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Monday, January 23, 2012

Crazy Weekend, Crazy Morning...Let's Organize

It has been one crazy morning that followed a crazy weekend. First hubby and I were sick all weekend with a cold (that I am still fighting). Along with that we have critters trying to make our home their's. Yes, we knew that critters came with living on the lake, but find your own home! Fox Pee works wonders encouraging critters to find other place to live (the 5 wooded acres behind our house!). Well, since that only works so well, hubby decided to trap the critters and kindly relocate them to a much more appropriate home in the woods. Saturday was the first day that the trap proved beneficial. The cutest raccoon was sleeping in it when we woke up. I cried all morning(gotta love pregnancy hormones) and even made my husband feed him breakfast before releasing him in the woods.

This moring proved beneficial in the same was as Saturday, except when releasing the raccoon he became quite irritated to be evicted from our cozy little property. So animal control is coming to pick him up and settle him into his new digs soon. Only after answering 500 questions from me and promising me that they were not going to harm him.

OK so let's get organized! With a little one soon to be here and becoming a part-time SAHM, I knew I needed to be organized. (Organization is something that comes easy to someone who is OCD so I knew I had this) We moved into our home in May and found out we were pregnant in July, not much time to organize. Plus, Greg and I lead a busy life with work, traveling, church, friends, and family. I have a growing list of things that need to be tackled the second I am off bed rest. One thing I can do while on bed rest is make our Home Management Binder. I did a lot of research to make mine and knew exactly what I wanted when I started. Here is what I developed...

First gather all your materials and make a game plan.
The binder and folders are from Target, Green Room brand. (love the color green), you will also need a 3-hole punch, labeler, and I used pencil pouches to hold small items. The folders also came with labels that you could print.

I also knew I wanted the following sections:
Calendars
Schedules
To Do
Meal Planning
Cleaning Schedules
Finances
Goals
Medical
Important Dates
Contacts
Blog
Travel

I first printed a label (included with the folders) for each section and hole punched each folder and inserted them into the binder. I put a pencil pouch in the front to hold post it and pens.


Now it is time to organize each section.
Calendars-I found a cute monthly calendar and printed one for each month this year. Click HERE for the one I used. 
Schedules-will be hole punched and placed in that section as we get them.
To Do-is for me to organize my day. It helps me to keep up with my goals, appointments, workouts, daily readings, etc... I made one that suited my needs. Click HERE.

Menu Planning- I menu plan monthly and keep a few grocery lists behind each month. It is my goal to go to the grocery store as little as possible. Click HERE and HERE for the templates. I also keep a recipe pocket in the front for recipes I want to use that month.

Cleaning-I have a weekly schedule that helps me keep my house clean without spending 3 hours at a time on it. Click HERE for it. Then I put a monthly calendar at the back for the large cleaning projects (closets, yard, trees, drawers, pantry, etc.) Click HERE for that.


Finances-I put my monthly budget in there and 3 pencil pouches, labeled receipts, bills, and taxes. When I get something I need for my taxes I put it in there so everything is together, I do the same with bills that come in.


Goals- Greg and I set goals for each month and make sure we get everything accomplished. We check it often to make sure we are on track. HERE is the template we used.


Medical- I keep all of our medical information in this section. This is new to me and I am doing this mainly for when Ben arrives and one of our parents or sisters are babysitting him. HERE is the template I made for us.

Important Dates- I printed out another set of monthly calendars and put birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays on it. Then I put what I would like to purchase as a gift for them. I'll mark it off as I purchase/send it.

Contacts- I have our mailing list we use for parties, cards, and announcements. I have it broken down by party we host and mailings we send.

Travel-I keep all of our trip information in this folder. (Mexico here we come!)

Blog-I keep my planning pages in here. Click HERE to get a copy.


Hope you enjoy this! Have a MARVELOUS MONDAY!
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4 comments:

The Messy Roost said...

I really need to update mine. Yours is really nice and I like the way it looks. When something is pretty, you use it. Great Job.

Anonymous said...

Mmm I love organizing! This looks fun! Love your templates!

xo

Holly said...

LOL at you catching the raccoon and feeling sad for it and feeding it. That is SO something I would do! :P
Just dropping by from Hollie's linkup. :)

Holly
http://adventuresofholly.com

the nichols' family said...

LOVE this!!! I'm planning on making one soon :)

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