I've been working on my Home Management Binder for quiet some time now. Honestly, it's been a project that's
been a couple years in the works! Can you believe that? I think with a new baby, I needed the structure that my binder will provide. It's funny how often I refered to the printables I made even before I printed them!! I'm so excited about this binder!! And I can't wait to show you what I've created. Truth be told, there are more printables that I'm working on and some are actually already completed. But the printer is down to it's last ink droplets so they will live on my laptop until a new cartridge is installed.
So do you want to see my binder? I'd love to show it to you!
I picked up this pretty binder at Target just a couple of weeks ago when we went to visit my family. Oh how I miss living close to a Target! But that's another post in and of itself.....
I decided to call my binder an "Our Life: Binder". It's a theme I carried out on most of the pages. Below is our cover page. I inserted each page into a sheet protecter rather than just hole punching the pages. I love this system much better! It's keeping my pages nice and clean.
After the cover page, I created a
Daily Schedule. If you've been around my blog for awhile, you may have seen
a similar version that I created awhile ago. I've since revamped it for my lifestyle at this point. In a later post I'll expand on my daily schedule further and explain why I decided to change it up a bit. This section will also include my
Weekly, Monthly and
Annual Cleaning Schedules. I'm busy working on those!
Our Daily Home Blessings. I want to strive to complete these blessings every day.
This portion of my binder took a few weeks to complete. I created for myself an entire calendar system. I was stuck with trying to find a calendar that I really liked so I decided to create my own. I love it! It works so well for our lifestyle.
[Blogger is being ridiculous with their formatting so sorry if this gets a little wonky on you. Grr!]
The next page is dedicated to
Birthdays and Special Events. It's a two-sided sheet that keeps track of all the special birthdays, anniversaries, holidays and special events in our life. It's a quick at-a-glance kind of thing.
I purchased some dividers to insert inbetween each section on my binder. I have yet to actually label the sections (with my labeler I got for my birthday!!) but will soon. I am short a few dividers so once I purchase those, I'll get my label on! But these divider are great because they have pockets on both sides of the divider. I bought them at Walmart in the States...I'm hoping they have the same ones in Canada!
My next section is dedicated to our Emergency Information. I've sort of cut off the top half of the page because it has our address, phone number and directions to our home. Can't be broadcasting that all over the internet can we? ;)
I have two seperate sections for phone numbers. I've added spots to fill in for the police, fire department, poision control and others. There is even a spot for Bear Wise - the phone number to report bear sitings. And believe me, we've had to use that number before. I definatly want to make sure it's handy!
Directly following the Emergancy Phone Numbers is a sheet of Medical Information for each person in my house. Since there are three of us, I have three sheets printed. It contains each person's basic information but also includes their Health Card Numbers and Social Insurance/Security Numbers. I've included sections for different medications (including vitamins) that each person is taking along with dosage information. There is a spot for allergies and a health history. I've also included doctor's information for each person as we each have different physicians.
The next section of my binder gets into the
Home Keeping aspect of my life. I made these next printables awhile ago and decided to keep them in my binder. These sheets are for home projects that I'd live to complete. I've labeled each column with a different room in our home and on the lines below it I will list what all I'd like to accomplish in that room. There are little check boxes next to each line. Boy it will feel good to put a check mark in each and every box one day!
The next section is related to all things
Food and Recipes. This will eventually be going into its own binder but until I get that one going, I've put the printables inside my
Our Life: Binder.
Do you see this pocked that's been added to my divider? I purchased these from Walmart. They are made my Avery and are quiet handy little things! It's a repositionable pocket - complete with a tab - that you can put pretty much anywhere. Here I'll stick loose coupons that have not yet made it into my coupon holder. What a handy little bugger!
Next I created a
Pantry Staples sheet. It's a list gathered from
The Reluctant Entertainer's book. I'd like to try and keep thse things on hand so that I can easily and quickly make some meals. I added and deleted some of my favorites to her list to make it my own.
I also included Fresh Staples.
This is a sheet I can't wait to use! It's my new and improved Grocery List. I had created for myself a nice grocery list before and it worked great. But as a new mom, I can't be expected to remember write down every little thing we need. I just don't have the time! So instead, I wrote down each and every thing we usually like to purchase/eat and made this grocery list. I even got specific with each fruit and veggie. Of course there is always room to add other items on another sheet but for the most part, this covers our food life! I plan to have this page laminated and stuck on the fridge so we can easily put a check mark next to what we run out of or what we want to eat that week.
I also created this Freezer Inventory sheet. Just like with the Grocery List, this will be laminated and stuck to the fridge as well. We will be easily able to see what is in the freezer at any given time.
The next section is devoted to our pups. We've got quiet a pack of dogs right now. Three full grown English Springer Spaniels and four two week old puppies. We definatly need some organization when it comes to them! We own our own kennel - Starbury Gun Dogs - and this section will quickly expand once I work up some more printables. For now I have a Pet Care Instruction sheet. It has a space for each dogs feeding allowances as well as a space to fill in their routines.
Another section is devoted to all of those little things that clutter up our brains. Things we want to remember but just don't. I've created pages for Books To Read, Movies To Watch, Things I Want To Buy, and Gifts To Give Others. This section will expand too to include things like a Travel Checklist and some other goodies.
The next section is for
inspirational items. Currently I have a really great devotion that inspires me printed and placed into a protective sleeve.
Can you believe that I don't have a cell phone? My husband doesn't either. So, we rely on a good old fashioned address book to keep us in the know. This section is for Friends and Family and following that is for my husbands dog owner friends. It's labeled Cockers and Spaniels as those are his favorite dog breeds. That section also includes a section for each persons email address and website. You don't know how many little scraps of paper I've come across with people's contact information on it. Now they will have a home!
And last, but not least, is a sheet for our favorite
Take-Out Phone Numbers. I've also included another Avery pocket to stash coupons and menus. Yum!!
So there is my Our Life: Binder! I'm so excited about this binder! I love it to bits!!
To download free copies of all of these documents in printable form, just click here: Home Notebook
To download free copies of the updated 2012 calendar, click here: 2012 Calendar
I'm hooking up with Jenn at I
Heart Organizing. AMAZING BLOG! It's full of all kinds of organizing goodness. Check her out. You won't be disapointed!
And for more organizing love, check out
Delightful Order. I'm hooking up there as well!
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