Balancing Your Life: Keeping a Notebook
Keeping a household notebook may be one of the keys to a busy mother’s sanity. There are as many ways to organize it as there are women, so consider what works best for you.
I have found that though there are some really pretty/fancy homemaking journals out there, a three-ring-binder actually works the best because it’s the easiest to tailor to my (ever-changing) needs. Tabbed dividers make it simple to organize and you can always print a pretty, personalized cover to slide in the front.
Here are a few things I like to keep in my notebook:
- To-do lists for each day (sometimes this is too tedious, but it’s a good thought 😉 )
- Phone numbers (emergency, neighbors, doctors, etc.) This is especially good for the children when they are staying alone.
- Chore lists–a list that can be revisited and revised as needed.
- Meal ideas/menus and favorite recipes. You can slip recipes into page protectors.
- Goals for the school year, personal goals, etc.
- Spiritual reminders. Bible verses or reminders about our need to love our husbands and children can be a huge help if we look at them each day.
- Christmas list–gifts and cards.
- Calendar
- Budget forms/spending forms
In my opinion, the secret to making a household notebook work is keeping it highly visible.
If you are ready to get started or update your household planner, Organized Home is a great place to print forms for your notebook. Have fun!
View part one of this series: Define “Everything”
View part two of this series: Simplify
View part three of this series: Delegation and Family Team Work
16 comments
This I need – thanks for the link to printable sheets!
I love our homekeeping binder! I blogged about it last year; it’s in my archives somewhere 🙂 It’s a huge help to our family.
I have a recipe binder, too, and I use it weekly.
Jaime @ Like a Bubbling Brook
I have tried and tried to use a binder and it just doesn’t work for our family. We have a folder with all important information in it that’s accessible for a quick grab if we had to run from the house for any emergency, but other than that, they have never worked for me. I like the idea of a notebook and wish I could find a set up that worked in our family.
I have two binders, one for homeschooling, and one for home management (chores, food inventory list, food allergy information, etc.) I use them all the time!
In the homeschooling binder I have separate tabbed sections for each of my school-aged kids, and additional sections for our daily schedule, list of resources we use for each subject our state requires, and notes I’ve taken on books I’ve read about education-related topics.
And to make it all pretty…my kids design and decorate the cover sheets to slip into the front of the binders. Thank God for artistic kids who beautify what could otherwise be mundane things!
I would be lost without my binder. It has my calendar, my running menu lists (I wrote out a list of all normal things we like to eat around here) and then when I make the grocery list and can’t think of things I can look at my meal list. I also keep a section for the kids where I write down birthday, Christmas ideas, etc.. and also where I write down sicknesses with dates and immunizations, etc…
Great idea! Most of my stuff is kept on my computer to print as needed, but this is a good idea just in case the computer were to crash or we were to lose electricity.
On idea that I use for to do lists is to have them all in word documents to either be printed daily (with boxes to check off) or one you could print them off and put them inside a page protector. A dry erase marker could be used to check off the things done and then wiped clean when finished to be re-used the next day. Clipboards with “to-do” lists have been a life-saver around here for me. Kids who can read can do what needs to be done without constant reminding (I have one with clipart pictures for my youngest who is still learning to read).
The computer is the way to go. I never seem to be able to keep track of notebooks but I keep a “to-do” list file on my laptop as well as menus, chore lists for the kids, calendar , etc.
Mine gets buried in stuff if I don’t keep it up on a shelf. Like you said, visibility is the key.
Large Family Logisitics by Kim Breneman is a great tool for ideas on organizing the HH Notebook also.
Ok, I feel like a dunce but when I’ve heard this term, I didn’t realize it meant a paper and pen notebook. I prefer to keep all that info online so I can’t ever lose it.
I tried this… It works great… As long as I am diligent and keep it organized… But I have a tendency to just throw EVERYTHING in the binder to look at another day… diligence is key to any good homemaking endeavor…
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