home management binder {part 3}

The 

 series continues…

I have been searching blogland for some great ideas on what to put in my home management binder and how exactly to do it. I have spent a few hours searching actually, which doesn't seem like a long time. But it kind of is, when you are just sitting at your computer….feeling just a bit lazy. Remember the list I came up with {here}.

Some of my faves I have found are:
Jen, over at iheartorganizing: posts about her household binder here
Toni, at a bowl full of lemons posts on her home management binder here
 They each had link parties, which led me to many many more home management binder posts!

From the list I created I divided them into these sections:

• calendar
• contact info
• home
• vehicle
• finances
• school
• family

I have been planning to make a home management binder for a while now, and I actually did snag Jen, at iheartorganizing's freebies when she did her post, so I think I will use some of her forms instead of trying to remake them myself. No sense in redoing something she has already done so well. Maybe in the future I will make my own to better fit my needs, when I figure out exactly what those are.

Here are my beginning supplies:

My binder is from Target and some Avery sheet protectors
I may have an addiction to page protectors, but I'm fine with it. I'm sure there are some others out there (other than my sister), right?

So for now I am going to use the cover that she offers, when {assuming that it will eventually happen} I get married I might make a new one using my new last name and maybe a family picture? But for now I am going to use this one:

My cover  will go into a page protector and into the front of the binder.

Now for my tabs, I grabbed these dividers at Staples when I had a 50% off coupon. I may have overbought, but hey they were half price and I would hate to run out.

This is what I'm planning for each section---

calendar- I am the girl that has like 17 calendars. Its ridiculous. I carry a planner, but I also like to a full size month calendar too. We keep a family calendar in the kitchen, but all of my things to do not go on that calendar. I will also keep my softball schedule in this section for this summer. For my month calendars for this year I am using these cuties from anything but perfect. I already had them printed so I figured I could just keep using them. I 3-hole-punched them and popped them in my binder.
I have important dates in my planner, but I think it will be a good idea to keep them in here. I will also stash a few cards in the back of the pocket of this section.


contact info- this section will contain a list that I also got from iheartorganizing.

home- this tab is more for the future, for now its just going to have the home maitanance checklist that a snagged from iheartorganizing. I think I will keep my cleaning checklists in the section also. I have one that is laminated that I made for myself. But I have a few other checklists that I have snagged from other blogs.
I'm debating if I want to keep my menu and grocery planning in this binder or in my coupon binder (that will hopefully be made soon).

I will also keep my laminated copies of my pantry and freezer inventory in the pocket of this section. If it gets updated correctly its an easy way to menu plan and see what needs to be added to the grocery list.

vehicle- I have a 2008 Pontiac G6, that I bought the while I was in college. The first vehicle I ever had to pay for, it was traumatic. And when I say bought, I don't actually mean bought, because its not quite paid for yet, but almost. It runs great, I have never had any major maintenance done on it. Just regular oil changes and brakes. Oh and a strut, whatever that is.
But my boyfriend's 2004 Envoy XUV will probably have more issues. I drive this bad boy the 2 blocks to school and he drives my cute little car. I know, my poor car. So they will each get their own page to keep track of maintenance. I think when {if} we get married, this bad boy has got to go, its gigantic and not very fuel efficient. but it is paid for….
I think that I will also keep vehicle loan documents in this section.

finances- Right now I have my student loans in their own folders, but everything else just gets tossed into a file folder once its paid. Each one has its own folder, so its not a horrible system. But it could be better. I have a checklist somewhere, (available in our etsy shop I believe) I just need to find it and put it in this section. I also plan to put our monthly budget planning worksheet in this section as well. I already have it laminated so I think I will just pop it in the front of the folder of this section. I also plan to keep a checkbook in the pocket as well, so it is close by when I'm ready to pay bills. I think I will move my bills to be paid from my planner into the pocket in this section. It makes sense to keep it all in the same place.

Not sure which bill payment form I will use yet...

school- for now this will contain my school calendar and other documents (time off requests, etc) I assume eventually it will contain school information for my hypothetical future children.




If I had kids I would have a babysitter/pet sitter tab but for now I guess for now I will just have the pet sitting pages, even though my parents have my pets. But I think I will get to have one of them back eventually. However, I'm afraid I have lost custody of my black lab, Hank, and siamese/Himalayan cat, Harley.  Jett, my Shih tzu/Chihuahua mix might get to come back to me with a slight custody battle. I would include a daily schedule for kids, if I had any. Similar to the one I made for my sister

So now I have a giant stack of papers sitting at my desk. I will start actually putting it together soon!

Check back for my next post! If you haven't gathered your supplies yet, there's still time to catch up. 

Is there anything I'm missing?? leave a comment.