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[4]We all wish we could run a smooth household, but sometimes life catches up to us and things slip away. We then begin accumilating “pile-ups”… The laundry begins to pile-up, the bills start piling up, the dishes, the trash, the schedule, and the list goes on and on. Until finally we begin to crumble and fall & give up on what it was we started in the first place!
My weekly challenges are created for you to keep on top of things & to prevent those pile-ups from happening in the first place. Today I will be challenging all of you to create a Home Management Binder. I have been using one for about 2 years (and love it)… BUT created a new one just for this challenge. “New” seems so refreshing. I suggest that if you have a binder, re-create a new one with us!
Link up to the challenge today. Enjoy taking your time this week “creating” your binder. Personalize it & make it functional to YOU. Print out some printables & add them to it. Blog about your new binder, share lots of pictures, and visit others who have linked up with you! WE WILL BE ADDING THINGS TO THE BINDER AS THE CHALLENGE EVOLVES. I have shared what printables I use… you do not have to use the same ones.. I linked up to where I found them for your convenience, if you choose to use them.
Good luck! I can’t wait to see what you have created.
What you will need to complete this challenge…
Binder
Labeler
Hole Puncher
Pens
Pencil pouch
Dividers
Printer/paper
A good cup of coffee or herbal tea
&
Some relaxing music!
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[12]Now that you have collected all of your supplies, you’re ready to create your Home Management Binder.
[13]The categories that apply to my household are:
Calendar
Schedules
Cleaning
Menu Planning
Finances
To Do
School
Medical
Contacts
Blogging
“Calendar” is my first tab… I use this free printable [14] for my “week at a glance” because I fell in love with the blue scalloped edges. I fill this out every Sunday evening.
[15]The free printable in the above picture was found at www.mommytracked.com
My blank monthly pages are printed from Clean Mama’s Etsy shop. [16]
Becky, aka Clean Mama, is one of my good friends!
[17]Next in my binder goes the the “SCHEDULES” tab. This is where I place all of the kids schedules (dance, basketball, lunch menus, soccer, baseball, cheerleading, boy scouts, church, etc… and my schedules for work, bunko, book club, etc…) Its a never ending list. I hole punch everything and throw it out when it no longer applies.
[18]The next tab is “CLEANING”. This is a fun one for me (cleaning is not necessarily fun, but the section in my binder is!). I printed out these cleaning printables [19] and follow along with the cleaning schedule. Right now Becky has a “February Cleaning Schedule” [20] coming up.
[21]The next section is “MENU PLANNING”. I will cover this section in more detail in an upcoming challenge. Another great set of printables for this section is here. [22]
[23]More on the page below soon (and a fabulous giveaway)!
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[26]The next tab is “FINANCES”. I LOVE this section. I use it D-A-I-L-Y. Its my “financial brain” and without it I’d be lost. I do all of my bill tracking & budgeting here. I’m a very STRICT budget gal & we are on the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace plan. [27] (More printables [28] that I use.) I will also go into detail with this section: Finances, Budgeting & how to live on less, in a later challenge! In this section I also keep bill acct. numbers & phone numbers on a list. So if I have to make a phone call to a creditor, I don’t have to look the numbers up every time.
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[32]The next tab is “TO DO”… Pretty self explanatory and I use these printables. [33]
[34]Next tab… “SCHOOL”. This section holds each childs abscence excuse forms, teacher welcome letters, phone numbers, school calendars, etc. Anything pertaining to “school” goes here. It’s been very convenient to have all of these papers in one place.
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[36]The “MEDICAL” tab is next. All medical & health insurance information goes here. Phone numbers, copies of insurance cards, immunization records (copies) & physical records (copies) are kept here. I use these printables [16] for this section.
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[38]“CONTACTS” is next… The list of contacts you should have in your binder are:
Family
Friends
Neighbors
Doctors
Dentist
Vet
Insurance
Schools
Take-out
Work
Local Businesses
Coaches
Kids “friends” Parents
Gas, Electric, Water, Cable, Cell, Mortgage #’s
*I created a spread sheet in “word” and typed up all of the names & numbers.
