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| These are the tab dividers I used for my binder. I then have a Table of Contents in the front. (I already had the binder and dividers so the cost for my project was FREE!!) |
Week 3
This week we’re going to
discuss how to create your own Home Management Binder. But, first, here's my WHY?! Why do you even need a Home Management Binder? I think through my story and the explanation of categories, you'll see why this is SO vital to a home! Especially one with children.
In preparing for my last three
deliveries, I found myself taking time to type up daily routines, meal plans,
doctors information for the kid(s), snack choices, medication dosages, daily
medications, and the list goes on and on. When our 2nd child was
born it wasn’t that much work. Planning for one child (3.5y at the time) was
simple. Even planning for two was easy. BUT…when I delivered our last child back in August, I found myself typing
up so many new lists, routines and SO.MUCH.INFORMATION. Now, I can be guilty of
over-doing it a bit, but wouldn’t you rather have too much information for
those caring for your children rather than not enough? Yes, the Hubster was on
vacation for a week, but I was in the hospital for 4 days – FOUR
DAYS!!!! If I had not put together a meal plan for that week (and freezer meals
for the 2 weeks following) my children would likely have eaten fruit gummies,
cheese crackers, chicken nuggets and french fries for days on end. So, after
typing for days and weeks I realized there must be a MUCH simpler way to do
this! So I began researching how I could better organize everything in our home.
Bills, Meal Planning, Daily Routines, Doctors info, etc. I found this wonderfully helpful site on Pinterest (where else?) and
made my own binder. You can see how she makes hers and how I make mine, but you
will essentially want to tweak it to what fits your family. (Check out this site for some other ideas on building your own Home Management Binder.)
And, don’t be afraid
to change it up from year-to-year. Our family changes and grows, so why
wouldn’t your Home Management Binder?
The categories that apply to
my household are:
Calendar Schedules
Cleaning
Menu Planning
Finances
To Do
School
Medical
Contacts
Blogging
1)
"Calendar" - I fill this out (or update it) every Sunday
evening. I created my monthly pages in a Word doc and print
them from my computer. You can also do weekly pages and use these
Week-at-a-glance pages from Mommytrackd (they’re FREE
2) "SCHEDULES"
- This is where you would place all of the kids’ & family
schedules (dance, basketball, lunch menus, soccer, baseball, cheerleading, boy
scouts, church, etc... and my schedules for church, doc appts, etc...). It’s a
never ending list. I hole punch everything and throw it out when it no longer
applies.
*NOTE: Since my children do not participate in organized sports (another topic
for another post) I put a few different schedules here: my laundry schedule and
the Baby’s Schedule and Party Planning sheets from mommytrackd here. (Are you
sensing a pattern?) I also have a rough “draft” if you will, of our daily routine so
that when I need to be away for the day my children are still in their routine – somewhat.
3) "CLEANING"
- This is a fun one for me (cleaning is not
necessarily fun, but the section in my binder is!). I printed out this Fall cleaning printable (again,
at mommytrackd.com) and follow
along with the cleaning schedule. You can purchase the Cleaning Kit printables
from Clean Mama's etsy shop or follow her Kitchen Deep Clean
printable or Quick Clean Ups in her FREE printables
section, These are great so you don't forget anything! I also have a Chore
Chart for my son in here that
I print out weekly for him to put his completion stickers on. The printed copy
goes on the refrigerator. I also have a Daily-Weekly-Monthly
Cleaning/Chore Chart for us to
follow. Feel free to download it here and change it to work for your family.
4) "MENU
PLANNING" - Some great sets of printables for this section
is at Faithful
Provisions (they offer other
printables too – ALL FREE
D) Weekly
Meal plan (vertical)
UPDATE: I just got an email with a WONDERFUL resource. Organic Grocery Deals has put together a list of produce monthly. They tell you in detail what is HOT, ripe and going to be gone quickly! They have it by month on their forum, but I've put it all together here in one document. Print it out and post it in your pantry (or in this section of your binder) to help you maximize your meal planning (and money saving) efforts!
UPDATE: I just got an email with a WONDERFUL resource. Organic Grocery Deals has put together a list of produce monthly. They tell you in detail what is HOT, ripe and going to be gone quickly! They have it by month on their forum, but I've put it all together here in one document. Print it out and post it in your pantry (or in this section of your binder) to help you maximize your meal planning (and money saving) efforts!
5) "FINANCES"
- I
LOVE this section. I use it D-A-I-L-Y. It’s my "financial
brain" and without it I'd be lost. Even though the Hubster does all the
bill paying, I like to know when things are due and how much we owe for what,
etc. We do all of the bill tracking & budgeting here.
We’re a very strict budget family and this allows us to keep track of
everything in one place! In this section I also keep bill acct. numbers, phone
numbers (mortgage co., banks, etc.) and online bill-pay sites, passwords,
log-ins, etc. on a list. (Obviously I’m not going to post this, but its simply
typed up in an Excel spreadsheet and printed.. Easy-peasy!) So if I have to make a
phone call to a creditor, I don't have to look the numbers up every time and they’re all in ONE
6) "TO DO" - Pretty
self explanatory. I use the Clean Mama & mommytrackd printables. (see, I really do love them!)
7) "SCHOOL" -
This section can hold each child’s absence excuse forms, teacher welcome
letters, phone numbers, school calendars, etc. Anything pertaining to
"school" goes here. It's been very convenient to have all of these
papers in one place. We homeschool, so I put my weekly plans, monthly “plans”
& my yearly goals and our school schedule in this section. I do; however,
have a separate folder which holds all of his papers and tests and my record
keeping is done online.
8) "MEDICAL" -
All medical & health insurance information goes here. Phone numbers, copies
of insurance cards, immunization records (copies) & physical records
(copies) are kept here. You can use Clean Mama printables for this section or make your own. (I
made my own.) I also have a mommytrackd (yep...I'm officially obsessed!!!)
Babysitter sheet here and our kids medication
dosages on a chart (daily
medications as well as
Tylenol, Motrin and allergy meds). Again, the medication chart is just typed up
in a Word document.
9)
"CONTACTS"
The list of contacts
you should have in your binder are:
Family
Friends
Neighbors
Doctors
Dentist
Vet
Insurance
Schools
Take-out
Work
Local
Businesses Coaches
Kids
"friends" Parents Gas, Electric, Water,
Cable, Cell, Mortgage
*I created a spread
sheet in Word and typed up all of the names & numbers. Be sure to include
the relationship they are to you (i.e. neighbor 3 doors north, Mom’s best
friend, Jacob’s mom, etc.).
10) "BLOGGING"
- I
try to schedule my days well in advance so I know what I need to prepare for.
However, these past few weeks have been a little crazy and I’ve been writing as
I go. Maybe it has something to do with 3 kids having RSV and breathing
treatments every 4 hours, 3 ear infections (2 on the same child – poor baby)m one set of ear
tubes and numerous doctor’s appointments to take care of the aforementioned
issues…maybe?!
Well, I hope that helps you get started on
your own Home Management Binder!!! Let me know how it goes and what other
tabs/sections you think of for your binder! I might just need them for mine! Happy Friday to you!!!
Blessings,
Annette
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