A couple of years ago, I made my own "homekeeping binder." It helps me stay organized and on top of my weekly homekeeping lists, records, and reports. Everything regarding "the keeping of my home" is in one easy place!
Though I don't always keep everything perfectly, this little binder has helped me tremendously.
The binder itself is from Target, and I think they still sell this style in their stores. I added tabbed dividers inside, and included labels for home cleaning lists (broken down by daily tasks, with a few blank lines for filling in additional things to do), weekly menu pages, calendar pages, budgeting reports and spending plans, homeschooling misc, pantry list, price list, car maintenance, home decor ideas, Christmas info, and phone numbers.
As I've continued to use this binder, I've noticed there are some tabs I use more than others. For example, my menu planning and budgeting pages get lots of use, but I don't keep up with my pantry list or price list as well as I'd like.
The menu pages are a *huge* timesaver for me. When I'm sitting down to plan the upcoming week's meals, sometimes my mind just draws a blank, or I can only think of the same few meals that I made last week. Having the ability to browse through several past menu pages refreshes my memory and helps me get the planning done in record time. Meal plans are laid out similarly to what I've shared here.
In the budgeting section I keep a print-out of our current spending plan, which I've printed using the reports feature in our Mvelopes program (this is an online, virtual envelope system for budgeting we've used for four years and absolutely love). As we update our spending plan, I place the new copy over the old copy... it's motivating to be able to compare our spending plan now to what it was in months or years past, see the progress we made, refer back to a failure, and have it all at the tip of my finger.
Regarding the homeschool tab, this is not the place where I put our homeschooling records, worksheets, etc. Rather, this is where I keep a few printed articles and statistics that help keep me inspired on our homeschooling journey, such as a copy of the article Ten Good Reasons to Homeschool by Dr. Greg Sherman (if you are a new homeschool mom, or considering homeschooling, you might want to check it out), and these encouraging statistics from the HSLDA.
Here are some additional snapshots from my homekeeping binder:
P.S. Want a sneak peek into my recipe binder, too?
what a good idea! thank you.
I LOVE this! I keep meaning to do this, you've given me some great resources! I WILL do this now! Thanks for the reminder!
Thanks also for linking up!
Thank you for the tip! It's a fabulous idea. ?
Thank you for sharing this! This is exactly what I need to implement. Great information, as usual.
It's a good idea, and I'll put it on the list of projects I'm considering for the summer.
Annie Kate
I LOVE this! Thank you! I have a menu planner, but the to do list would be great! And thank you also for the mvelopes suggestion. we are using it and love it. It has really been a lifesaver compared to excel, ha. Thanks a million again! xoxo
Your organiztion is astounding!
Great organization!! I love to learn new things and get ideas. Great inspiration.
@Amy ~ I'm so glad you like mvelopes and that it's working out for you!
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What a great idea! I keep everything in file folders in our home office (with the exception of menus and stuff). I have a little black book that fits in my purse with lists of anything and everything. It even has my Christmas lists.
The household notebook is a wonderful tool! I have a household notebook and file and I also have a separate Financial Notebook. So there are two main notebooks in our household. They are truly time savers. The key is keeping them consistently updated. I'm trying to start a recipe notebook and gather all our scattered recipes into one place.
LOVE your website!!! Love the healthy and frugal tips! I'm into simplifying my life. Thank you Jamie!
@Pam Childers ~ Thank you! I have a recipe notebook, like you, and am hoping to share more about that next week. I'd love to know more about yours!
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This is such a great idea! I am going to start my own binder today. We could certainly use some better organization around here! Thank you so much for sharing.
Great idea! I think you just encouraged me to start one!
What a great binder you have. Thanks for sending me a link to it.
Nancy
http://www.howtohomemaker.com/
Jaime, this is fantastic. I love this idea. I also love that you gave us links to print some pages.
Thank you!!!
Oh what a neat idea!!!!
Found your link on moneysavingmom.com and kept your page up on my computer just to listen to the gorgeous music! What a blessing!
What a great post! This reminds me of the massive amounts of lists that my mom would make while we were growing up. They make sense now that I see this post. Ok, I will have to start a binder. All of a sudden I can see some things being far less chaotic.
(I am visiting from the Raising Homemakers Linky)
Love your posts and this one especially. Would you mind sharing if you have a link to where your forms you show in this post could be copied? Thank you SOOO much!