Chocolate Vegetables

I first got onto the idea of a home management binder from Flylady and then developed the idea of using binders for just about anything from Cindy Rushton.

I have set my Home binder with the following sections:
 - Calendar (not used often as I now carry a diary although I do have a page of annual events that is good with birthdays for the family and things like carpet cleaning, major bills and dentist check-ups noted),
 - Household routines (which includes my monthly rotation of cleaning duties),
  - Contacts (first page is always emergency contacts and quick reference contacts like the real estate),
 - Finances, and
 - Projects.

Projects is one of my favourite areas.  I have a page for each room in the house and then one for Household projects and one for Personal projects.  For example I have a reading room in this house so on its page I have listed to sort the books into order and paint the bookshelves.  In my bedroom I have to find a side table lamp with a pretty shade, make the top of my dresser pretty, design and build a wardrobe.  It is fun to dream and plan on these pages.  And when I do get a little money for my birthday or Christmas this is often where I go to look for ideas for spending it.

I must admit that it varies in how much I refer to my binder.  For me it can become just another piece of visual clutter but every so often I give it a good clean out and rearrange it to fit my current circumstances.  I use a 38mm 3 ring binder as I find they come out on special each school year for students and I like how the pages sit better in a 3 ring binder than how they tend to fall in a 2 ring binder.

Due to Cindy's influence I also use these binders for school planning, keeping the kids' school work together (at this stage one binder each), favourite recipes, and medical records.  My dh is not a well person and I download information off the net about his condition regularly like insulin resistance and obesity.  We keep copies of all his doctor's referrals in there and his test results too.  I am hoping that over time I can get a better picture of what is going on with his health and we can help him to get better.

And then yesterday I started a new one.  I am printing off the bank statements and writing notes all over them with the pays and the allowances left for various things like clothing and school.  This will help me keep better track of our finances.  My husband just laughed when he saw me pulling out the 3 ring punch and a binder.