Get it together!

I was browsing through one of my favorite blogs out there, IHeart Organizing, in the archives way back in March of 2010 (I think!) and the incredible Jen caught my attention with her project of the month. In our household we are constantly trying to find ways to be more organized both physically (like space, clutter, storage) and mentally (peace of mind, knowing where to look for things, keeping our sanity). Now I see that January is Home Office month! Woot! So, I borrowed Jen's amazing idea and attempted a "household" binder chalked full of stuff important to our family.

There is a whole lot I'd love to fit into this binder:

• House Cleaning Checklist
• Menu Planning
• Bill Payment Checklist
• Address book
• Emergency Contact Info
• Travel Checklists (we visit family out of town often)
• Product Warranties/Instructions
• To Do Checklist
• Blog Post Ideas
• Important Dates to Remember
• Password/Log-In Info
• Personal Sections for Goals/Resolutions
• Monthly Calendar
• Kid's Daily Routine/Schedule
• Auto Maintenance Checklist
• Pockets to hold checkbooks/envelopes for date nights, cash, gas
• Finance/Bills Checklist
• Our Monthly Budget

The sections in red are the things I'd like to include in our binder right away. To narrow down the list a little until the binder gets fuller, I plan to use dividers labeled with the following:

• Emergency Contact Information
• CPR Illustrations for Infants
• Household Cleaning
• Menu Planning
• Household To-Do's
• Household Info (Important Dates, Password Info, Auto Maintenance)
• Blog Ideas
• Finances (Monthly Budget, Bill Payment Checklist, Pockets for our envelope system)
• Monthly Calendar
• Address Book

We already had a white binder and some pretty scrapbook paper so I just slipped some into that clear cover and Bam! Love it!

I also had these fun colored dividers lying around from our university days. I popped those into the binder and used my label maker to create tags for our household sections.

Here is an example of one of our charts we have for household cleaning. It's broken up by individual days of the week, weekly, monthly,  semi-annual and annual areas. This way, we can list by day what needs to be done around the apartment as well as things to be done monthly and throughout the year. I know they are a little plain, but color printing can get pricey sometimes, you know?

Our address book is its own entity, but I wanted to still include it in our household binder so everything is located in one place. Every member of the family knows what's in it and where it is.

 

We keep our binder in our Dining Room sideboard, right underneath our little office nook on the wall. As far as what's in the rest of those cubbies? Well, that's another project in the works!

 That's a wrap on our Household Binder project. I am really excited about how our binder is going to help us get organized and keep organized! How about those of you out there? What sort of small household projects are you working on?