Before I start on the learning projects binder, I’m working on a homekeeping binder. The things I need to keep track of so that things don’t fall around my ears while I’m off doing cool science projects with my kids. As it is, it takes a long time to come up with a binder, and already things are starting to fall by the wayside (like the 2 baskets of laundry I have to fold that I just pushed out of the way trying to make my way down the hallway).
And of course, I’m posting pictures of my progress, because I can’t wait to show it off. It also makes me see the progress I am making.
I am making use of the scrapbooking supplies I have in order to “prettify” my binder and make it something I really want to use daily. In addition, I’m starting to add motivational quotes to my binder (both biblical references as well as secular quotes too).
I got my original inspiration for the binder from http://www.flylady.net a while ago, and have since updated it, adding some new things from Delightinreallife’s family notebook
I got my artistic inspiration from Theresa at Little Turtle Knits.
1. zippered pouch
2. calendar sheets
3. emergency (including poison control and gas leak/electric outage phone numbers) and school phone #’s, family next of kin contacts, neighbors addresses and phone #s, and insurance policy numbers and phone #, and directions to our house. There’s also lists for emergency supplies to have on hand at home and auto I got from Listorganizer.com .
4. Weekly routine for the kids, a places to go and things to do list (pre-printed I got from listorganizer.com that you can’t get anymore unless you pay a fee).
5. Morning routine, before bed routine (the things that absolutely must get done to make the day go smoother).
6. Cleaning schedule – daily checklist, weekly checklist, and quarterly checklist. Right now, these lists act as suggestions more so that must do’s. If any of you are messies like me, you know how intimidating sticking to a cleaning checklist is, especially when you can’t get everything done in a day that you said you would. For me, the daily lists are too depressing, I can’t check off enough to feel like I’ve accomplished much, that’s why I’m seriously thinking of just combining the daily and weekly checklists, or drastically shortening the daily checklists to the bare minimum I need to do to keep the day running smoothly.
7. Menu Planning – including a list of all the meals I know how to make (apparently I know how to make 37 different meals, but we just usually cycle through a handful of them. I think it’s time to change that). Here is a link to a really nice weekly meal planner that is called Delightful Dinners (also has breakfast and lunch on there too)
8. Grocery list from Delightinrealife.com
9. Other sections I don’t have but want to add are: freezer log (what’s in my freezer downstairs etc), personal care (you will not believe how often I neglect myself), birthday/gift planner, inspiration/meditation/reading Bible, craft ideas, home projects, things I want/need for the home.
10. A Daily Activity Tracker (my own creation). I think it’s important to not only know what needs to be done, but what you actually have accomplished. This page is going to be used to list the things I have to do, and the things I’ve actually accomplished. If the to-do list doesn’t get done, it’s easy to see why if you weren’t able to (for instance, you had to go on an unexpected errand, had an impromptu play-date, etc). In addition, it also shows you’ve accomplished SOMETHING for your efforts. Honestly, how many times have you accomplished a LOT, but because it wasn’t originally on the list, there is nothing to cross off, so you feel deflated because on paper, it doesn’t look like you’ve done anything you set out to do? This has happened to me A LOT lately. And I’m going to change that.
So, this is what I have so far (and yes, it’s sickeningly sweetly pastel, but I like it):
Oh – and that fabulous font? It’s called Words of love, and I downloaded it free from somewhere on the net. Another font I downloaded is Love Letters. Both are used in the making of the binder.
The outside of the binder
side view
zippered pouch
Pocket dividers for major divisions (absolutely great for holding stuff).
Calendar divider
Daily routine
Here’s a nice Daily agenda . On the left hand is appointments (the first one being Meet with God). And the second list is To-do (starting with kiss and compliment hubby).
