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I feel funny giving you a "how-to" on creating a household management notebook because it is so new to us. We are giving it a try for the rest of the year so we can work out all the kinks and really tailor it to fit our family for the years to come. Our goal is to have a Household Management Notebook for each year so we can quickly find things like bank statements, receipts for major purchases, and even gifts received.My husband and I are "stack" instead of "sort" type people. If we had a scavenger hunt and had to find our latest bank statement, our doctor's phone number, and the boys' social security cards, it would take us a while. So our household management notebook is really a necessity for us. As our family grows and our lives get more complicated (IRAs, college savings, buying a house, frequent flyer numbers...) we need a go-to place to organize and keep everything.
Here are the basics of our household management notebook:
- Information Sheets: doctor information, doctor visit chart, car maintenance record, on-line passwords, on-line purchases, party planning, gift ideas, gifts received, important contacts, travel/vacation information, housework schedule
- Menu Planning & Recipes: coupons (kept in zipper pencil pouch), shopping list, new recipes
- Money: Bank statements, receipts (another pencil pouch), budget worksheets, price comparison worksheet
- Family Worship: schedule for our family Bible study and prayer requests
- Monthly Calendars: from preschool and church
For our monthly and weekly schedules, I use a MomAgenda. I have been using the desk top edition (which I love), but since I really just need the calendar pages, I'm going to switch to the spiral refill and keep it with my notebook. It has five columns for each week that I use for my schedule, Lee's appointments, the boys' activities, blog topics, and our menu.
It really helps us to have a place for all the paper work that gets piled up around our house. Listed in resources are links to other family notebooks, scheduling pages, and inspiration for organization!
How do you keep track of your family's paper work? What has worked (and what hasn't worked) for you?
Resources:Home Management Notebook by Simple Mom
Household Notebook
Christina's Lesson Plan Book
FlyLady's Control Journal
Weekly planner page I use from Mom Advice
MomAgenda
ListPlanIt (hundreds of lists and planning sheets available for members, and watch for membership giveaways and 1/2 price specials)
I'm linked up today to Keeper of the Home's Living Simply Saturday!
image pencil & image notebooks
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7 comments:
Another thing you might want to consider is Shoeboxed for organizing your receipts. Just mail them in, and Shoeboxed scans them and enters them into an online account for you to access. They're automatically sortable and categorized so you don't have to do any of the work yourself!
Dan Englander
Shoeboxed
JD and I each have a tray in the office. When things come in the mail or we get stuff at church, it goes in the appropriate tray (instead of lying around the house). Then we each sort our trays when we have a chance.
As for the financial stuff, we have a 4-drawer file cabinet. At the end of each year JD will pull it all out and store it in legal envelopes and send it to the attic. Every 7 years we destroy the first year.
As for calendar, I just have a one year planner that I keep with me. Every couple of weeks we sit down and "calendar" to know that we are on the same page with activities.
Daytimer has a great magnetic calendar that we have on the fridge. I post all of our meals on it.
So we have bits and pieces everywhere. I think that notebook is a great idea to keep it all organized in one place! I can't wait to hear how it works for your family!
Wow... that's helpful. I think I'm going to have to try this. So far, I have absolutely no method. I've just moved into my apartment this summer, and I've been so busy planning a wedding that I haven't organized my documents!
Things too important to lose go in a folding file pouch... other papers go onto a shelf. Yikes!
I love this idea... I'm so doing it!
This is a really great idea! Thanks for sharing!
I have been using a household notebook for a while but I am very inconsistent with it! I do try though! Thank you for this post. I will have to check out the great links you have!
I made a household binder last year, but just couldn't get into the habit of using it. I do use a Polestar Family Planner, but I know it doesn't serve the same purpose. Thanks for reminding me of this idea... maybe I'll pull it out, revamp it and give it another try this year.
And thanks for participating in Living Simply Saturday!
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