My Home Management Binder

I got the Idea for making a Home Management Binder from a blog at www.keepingthehome.com. Honestly, it has been a lifesaver as a homemaker. It has forced me to sit down and set out a schedule for myself for both our daily routines and cleaning schedule. It also allows me to keep track of bills (which at this time I take care of in our family) and set out a dinner menu.

Here is my binder at a glance. I do some things differently from other moms doing the home binders, so feel free to pull together whatever works for your home binder!

Here is the front cover of my Binder:
And here is the very front on the inside. Here I keep mail that needs to be dealt with, etc, and a piece of scratch paper to write extra notes, to-do's, and grocery list items on.

Then I have the contents page:


The first section in my binder is the Rules section. At the moment it only contains Rules for the Wife at Home and a list of Stages of Responsibility for children. Later on it will contain rules for the husband, children, etc.

Next in my binder is the Calendar section. It contains monthly calendars so that I can see what is going on at a glance. I still need to work on this section, so at the moment it is pretty blank.

Then is my schedules section. It contains my Daily Schedule, and my Sunday Schedule (which is almost identical except that a few times are changed for church activities :

7am - Early Morning Routine
8am - Breakfast
9am - nap/free time (with baby)
10am - Mid Morning Routine
11am - Lunch
Noon -
1pm - Nap / Free Time
2pm - errands/leftover tasks
3pm
4pm - Afternoon Routine / Dinner
5pm - Bath Baby / Nurse baby to sleep
6pm
7pm - Devotional / Bible Study
8pm - free time
9pm - Evening Routine

It also contains my Daily Routines and Day of the Week Tasks:

Early Morning Routine

Shower / Bathroom routine

Get Dressed

Start Daily Laundry

Breakfast

Mid Morning Routine

Morning Food Prep

Day of Week Tasks

Clean Kitchen

Afternoon Routine

Afternoon Food Prep

Clean Kitchen

Evening Routine

Brush Teeth, Get PJs on

Finalize Daily Laundry

Do Dishes

Tidy Up

Day of the Week Tasks:

Monday

Diaper Laundry

Weekly Cleaning

Monthly Cleaning

Tuesday

Gregory’s Laundry

Weekly Cleaning

Monthly Cleaning

Wednesday

Diaper Laundry

Weekly Cleaning

Monthly Cleaning

Thursday

Prepare Menu List and Grocery List

Weekly Cleaning

Monthly Cleaning

Friday

Errands & Grocery Shopping

Weekly Cleaning

Saturday

Mommy & Daddy’s Laundry

Diaper Laundry

Sunday

Church

Family Day

After the schedules section is Menu Planning. At the moment it has my favorite family meals w/ ingredient list for each meal. Soon it will contain our current menu, and I will use it to make out my grocery list. I will also store recipes that we want to try here.

Then is my Cleaning section (I must have forgotten to take a picture of this section, I will try to get one later). For this section I made a Room by Room cleaning list of everything that can be done in every room of my house. Then I divided this list up into Monthly Cleaning and Weekly Cleaning. Then I used these lists to make a Monthly Cleaning Checklist and a Weekly Cleaning Checklist. I use this system because it allows me flexibility in what tasks I do everyday, yet I make sure that every single task gets done on each checklist for the week and month. Because of this system I will never have to "spring clean", and I am slowly reorganizing my house drawer by drawer, cabinet by cabinet. I hope that was understandable.

Next is the Bills/Expenses section of my binder. Here I keep a list of our normal bills/expenses and their approx. totals. This way we can plan on the total amount of these expenses each month. I also keep a Monthly Bill Checklist here.

Here is a folder in my Bills/Expenses section that I use to keep track of unpaid and paid bills:

Here is my People Contact Info section. It contains Important Phone Numbers and our Family Address Book. I am still working on the address book, though.

And finally, here is the back of my binder. I store extra page protectors and miscellaneous items here. There is an Other section also, but it is empty at the moment. I will use it to put articles, etc that motivate me and for reference.