I’ve decided to modify the daily agenda – not saying it’s not useful, but for me, it’s missing something very important. Yes, there are things I ought to do, places I should go, but in reality, the fact remains that there are things I accomplish that aren’t necessarily what I originally set out to do, or take into account any surprise events (like when the unexpected play date throws a wrench into the daily agenda). So, I was finding I wasn’t accomplishing very much because I couldn’t check many things off my list. So, instead, here is what I call a daily activity tracker. In one column, I can list the things I need to do (or places to go), and there’s a spot to check them off, and in another column, I can list the things I actually accomplished today. So that no matter what happens, not only do I know what I was supposed to do, and didn’t, but what took up my time instead. I can also monitor how long something takes, because sometimes I under- or over-estimate the amount of time required for a task. This column isn’t required, but it is a nice way to decide what to do in the future if you only have small chunks of time to work with.
Daily Activity Tracker – Column 1 “x”, column 2 “To Do”, column 3 “Things Accomplished Today”, column 4 “How long it took”
Cleaning schedule – I have a daily list – what needs to be done in each room, and a weekly/quarterly list. As I’ve been mentioning, though, I’m probably going to either drastically shorten the daily checklist, or at least combine it with the weekly checklist as I don’t like the fact that I really accomplish less than I set out to do in a given day. Life with young children is like that, though.
Menu Planning
The delightful dinners form . It contains the dinners on the left column, breakfasts and lunches on the right column, and a spot below for when companies coming and you need a special theme/meal planned. Behind these pages is a list of the meals I know how to make, in case I’m uninspired.
Personal
Here are two other forms in my binder
Household Projects form describes what project, who it’s assigned to, and a check off spot.
Non-grocery shopping list for home items, garden items and gifts (this is a table I made in Word).
The Wonder Years 
Wow, that’s beautiful! We have a homekeeping binder and it’s so plain and ugly compaired to yours! Well at least you just gave me some major inspiration!
I’m also going to start a binder for my daughter’s homeschooling progress, just so I can keep track of what we do and have places to stash her drawings.
Thank you! I was really uninspired by my last one, and consquently, I didn’t use it much. So I’m hoping that by liking how pretty it is, I will be more inclined to use it. I actually remembered to thaw the meat for tonight’s dinner while working on my morning routine. So I think there’s hope yet!
I think we may be the same person living parallel lives! ha ha ha – I too just made a binder inspired by the same site…your’s is much prettier though. I do find that it is helping me immensely. Good bye paper clutter! My dh just came home from being gone for 4 days & didn’t recognize the house!! I don’t know how I did it being alone with the kids – but I am trying to keep it up. It definitely is a work in progress & not an easy task at all! My favorite thing is to put “not here” sticky notes on any clean flat surface – it is really helping me to remember to put things in their homes & helping me combat all that clutter!! Good luck!
Thank you :).
Yeah, my clutter gets attracted to every flat surface. I should try your sticky note idea. That’s great!
I’m having trouble finishing some parts of my binder subdivided pages. For some reason, my printer fails to print E’s and G’s anymore in bold. So I have parts of the word right, and those letters barely readable. I’m irked a bit about it. Oh, well, time to use words that have no E’s and G’s I guess.
I hope it works for you! 🙂 I found that when I finally got mine organized the way I wanted, I use it all the time!
(mom2boys at GCM :-))
Yeah, me too. I think it’s going to be a good thing. I’ve already remembered to pull some things out of the freezer for dinner in the morning instead of when it’s too late to actually use them. And because I just put the phone number of my neighbor in there, I was able to retrieve her number when I had to RSVP to a candle party and couldn’t find the invite. So, that’s a very helpful. I knew exactly where to find it.
I love it. its given me motivation to re-orginize and put mine to better use 😉
Thank you. You know, I like it too, but I can’t finish some of it because my fonts were going wonky. I still can’t figure out why they won’t work. I think I could have done better with the decorating part. It isn’t everything I’d want it to be, but that’s the scrapbooker in me trying to tell me I need to get back into scrapbooking again.