis shoes, or bring their library books. In addition to those lists I keep any study guides, field trip information, or ongoing homework assignments in here. This section is rather small because our public school implemented their own binder system this year that includes their calenders, newsletters and new information. If we ever switch to being a homeschooling family, this section will obviously grow. :)


Next is the Projects/Wish Lists section. It contains a stack of notebook paper for me and my husband to write down things we want. Being on a tight budget, we generally have to plan ahead for our wants. If they aren't written down somewhere, I would forget what they were--which is sometimes a good thing. We obviously didn't need it too bad! This list enables us to rate our wants, and when we get the money we get the item that is most important to us at the time.

Our project section is rather empty right now, mainly because it kept growing and is now it's own folder! We are in the process of drawing out a home plan, getting bids, and finalizing the addition and remodel of our home. There is a ton of information that goes along with this process, and I've loved having it all in one place. But, when we are finished with all this mess, I will use this section for documenting anything that needs done around the house, or any outside projects that need to be completed (the garden, landscaping, orchard).


The final section in my Home Management Binder is the Bible Study/Scriptures sections. Quite honestly I haven't been able to develop this one the way I had intended. Right now it contains a stack of notebook paper for me to write down any scriptures that really hit home in my reading and any inspirational books that I want to read. I'm reading more books than normal right now; Power of a Praying Wife (which I highly recommend. MomsToolbox is doing an awesome "series" on this. Go here for more information), Battlefield of the Mind, His Needs Her Needs (for our marriage class), and iBelieve for our small group bible study. I own the latter 2, so I've been marking any notes in them.

If you are interested in the cover pages for these sections, let me know and I will get them to you. This completes my Home Management Binder. If you've missed the other sections here they are:

• To Do Lists/Week Plan
• Cleaning Lists
• Finances
• Menu Planning/Master Grocery List

Having everything all in one place has made a really big difference in how smoothly things have ran around here. The past few weeks have been crazy busy, but I've still been able to keep my head together. I'm sure my family is happy about that. ;)

If you have a Home Management Binder, I would love for you to link it up. Please be sure to include a link back here, so your readers can see the other ones as well.

Home Management Binder: Finances Section

Making sure your finances are in order is one of the keys to running your home smoothly. Having said this, I must admit that this section almost didn't make it into my Home Management Binder. Here's why; Initially, I was going to use my binder as a go-to for any and every one that may come into my home in my absence--including babysitters. While we do not use babysitters very often at all (as a matter of fact ONCE in the last 5 years!) we hope to be able to find a trusted sitter so Willie and I can have an occassional date night. I didn't want my financial information to be in the same book as my babysitter information. Know what I mean?


Instead of taking the finance section out, one that we use weekly, for a section that may be used monthly, I decided to take the babysitter section out and put that information elsewhere.

Click HERE to print this cover page.




For me, this section wasn't too hard to set up. Since starting Dave Ramsey's plan, we have used a spiral notebook to write down our Monthly Cash Flow Plan, as well as our bi-weekly bill assignments (we're paid bi-weekly, so I break our monthly bills up into 2 assignments). I go into more detail on the Cash Flow Plan and how it works in my Managing Expenses Post.



In addition to having my budget notebook in this section, I've also added a pocket folder so I can add in any paper bills that come in the mail. As soon as they come in, I open them up, discard the envelope it came in, and any other junk they decided to stash in there. In most cases, I will look the bills over to make sure the charges are correct, and keep only the stub. Occassionally I will keep the envelope that they included, other times I will shred it for mulch.


Another very important tool in this section is an empty calendar to record the due dates of your bills. In my case, in my absense, my husband would have no earthly idea when a bill was due. This also helps when I sit down to create our bill assignments. While most of the time if I pay one bill during this 2-week set, it won't be due in the next--sometimes I still have to set the money aside for it during the next 2-week set. I'm sure that is just as clear as mud. :)

Really other than those 3 things, this section contains nothing else. It's short, sweet, and effective!

How do you keep track of your Finances?

*If you have a home management binder or Finance binder/folder, now is your time to share. Please link to your post, and not your homepage, so that it can be easily found. Also, please remember to link back here so your readers can see what others share. If you haven't started your binder yet, now is the time! You can see all my other sections, complete with printables here.


This post is linking to Your Life, Your Blog.

Home Management Binder: Menu Planning/Master Grocery List

What would be a Home Management Binder without a Menu Planning section? Check out this post for some Menu Planning tips and tricks if you are still new to the game.


This section is still a work in progress. My goal when it is finished is to have a complete Master Grocery List, and a Monthly Menu Plan to fall back on--in those busy, crazy times when I just do not have the time to come up with a plan.










This is my the cover page for this section. Feel free to Click Here and print yours.






