The Home Management Binder: How It Changed My Life

A few days after this realization, I read an article about a new trend among homemakers. This trend had several names: Home Management Binder, Household Binder, Household Notebook, Household Management Notebook, you get the idea. As I read this article, I had one of those elusive “AH-HA!” moments. Why hadn’t I thought of this?

A home management binder (HMB) manages all things having to do with the home. Home improvement projects, family calendars, Mom’s to do list and other odds and ends can be found in this binder. It’s typically a three ring binder with dividers and can be easily customized fit your needs. There is plenty of information online from mom’s who use one of these, so getting ideas for dividers was actually quite easy. I decided what tabs I wanted and got to work.

I’m going to show you how I customized my binder. This system may not work for you, but you can tweak it and make it work for you. My system is quite detailed, so I’ll try to be as brief as possible.

My HMB has eight tabs and each tab has several subsections. They include:

• Writing: This tab has subsections for each blog and site I write for online.
• Meals & Menus: The subsections in this tab are grocery lists and menus.
• Calendars: I have a foraging calendar (my hubby likes to forage for food since we live near a forest), and the family calendar.
• To Do Lists: This is the tab with the most subsections. I have a section for each of the following: Daily, Weekly, Master/Monthly, Finished To Do’s, and Extra Blank To Do sheets.
• Medical/ER: I have a section for each family member (including the pets) behind this tab.
• Family Finances: This is the only tab that doesn’t have any subsections yet.
• Home Management: Subsections include my laundry stain removal cheat sheet, Home Maintenance, and Car Maintenance
• Misc. Family Stuff: This tab is pretty random as its name suggests. I have some of my homeschooling things here, like my lesson plan. I also have random game ideas which are handy on a rainy day, and a table setting cheat sheet.

I splurged on the dividers with double pockets, and I’m so glad I did. They are so useful, and have become an integral part of my system. Anything I’m working on goes in the front pocket of its respective tab. For example, I’m currently working on my blogging business plan. Instead of putting it in a page protector and having to remove it every time I want to add something, I just put it in the front pocket of my writing tab. When I’m done with it, I’ll put it in page protectors and add it to the blog subsection of the writing tab.

My favorite part of setting up my HMB was all the printables! I found a plethora of awesome forms that were free to print. There were menu planning pages, to do lists (oh how I love to do lists), pantry and freezer inventory sheets, blog business planners, personal goal worksheets, you name it; I found it. I printed so many forms, my printer ran out of ink (that’s about 365 sheets), and I had to buy a new binder.