The Home Management Binder

After much discussion, Greg and I decided to rock the Home Management Binder. Mainly for the whole “everything in one place” factor. We do have a great system worked out with the bills, and it would be nice to start figuring out what kind of an organizational system will work the best for us, before we have more kids and less time. Our goal is to get a system in place and then adapt and expand it as needed as our family grows.

I used the model over at Organized Home and just surfed around and saw what other people were doing with theirs. Allow me to show you ours. It’s still a work in progress, mind you.

The awesome front cover:

Inside the cover is some Advent devotions from Greg’s parents (on loan, which is why they’re not hole-punched into the binder) and the schedule for the local Le Leche League meetings. I need to copy the phone number for the LLL into the binder. I also have some devotionals and whatnot that also need to be filed away. After that is a schedule for January 2009, a list of emergency numbers, a to-do list (for keeping track of lightbulbs that burn out, and the like), and the list of parishioners with businesses from the back of the parish bulletin.

Next tab: employment – mainly, keeping track of Greg’s employment needs.

After that, the Faith section. Again, I utilized the parish bulletin to clip out the Mass schedule, who’s who, and the upcoming week’s Bible readings. I also have the Advent schedule clipped into the binder, a notification of an upcoming concert, an article about reading the Bible and a ‘reading the Bible historically’ plan by Jeff Cavins. A nice print-out on the method of lectio divina, which I printed off a while ago. My uncle, who’s on his way to becoming a Benedictine Monk emailed me his version of Compline for when I can’t pray the one in the Liturgy of the Hours books. It was very handy for the first week post-partum and I needed something to keep me grounded. I also have the Oblate Manual that I received from the Oblate director at the Monastery.

The next tab is the Health tab. Eventually, our shopping list and grocery inventory will go here. Also, I want to keep track of the recipes that really work for us – the moist meatloaf, the sweet and sour pork chops recipe for the Crock, that sort of thing. Right now it houses the weekly meal plan. I did print off some thoughts on good posture from the Internet, it’s clipped there as well.

Final tab is housekeeping. I wrote out the laundry routine so if someone else other than Greg and I needed to do our laundry (thinking of post-partum days here), it’s there for them. Especially the cloth diapers routine. I also printed out our cleaning routines to ensure that things get done in a timely and non-overwhelming fashion. Kind of like the Flylady’s control journal, but a little different. I suppose eventually I won’t need a list of things to remember in terms of cleaning, but my main problem is getting distracted. I intend to change the bedsheets one day and Elise wakes up from a nap early, and the linens never get changed. Or, I think I’ve changed them when in reality I haven’t. Greg is a stroke survivor, so some of his memory is shot. So, it’s good to have it written down somewhere: “change linens on Friday” or what have you. Granted, if I don’t look at the binder the whole thing is pointless, but I’ve found it quite easy to remember to check it. Greg has great enthusiasm for it, so that helps.

The nice thing is that we can add and remove things as needed. Greg wanted to partake in the St. Andrew Novena but didn’t print off the prayer, so in the future we can print off novenas and put them in the Faith section, and remember to pray them. That sort of thing.

Obviously it’s relatively new so I don’t have much to offer in terms of how it helped or hindered my life. Maybe in a couple months I can remember to revisit the topic of the Home Management Binder and report then. I should also have it done (I want to add more verses from Sacred Scripture to it, for example).

(Also: note how posting has increased drastically and suddenly around here? With figuring out what chores are done on what days, I can allow myself to have time in the evenings to write stuff, instead of changing the bedsheets or remembering that I have a load of laundry to do. Novel concept!)