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[40]The last tab that applies to me is “BLOGGING”! Since I am a busy blogger, I have a blogging “schedule” that I go by. I try to schedule my days well in advance so I know what I need to prepare for!
[41]This is my Home Management Binder. I hope you all find this post useful & resourceful in creating your own binder.
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[46]What’s a good challenge without a giveaway? I thought it would be a great start to my new challenge, so my friend Becky is generously giving away a $50.00 gift certificate to one lucky challenge participant. This way you can pick your own printables to add to your binder.
[47]More about Becky’s printables business
Clean Mama Printables is an Etsy shop started by work-at-home mom, Becky that keeps it “all” together with a cup of strong coffee and a checklist. She’s a former art teacher with a flair for graphic design. After making her own personal printables for years, she decided to open up an Etsy shop last March to showcase a different type of printable. Her printables focus on home keeping, organizing and al things clean. Buy them to organize your life and make things a little bit simpler (and prettier).
Becky has put together Kits to make everyday tasks a little more fun: The Busy Mama Homekeeping Kit [48] (18 documents), is a complete kit to keep your homekeeping manageable and on-track. The Busy Mama Kit is designed in fun fonts and colors and is meant to be used month after month, year after year. It has documents that every homekeeping binder needs – a variety of lists, perpetual calendars, a deep cleaning checklist, a medical information sheet, daily and weekly planner pages…
The Cleaning Kit [19](her bestseller), lists a combination of all the tasks that should be done in homes in an attractive, easy to use format that will work beautifully for you and your busy family. The lists are designed to be used together – one for rotating tasks to do year round and one for weekly tasks.
The Organized Kitchen Label Kit [49]is 11 documents in an easy to use, print and label format – the ideas are endless. Get ready to label your entire kitchen – canisters, spice jars, dry storage containers – and with plenty blank labels, you can label other things in your home as well. You can print the labels on clear label sheets, vinyl, white sticker paper, colored paper, printed scrapbook paper……
The Everything Kit [50]bundles 4 of her best-selling kits (31 documents) – The Busy Mama Kit, The Cleaning Kit, The Vertical Weekly Docket, The Meal Planning Kit, and the Christmas Planning Kit. This kit is perfect for someone just getting a homekeeping notebook started.
One of Becky’s newest printables is The Resolution Kit [51]. This kit helps you start the New Year off right and tackle your resolutions once and for all. The Resolution Kit bundles three separate kits together – The Cleaning Kit, The Bill Pay and Budget Kit and the Weight Loss and Fitness Kit. Try this attractive and simple method of tracking your bills and payments, cleaning and housekeeping and fitness to stay on track.
In addition to the printable kits, she also carries individual documents. All printables are in PDF file format so once your order is finalized, you can print the digital files as many times as you like for your own personal use. Becky can create a document just for you – she loves special orders, so if you have something in mind but don’t see it, just ask!
Here’s a list of all the printables in the Clean Mama Printables Etsy Shop:
February Cleaning Schedule
The Grocery Shopping Kit
The Everything Kit
The Resolution Kit
Busy Mama Kit
Pick 5 Kit (from the Busy Mama Kit)
Cleaning Kit
Fitness and Weight Loss Kit
Bill Pay and Budget Kit
The Organized Kitchen Label Kit
Vacation Planning Kit
Meal Planning Kit
Weekly Docket
Horizontal Weekly Docket
Christmas Planning Kit
As an extra special treat, Clean Mama Printables (here [52]) is offering all A BOWL OF LEMONS readers 20% off your entire order until Wednesday, February 2nd! Just use the coupon code 20LEMONS at checkout!
If you would like to enter to win a $50 gift certificate for your own printables, all you have to do is…
1. Comment below about “What printable would help you out the most” in getting organized?
2. Make sure you are a “follower” of A Bowl Full of Lemons
The giveaway starts NOW and ends on 2/2 at 11:59 pm.
GOOD LUCK!
If you are participating in the challenge this week, link up your blog to this post today and add the challenge button (below) to “your” post!