Behind my cover page is extra notebook paper for me to write down meals, side dishes or desserts that I come across during the day, that I want to try. If I find them on the internet, I will either save them in my favorites or Stumble them so I can find them later. If I find it in a cookbook, I will go ahead and write down the cookbook and the page so I can easily find it again, when it makes "the plan."

After the notebook paper, I have the always-work-in-progress Master Grocery List. Just when I think I have it down, I think of something else, or decide to do something differently. My goal with this list is to incude everything that I buy on a regular basis, as well as price points that I consider to be a good stock up price. I've just recently re-done the one I was using, and I'm not so sure that this is exactly what I am looking for either. I found my current template off of our Excel Program, and have just went in and customized it to work for me.

I've also included a few extra Weekly Menu Plan sheets just in case I am able to fill it in before the week comes up. I'm currently using the free printable that MomAdvice offers, but Orgjunkie recently linked to a bunch of menu printables and I think I found a new one that I might like better.

Once the current plan is figured out, it gets transferred to my dry erase board that is displayed on my refrigerator. I've really come to love this thing--it is much better than the calendar system I used to use. Plus, it is pretty! I found it at Wal-Mart for $1, up by the cash registers. If you are unable to find one--I have a few extra. ;)




Nothing too complicated, which makes it easy for me to keep with it. I was hoping to have my Master Grocery List and Monthly Meal Plan completed to share, but I'm just not quite there. Yet. ;)

Do you have a Master Grocery List or Monthly Menu Plan?

If you have a Home Management Binder, I would love to see your Menu Planning/Grocery Section. Link up!

**If you're walking along getting your binder set up, next week I'll cover the Finance Section. For a complete schedule, check out the BlogFrog or Facebook Fan page in the blog sidebar.**

Home Management Binder: Cleaning Lists

A clean home is an incredibly inviting, welcoming place to be, although at times it can be daunting to clean it all. In addition to it being daunting, all the tasks are oftentimes hard to remember. I've often found myself lost and confused as to what needed to be done daily, weekly, monthly and even yearly. The Cleaning List Section in my binder was created to fix this, and help me to stay on top of all the tasks. In the end hoping that I would have a clean, inviting home, without getting overwhelmed while attaining it.

When creating your Cleaning List, you need to keep in mind the things that need to be done in your home. What works for me won't always work for you.

When setting up this section, I first had to come up with an attractive "Title Page" so that I knew what was in that section.

Click Here to print the one I used.

Then I needed to come up with a cleaning schedule, but first I needed to decide what needed to be done, when.

1. What needs to be done daily? Laundry, unloading/loading the dishwasher, etc.


2. What needs t0 be done Weekly? paper clutter, donations, sheets, refrigerator, etc.


3. Monthly? ceiling fans, windows, walls/cobwebs, etc.


4. Seasonally? Touch up paint, declutter, dryer vents, smoke detector, etc.
   
   

Then I needed to come up with a checklist that would help me to remember when these tasks needed to be completed.

{I came across this one, and decided to share it.}This is a basic house cleaning list that lets you check off when they are compelted; broken into weeks. Click Here to print.

This is the one that I use and it does have some "non-cleaning" tasks thrown in as a reminder to myself. Click Here to print.

{This is a template from our Excel Program. I love how detailed it is, and decided to include it in my binder.} These are an in depth cleaning/maintenace schedule, covering both interior and exterior parts of your home. It is broken up Quarterly and Seasonally. Click Here to Print.

After I had all parts of my home covered and accounted for and broken up, I had to make sure that I would be able to come up with a system that allowed me to get these tasks done. After all that is the whole purpose, right? :)

Right now, I write my daily tasks on my To-Do List on their corresponding days (You can see more of that, here). If, when I have all of the that days tasks filled in and scheduled, I still have a time slot available, I add in a monthly task in. If I am able to complete a monthly task, I put a check mark next to that task on the sheet protector with a dry erase marker. When the next month rolls around, I am then able to erase all my marks and start anew. I do have the complex home maintence schedule in my binder, but haven't even had the chance to implement it yet. But, I'm thinking that it will run just about the same way.

I decided not ot include an actual detailed daily task list, because I found it too complex to include my every task in a day. I'm hoping that in my absense, the person that was stepping in for me would know that I load/unload the dishwasher daily (or atleast when needed).

Do you have a Cleaning Schedule? I would love to see it!

If not, now is the time to set one up. Feel free to print off the forms in this post, or create your own. Take pictures, make a post and link up! Let's get Organized!

*Please link to your blog post, not your homepage.

*Please stay on topic, and remember to link back here, so your readers can see the other tips passed along.

*As always, if you do not have a blog, you can leave yours in the comment section.

