Home Management Binder

WARNING...LONG (but fun) POST!!

I saw this great idea on Candy's blog and after viewing many of her and her friends' binders, I just had to make one. This is called the Home Management Binder (you can choose whatever name you want), but it's a binder that helps a mother stay organized from day to day. It contains many different areas of intrest including:

- Bible verses
- schedules
- menus
- cleaning schedules
- homeschooling info.
- children
- budgeting
- people
- recipes
- automobiles
- books you want to read
- to-do lists
- community telephone numbers/babysitter numbers
- house rules
- declutter days
- kids chores
- upcoming activity fliers
- birthdays/anniversaries
- health articles and info.
- emergency contact numbers
- holiday ideas/decorating
(I keep seperate binders for this -holiday stuff- because there's simply too many papers. I'm a magazine ripper-especially from Family Fun Magazine-and I store all the cute holiday recipes, crafts and ideas in seperate holiday binders labeled "Christmas Binder", "Halloween/Thanksgiving Binder", etc.)
- other

These are just some of the tabs that you can add to your binder, but the great thing is that it keeps everything together! You can get as creative as you want with your binder or keep it as simple as you want. Here are some pictures of my binder and be sure to get over to Candy's blog to see her examples as well. If you scroll down (quite a ways) on her blog, the examples are located on the left-hand side column and there are quite a few to look at to gather ideas. Good luck! :)


Here's what the front looks like. If you can't make it out, it says "The Bates Family Home Management Binder" and has the Bible verse "Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed. Proverbs 16:3" I used DJ Inkers to design it. It's a cute software program that has all sorts of fun fonts and pictures. If anyone wants me to make you a front cover for your binder, I'd be happy to. Just leave me a comment in the comment section with your e-mail and I can send it to you.


I keep a pencil pouch at the front of my binder. It contains pens, highlighters, pencils, stamps, index cards,etc.


This would be at the first page of my binder. It's Proverbs 31 and it's constantly reminding me of the kind of woman, wife and mother God wants me to be. I'm reminded of this daily as I look in my binder. I also keep Titus 2:4b-5 in it as well.


The menu section is where I put all my take out menus and menu for the month (we have the same menu every month - 30 days of dinners). I do keep all my other recipes and grocery list(s) in a seperate binder with all my cookbooks in the kitchen.


The cleaning part of the binder actually has a cleaning schedule that goes a little like this:
Mondays-Avonlea and Lincoln's laundry, clean out animal cages, clean back porch
Tuesdays-dusting (living room, dining room all 3 bedrooms), bathrooms cleaned, Rob and my laundry
Wednesdays-plan out meals, clean out pantry and leftovers in fridge, finalize grocery list, coupons organized according to grocery list
Thursdays-grocery shopping, sweep/mop/vacuum all floors, clean our bedroom
Fridays-towels washed, clean out car, refill diaper bags and snack bin in car
* Everyday things to check off are: take out trash, dishes, kitchen cleaned, dog fed, water the garden, highchair/little table/dining room table wiped down, quiet/prayer time
* I keep a monthly chore checkoff sheet posted where I see it everyday in our kitchen and check off things that are done. It's amazing how much more I get done now when I can check things off!!!


The "list" tab in the binder has lists from everything to grocery lists, vacation lists, packing lists, etc., but I keep lists and all other information about birthday parties in a seperate Party Planning binder.


The Discipline/Reward tab in my binder has sticker charts for the potty, independance, good and bad choices, etc. There's also magazine pages I've ripped out on discipline and rewards for children.


The Mom Tips section of my binder has all sorts of magazine pages on different mom tips ranging from potty-training to organization tips and has lots of tear-outs from Parents Magazine's "It Worked for Me!".


The "Safety and Health" tab contains magazine tear outs about the flu, Tylenol doses for infants, herbal remedies, allergies and asthma, fire safety prcedures, what to do if you are electricuted, swimming safety, bugs spray info., food safety, hurricane stuff, CPR procedures, etc.


"Travel Tips" is a section I keep info. on traveling, hotel stays, places that we'd like to take family vacations (Family Fun Magazine has great articles about travel destinations for families), etc.


The "Books" section is where I keep notes and annotations from books I read. It also has a list of books that I want to read and I cross them off as I read them.


This tab is where I keep all our adoption information (if you haven't heard yet, we're wildly extatic about adopting a baby girl from China in the future!) I keep all our contacts, phone numbers and financial info. in here.


I keep lots of community phone numbers in here like...pizza places, doctors, dentists, the vet, friends, family and other various numbers. It helps so I don't have to look up the number in the phone book or online, I just flip to the page in my binder.


This is where we keep information about my Explorer and Rob's truck...oil changes, tire rotations, all the dates we've had stuff replaced or work done.


Thanks to the Maxwell Family, I've been able to schedule out our days better and having a master schedule in any house can make things so much easier. Be sure to check them out! Anyway, I keep our master schedule under this tab (we also have one posted in our house).


This is where we keep house rules. It's also a good idea to keep them posted in your house, although we haven't done that yet.

I also have a "To Do - Weekly" and a "To Do - Monthly" section. I also have a "To Do - Long Term" for projects in the future.

*If anyone feels the urge to make your own binder, take pictures and let me know so I can paste a link and everyone can see it! :)