Hi, my name is Chenoa and I’m addicted to Pinterest (and Facebook but let’s move slowly here). I’m sure my fellow Pinterest addicts have seen the numerous pins for Home Management Binders. I have several pinned under my “Organization” board and I pinned some of them over a year ago.
I decided to finally commit to creating one. Some of the pins I’ve found really didn’t link to anything other than a photo of a binder from Flickr or some other photo only site and that’s just not helpful because I already know what a binder looks like.
Other sites had a ton of different tabs that seemed to be a bit redundant. So, I basically went through and came up with what I THINK will work for my family. I went through our home office and came to the conclusion that along with my Pinterest (and Facebook) addiction, I hoard office supplies. Strange but handy when you are looking for random dividers and office supplies!
I went pin by pin and printed out and wrote down thing that I liked and looked at lists of tabs that other people used and then assessed whether they were pertinent to our household. Example, some people had tabs for “Yard sales”, we’ve never had a yard sale so, I doubt reserving an entire tab for this would be necessary. Other sites had a calendar for Meal planning and another calendar for appointments and one for bills. I know that I’d forget to check one calendar or the other so, I have a section for bills in the front and then a single household calendar.
I also have a commitment issue and I didn’t want to commit to permanently labeling my tabs till I was sure what would work so, I have temporary Post-it flags which have been rearranged over and over.
So, let’s breakdown my binder, I started with “Meal Planning” as this is something that is done weekly and if not done properly turns into an astronomically high grocery bill. I created a Post-It note grid so that I can rearrange meals until things make sense and it appealed to my non committal side. I slid it into a page protector and voila, done!
My next page is a Weekly To Do printable I found here I’ll use this as a way to plan out thing that are important enough to want to accomplish but maybe not necessary to put as a full on appointment on a calendar.
Next section was the fun stuff, bills. This is my weak spot when it comes to responsibility, I have to admit. (I must have taken an honesty pill this morning because I’m just giving away all my deepest confessions today!) This section helps kill two birds with one stone. It should help cut down clutter and keep me on track with not missing a bill due date here and there. I put a pocket tab in this section specifically to place unpaid bills on the front and a “to be filed” pocket on the back so that it’s easy to tell what’s been paid and needs to be filed away. Behind this are January through December tabs that house a calendar of when bills are due per month. This year we will have more medical bills with baby due soon and more baby visits. This will give us a way to incorporate and budget for those expenses throughout the month.
Next, I included my “other” sections. These include a Calendar, Meal Planning with ideas for cheap meals, favorite recipes and such, Freezer/Pantry Inventory sheet, Household Goals and lastly the Blog.
The blog section will most likely become it’s own binder. This is my new organization binder. I plan to do a follow up post every 90 days to keep myself accountable for using it and decide what works and doesn’t work for our household.
Some of my favorite Pinned blogs:
http://www.thebutterflymom.com/2013/07/17/the-ultimate-home-management-binder/
http://creativelifedesigns1.blogspot.com/2012/06/home-management-binder-finished.html
http://besimplyorganized.blogspot.com/2012/10/a-bloggers-binder-take-2.html
http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2013/07/post-it-notes-grids/