Next week I will go over my Menu Planning Section. To see the full schedule, visit the BlogFrog or my Facebook FanPage (both are in the sidebar).

Home Management Binder

Fall is just around the corner, and so is the busyness that school and multiple holidays bring. The only possible way I can keep my sanity, is to be somewhat organized.

Last year I only had 2 children in school, and neither one of them played sports until the Spring, so I was able to keep most of the information stored away in my head. But, as the year went on I noticed that the little notes I wrote to myself on various different papers were being misplaced and I was getting confused on what was when. I knew I needed to come up with something different, but I wasn't quite sure what.

That was when I found the concept of a Home Management Binder. I instantly knew that I had to have one, especially with all three children in school, the oldest two wanting to pick up soccer {which will keep a person insanely busy in and of itself}, numerous youth activities at church, and the decision of Willie and I to enroll in a Dynamic Marriage Class. My head would be spinning if I had to keep track of all of that on my own. If that wasn't enough to ground me in my decision to make my own HMB, Willie mentioned a few months back that he was absolutely clueless when it came to the inner runnings of the house. He would have no idea who needs to be where when, or who needs to be paid when. I've always just kind of taken care of all of that.

I searched, searched and researched for a few months last year and early this year on different things to put in my binder and thought of all the things I was going to do. I even put it in as part of my 2009 goals. Then, I promptly forgot about it all. It must have been on one of those "lists" I was constantly misplacing. :)

Fast forward to last week. Amy wrote a post about getting organized that re-lit the fire and motivation I once had. She included some links to resources that I hadn't came across yet, and that I loved! I've spent the last week or so finally gathering up all my ideas and getting my binder closer to being finished.

This week I will just highlight the inside and the first tabbed section that I have set up in my binder--since so far that section has had the most use. I will highlight the remaining sections in upcoming Finding Freedom Friday posts. But, more on that later!

When you open it up this is what you see:

A zipper pouch that has my favorite pens of all time, dry erase markers, my calculator and soon my address labels. Right behind that is my three hole punch so that I can add things in as soon as I get them, and some extra notebook paper for quick notes.

Then I have a calendar that I printed off from CalendarsThatWork.com and written in all of our going-on's for the month. Right behind this calendar is another one that the church sends out that has all of the member's birthdays, anniversaries, as well as our church commitments and youth activities. Having everything right here has made it easier for me to see everything that is going, which makes planning other activities (or days of nothing) and our menu plans a cinch.

After the calendars, I have dividers set up. I first started with the pre-made tab dividers, but I will be switching to the tabs that you can put on yourself. I like for the pages that I'm not filling out constantly to be in page protectors, and the page protectors cover up my tabs. Putting my own tabs on the page protectors will alleviate this problem.

Under the Current Week tab you will find the current menu plan for the week as well as the kids' chore charts that I made.

This weekly menu plan printable is courtesy of MomAdvice.com. Check out her other great downloads here.

Each child has their own chore chart that needs to be completed daily, in addition to their daily routine which is posted on the dry erase board, otherwise known as Grand Central Station. At the end of the week they will have certain rewards that they are able to choose from if their tasks are completed satisfactorily. Following their chore charts are my day to day to-do lists. Since it is the Current Week tab, it contains 5 copies of this same page; one for every day except Saturday and Sunday. The to-do list is a printable from SimpleMom.net. You can find all of her downloads here.

Here is a peak at Grand Central Station. I love this thing! It has the week's events written down and right there in my face. There is no way I can miss it! It also has the kids' day to day schedule and what they need to get done before bed, in addition to their chores. On the cork board side, I have their spelling lists, study guides and a milestone chart that Noah is working on in preschool.

Nothing gets forgotten or misplaced!

Also, because the family is constantly asking me the menu for the week, I upgraded from my former calendar system to this:

A cute dry erase board that I spyed at Wal-Mart for $1!

The other sections in my binder include:

◙Upcoming Week (basically the same as current week, except I am able to fill things in early if need be.)

◙Cleaning Lists

◙Menu Planning

◙School

◙Finances

◙Bible Study/Scriptures

◙Projects/Wish Lists

◙Four Season Binder (This is actually a binder all in it's own, but it works hand in hand with the HMB.)

I will feature one section every Friday during Finding Freedom Friday. I will still have Mr. Linky available for you to add in your posts on the subject. You can see the dates they are being featured in my BlogFrog Forum. You can access that by clicking on the BlogFrog widget in my sidebar. While you're there, introduce yourself! :)

I hope that you will join me in this journey of organizational freedom. Not only is it a good tool for you to manage your home more smoothly, but it is also a good tool in the event that someone else has to step in and do those tasks.

This post is linking to:

• Works For Me Wednesday, Organization Edition.
• Organizing Junkie's Monthly Round-Up: Command Central