But now it's back to the real world! Several months ago I put together a home binder that is really working for me. I've attempted this exercise before, however, if the system doesn't work for you, you won't use it. I finally figured out exactly what features I need from my binder and I'm here to share!
I hope some of these ideas work for you because this has sure made my life easier!
Today, I'll introduce my system and break down each section in separate posts. We'll call it a "Home Binder Mini Series". How PBS of us!
My sister gave me this binder for Christmas last year. It is still available at Target and I highly recommend! It holds plenty and has a clip on the inside cover to hold checklists.
I have 9 sections in my Binder, labeled as such:
- Calendars
- Meal Planning
- Finances
- Projects
- Holidays
- Cleaning
- Japhet
- Travel
- Information
I like to use the dry erase dividers with pockets. The pockets are very useful for stashing things for each category, for example, receipts in the "Finances" section.
I certainly could have used my label maker to name these puppies, but for some reason, I really wanted some authentic handwriting. I know. I'm shocked too. Usually I'm way too obsessive to label anything by hand!
Now, you're probably thinking, "Wow! That's a really big binder! How do you cart that thing around?!". Well, the truth is, I don't. It is my home base for the start of each week/month. I plan out meals a month at a time, budget 2 weeks at a time, food shop once a week, etc. I organize all of my weekly/monthly activity from here and then transport my to-do's, daily calendar items, reminders to a small planner I keep in my purse.
My HB lives in the large drawer under my command cabinet.
This drawer also holds my checklist clipboard (for current/active projects), a wire basket for frequently used items (pens, scissors), and 2 coupon bins (1 for restaurants/stores, 1 for grocery items).
I am an experienced couponer and I used to do the big coupon binder, however, now that I try and eat as organically and as cleanly as possible, I don't find I use as many coupons as before. That's a sad thing to me. You shouldn't ever have to compromise health to save money.
I'll touch more on how I use these coupons in my meal planning post.
It usually does look this neat. I tell you. This is the beauty of finding the system that will work for you. Between this binder and my command cabinet, I'm one happy chickie!
I also stash my camera in this drawer for quick access. Obviously I couldn't photograph that!
Well, that gives you a tiny taste of what we are getting into! I hope you will check back tomorrow to see how I use my "Calendars" and "Meal Planning" sections. If you want to tackle the HB with us, go grab a binder you love and a pack of dividers.
See you tomorrow!
No comments:
Post a Comment