Creating a home management binder can be time consuming at first, but it’s totally worth it for the peace of mind you get after ward!
If you want to:
- Create your own home management binder
- Get organized at home so you can spend more time with the people you love
- Figure out what actually belongs in a home management binder
- Simplify your home management so you feel less overwhelmed
Then you’re in the right place! Let’s go!
The Ultimate Home Management Binder Guide
Home management does NOT have to be rocket science. I so appreciate someone to just take my hand and guide me down a path so I don’t have to do all the research myself. This Home Management Binder guide is all the thoughts, research, and ideas I’ve found in one place.
It will most likely be a living document, so check back often for more home management binder ideas.
Why do you need a home management binder?
First off, is this really a thing? Do you really NEED a home management binder?
Keeping track of all of life’s little details for yourself, your family, and your home can be exhausting and overwhelming. Been there. Done that.
But, I truly believe with the right rhythms, habits, and systems in place, even during the busiest seasons of life you can be organized and create space for what’s most important. A home management binder could be the perfect tool to give you peace of mind that you’ve got all the little details squared away.
Let’s dive in and talk ideas, shall we?!
1. Choose 1 place to store your home management binder
This is all about ONE place for all your home stuff in life. Not scattered around the house in multiple locations.
Having everything in one place is not only more convenient, it also declutters how much you have to keep in your head.
It limits decision fatigue because you don’t have to remember where you keep your important documents. Likely, you’d like to have your significant other be able to access this information too! If that’s the case, make sure you consider access, editing ability, apps, and usability.
Here are a few ideas:
- Paper binder
- Dropbox
- Evernote
- Trello
- Google Drive
- OneDrive
- External Hard Drive
- Drive on your computer
2. Digital vs Paper Home Management Binder
The first thing you need to decide is if you’re going to go paper or digital. If you noticed, most of the suggestions I gave above are for a digital home management binder. I personally like to keep most of our documents digital because there’s less clutter and I can edit it often.
However, I am definitely a person that loves real binders, turning pages, and pretty printables, so if you love having everything in a binder that you can pick up and turn through, then I say, go for it!
Another benefit of a paper binder is the convenience to throw paper items as you go.
For example, if the school schedule from your son’s preschool is printed and put in their folder, you can easily add it to your home management binder for reference during the school year instead of it getting lost in the mail pile.
3. What should be in a home management binder?
Great question. There are so many options to put in your binder, and it really is up to you!
These suggestions are here to help you get started. Feel free to customize as you desire.
- To Do Lists
- Daily
- Brain dump
- Weekly
- Time blocking
- Master To do List
- Cleaning Organization
- Cleaning List – monthly, weekly
- Chore chart
- Chore money tracker (kids bank accounts)
- Financial Documents
- Budget
- Daily tracker
- Networth calculator
- Account log-in info
- Cheatsheets
- Guest list – preferences/allergies/details about the guests so if they come over for dinner you’ll already have that information handy
- List of neighbors – remember your neighbors’ names
- Important people – new friends, old friends, neighbors that you want to get to know better
- List of holiday events to attend – the next time the year rolls around
- List of birthdays
- Food
- Pantry Inventory
- Meal Planning Printable (Psst… there’s a free one in the 30 day savings challenge)
- Weekly Meal Plan
- Grocery List
- Monthly Meal Plan
Psst…. Meal Planning Printable and Monthly Meal Plan are included in the FREE 30 Day Savings Challenge. Join the email challenge here!
- Children & Pet Docs
- Baby sitter guide
- House sitter guide
- What do the grandparents need if they have the kids for the weekend?
- School Documents
- Kids activities schedules
- Pet Vaccines & Doctor Appointments
- Pet registration info
- House Info
- Home service/contacts and contractors – plumbers, electricians, lawn care
- Paint colors
- Home maintenance tracker
- Vehicle maintenance tracker
- Info about electronics, household purchases, decor, etc.
- Lawn and Garden Info
- Place to stash plant information about plants
- Lawn Treatment maintenance log
- Garden log
- Garden planner
- Medical Docs
- List of doctors, contact information
- Medical Papers (copies of immunization records, insurance docs, phone numbers, names of physicians, infant medicine charts from doctor)
A few other tips on how to make a home organizing binder
Use a binder with tabs
Laminate the pages to reuse again and again (less waste!)
Use page protectors – don’t need a laminator, but could still resuse if you wanted to write on the page protectors.
Create a daily, weekly, monthly checklist that is specific to your family.
Divide and conquer your daily to dos: Divide into morning, afternoon, evening…
For example, in the morning: empty the dishwasher, decide on dinner, move laundry to the dryer. In the afterrnoon: prep dinner, put lunch dishes in dishwasher from lunch, and put away laundry.
What not to put in your home organization binder
These are a few items you should NOT include because they’re too important to lie around on the kitchen counter every day.
- Birth certificates
- Passports
- Insurance docs
- House Docs
- Vehicle Ownership
Instead of going in the home management binder you should put them in a fireproof cabinet/box. Fireproof safes are pretty inexpensive on Amazon. You know you need one, just get it done and check it off!
The Last Thing You Need to Know About Creating Your Own Home Management Binder
As with most things in life, it does NOT have to be perfect. Try for 1% improvement each day. As you improve your habits and your organization it will become more a part of your routine and identity. I LOVE that the home management binder gets you organized and provides a landing place for all the STUFF.
But everyone’s home management binder looks different, so feel free to create as you see fit! Enjoy the process as you get organized!
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