I was never the sort of woman who would have needed a binder, I just wasn't that organized, and my family scoffed at me when I first made it up. We all use it now,however, and especially for me, it has become a source of great joy and comfort.
"What is she talking about?" you may be asking.
This is what I am talking about: my Homemakers Binder :)
Not the flashiest thing in the world, but full of a wealth of information about our family.
I just grabbed the nearest binder I had, and put it together with stuff I had, or downloaded, but I updated it this week to include a few extras.
I start with my Chore chart. I love this from The Confident Mom, i just need some pointers, so I go for the full version, although she also does a blank version, for the Super efficient among us!! (NOT ME)
This is printed and stored in my binder, and week by week it comes out and is stuck to the fridge. What I like about this is there are clear jobs to do each day, and the kids can come independently and choose a job to do, tick it off, and we are done!
Next, is my new addition of a birthdays page. I am SOOOO bad at remembering birthdays, I have them on my phone, on my main calendar, but I felt I needed a central place where I could see all the birthdays in the month in one place, so I printed this great template from Fun With Mama
and the main birthdays and anniversaries are on here.
(It's also cute, and I love it!)
I have also included a Holiday Gift Tracker, from iheart organizing, which I used for the first time this year, and it worked great!
All of our Christmas gifts were in one place, and I could keep track on just how much I was spending.(would be great for those with large extended families to buy for.)
Next comes my spare meal planner sheets, which I got from The Project girl. I really find that now we have started to use this, we can't function without it now!
lovely lay out too, with room for notes on soaking and prep, and again, goes on the fridge for all to see, so when I get the usual cry from 4 children, "what's for tea mum?" I can tell them to go and look on the fridge and it will tell them.
Happy mummy!!
I also added a utilities main page, with account numbers, emergency phone numbers and renewal dates. This has been added, because I have found that, as we do most of our account management online, if the internet goes down, as it has recently, I have no idea what the phone numbers are, nor my account numbers, so one main page is a huge benefit, and DH has already used it!! This is the one we use.
I then have all of my recipes organized into breakfasts, lunches, dinners, soup, dessert, etc.
So that is what's in mine, but you can make it personal to you, with an Emergency Telephone List, a To Do List, a Monthly cleaning list, a Gardening template or anything else that you feel fits your family.
I love my binder, and all the family know where the main things are. In the binder, in the kitchen, next to the coffee pot!
