Starting out as a young wife, I tried several things to try to organize my time and cleaning schedules. After a lot of trial and error, I hit on the idea of keeping things organized in a notebook and this was before I had even heard about a Home Management Binder. When I began homeschooling our DD, I started reading about HM Binders and thought I had been doing that for years. As I did more research on them, my research lead to me reorganizing and redefining as few things. I have reorganized at least 2 or 3 times since then and have come up with a smooth system that works for me now.
My Home Management Binder is its current form is contained in a 2" binder I found at Office Depot. I found one in what I consider to be my signature color - green, mint green to be more specific. I took some of my scrapbooking materials and made a nice cover for it.
For the inside, I bought clear sheet protectors to put my papers in. I made a cover page for it out of my craft supplies and the little artistic skills I have.
I have several sections in my current binder. As a matter of fact, my sections outgrew my binder and I had to add to my binder collection (I will be sharing those later). For each section, I have made a cover page or am in the process of making cover pages. (I used my old Gingham Girls coloring book pages as my inspiration.) Some of the cover pages I gave the titles and some I haven't. I am not in a rush to complete them, but when I have a few spare moments I work on them.
My first section in my binder is a faith section. It contains Bible verses that encourage and provide guidance for my walk as a woman after God's own heart. It has items in it on how to uplift, encourage, and pray for my husband. Other pages to encourage me in my role as a wife and mother. Be on the look out at "A Life Lived Simply" FB page. I will be sharing some of sources on there.
The next section is a calendar/planner. I couldn't find any calendar papers that I liked so I made my own. I used graph paper (4 blocks is an inch) and laid out the calendar the way I wanted it. I was able to give each day plenty of room to write info on and am able to put 6 weeks on one page, front and back. (I forgot to take a pic of the calendar page, sorry.)
After my calendar section, I have a section for notes. This is where I save info from all of the things going on in life. Right now, I have a list of all of the places DD has applied for jobs. A list of quotes that I love. (I forgot to take a pic of the cover page.)
Menus and Grocery Lists is my next section. Here I have 26 pages of notebook paper, where I write my menu for each week and the grocery list for that week. I use the front and back of each page. The menus are followed by my coupon which I have organized in business card/baseball card holders. I organized my coupons the way I think about them and gave each page a label.
After the menu section, I have a section with items that encourage me in my role as keeper of the home. I have articles that uplift me and remind me that my role as a keeper of the home is a calling from God. Articles that remind I am not wasting my life by doing so. They encourage me to embrace my role, cherish it, and to feel good about it.
The next two section are related to each other. They are my cleaning schedules and a chores list. In the first section, I have my chores laid out for what I need to do daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. It also have a list of the cleaning supplies I use and a routine of things I need to do each day. The next section, I have all of the things I want to do in each room wrote out dividing them into weekly/biweekly and monthly chores.
The next section doesn't have a cover page yet. In this section, I have articles I have saved from magazines that have cleaning tip, cleaning suggestions, and how to's that I think are useful.
Organization tips and decorating ideas are in the next section. I have articles on how others have organized their kitchens, craft rooms, etc. I also have info on how to organize info on computers and in purses. Also on how to organize pictures and other keepsake papers. There are ideas on how to organize your freezer, how to pack a cooler, or how to pack a suitcase. This section also has storage container ideas.
My binder will be forever changing and growing. I will continue to add things and get rid of some. I may have to expand into even more binders, but that is just fine with me, because, I believe my home management binder is simply a good thing!
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