A Home Management Binder

This project was a huge one to accomplish!  And a great benefit now that we're slowly starting to implement it.  Have you ever used a Home Management Binder?  I really wasn't even familiar with the idea of them until recently.

A few years back I purchased the book Managers Of Their Homes from Steven and Teri Maxwell over at Titus2.com.  It was a great book that broke down the method on how to make a family schedule in a simple way.  Since I have learned the whole concept and method I can now re-create a family schedule in a matter of minutes to fit our family lifestyle at the moment.  It is a great book and tool that I would highly recommend. 

This was the start in my process of making a home management binder.  The second book I read was Large Family Logistics.  Wow!  What an awesome book!  Another one I would highly recommend!  It really lays out a good foundation for running your home. 

Another great resource came from a dear friend of mine who is uber organized and a mother of 5.  She has many great ideas on organization and running a household and has been a great encouragement to me as well. 

So here I was with all this information but I needed a way to put it all together, and that's when I ran across Home Management Binders through Pinterest.  That was the key.

Now I know there are women out there who just don't function as well with organization while others, like me, thrive with organization and schedules.  That's okay, we're all made differently and we are all unique in the way we chose to live our lives and run our homes.  Do I think some organization and schedules are helpful?  Yes.  But to what extent I think depends on each individual. 

These are all great tools, not a how-to-live-your-life-perfectly or if-you-aren't-doing-it-this-way-you're-doing-it-wrong books.  And I think if you are a person who loves organization and schedules you have to protect yourself from feeling that way or living that way.  Schedules are a great guideline, not a I-have-to-live-by-this-or-else-my-world-falls-apart. 

I heard it put well, serve the Lord and your family not your schedule!

It's a tool, a guideline, a help.  Not your master.

So, that being said, I am excited for this new tool that we've been implementing into our daily routines.  Considering that I have 3 little ones and I will begin the journey of homeschooling this year and the continued roles of Wife, Mother, Homemaker, Teacher, Friend and the list goes on, a little help is appreciated. 

There are lots of examples out there, from simple to complex.  You could make a Home Management Binder and make it fit your family and lifestyle, your need, and it can look like however you want it to.  There's no right or wrong way to put one together.  I took my time and searched others home management binders to see what they had in them, and tweaked ours to fit us.  There are also tons of free printable sheets out there for different sections of your home management binder.  I used some provided by others and I made some of my own.  I'm sure it will always be changing and molding as a family is always changing and growing.  We'll find what works for us and what doesn't.  But for now this is what I've come up with.

And like I said, a lot of this is new, so we are implementing each step slowly.  There's no point in trying to make it all happen at once, that would probably resort to me feeling totally overwhelmed and never use any of it.  So bit by bit it's becoming part of our daily life and routine and has been a great blessing.

Here it is, our Home Management Binder.  I found this cute binder at Target.

I got the dividers from Office Max, the dividers have pockets which I think will really come in handy.

I have 7 categories as of now: Schedules, Home Management, Kids, Homeschool, Ministry, Exercise/Travel/Doc., Projects/Blog.

The first category, Schedules, has all our main schedules to do lists, daily routines, and a calendar.

These are the first pages that I see when I open my binder.

I have multiple pages printed out, this sheet has my goals for the week and it's my to do list.

This is our families daily schedule.  I learned how to do this from Managers of their Homes and I can now type one of these up in minutes when things change.

This is my personal assistant and monthly calendar.  I keep the calendar of the month up front. 

I have another copy of this page printed out and put in a picture frame so I can mark off each item with a dry erase marker throughout the week.  You can find the printout of this page here.  I customized it to what works for me and our house.

I also used here customizable calendar, which I love.  You can find it here under calendar.

One aspect that I love about it is that it is broken down into weeks which is helpful for my cleaning schedule and for homeschooling.

I made my own 'Year At A Glance' page with the names and dates of birthday and anniversaries and special dates that are important for me to remember.  I can see it all in one glance of the sheet.

The second category is Home Management which includes my home roles such as cleaning and cooking and, well, managing our home.

My weekly cleaning routine is found under the schedules tab in my 'daily assistant', and here is more of a deep cleaning list.  I made this one on Word and used others' examples to find what worked best for me.

But I did love her list for Home Maintenance.  I felt like most of it was geared for my husband so I printed it out and will laminate it and have it in the garage as well as having a copy in my binder.  You can find her home maintenance lists here.

I wrote up a Laundry Protocol Chart to hang up in the laundry room for a quick reference on how to wash each load of laundry, thanks to Large Family Logistics for the idea. 

Recipes to Try, you can find this printout here, if you run across a recipe in a magazine or on the internet that you could like to try sometime, add it to this list to remember where to find it.

I wrote up this on my own in a Word document, to help remember our favorite meals whether for dinner, breakfast, lunch or snacks.  Then when I'm having a busy week or a hard time thinking of what to make I can check this list.

This section is for the Kids.  Anything that involves them goes here, such as their schedules.

I have their daily routines and chores written out on this chart so I can see it at one glance.  This correlates with our Family Schedule but I can see more specifics on this sheet.

I have loved this list of Character Qualities that I originally found from the Duggars website, you can find it here under Homeschool Resources: Character Qualities.

This is a handy chart to help with consistency on how you as parents chose to discipline and train your children.  We bought a copy when the Maxwell Family came to town but I you can find it here for purchase.

This section is for Homeschooling, and at the moment I have yet to get all that ready for this coming year.  It's a work is progress at the moment but the main info for myself with most likely go in this section.

Ministry is the 5th section in my home management binder.



I love this list, we've needed to have one for a long time, when you have someone you would like to invite over for dinner or someone you would like to take meals to you can write it down on this list to remember to make it happen.

This one is similar to the list before, if we want to take the kids out on a date or a special project it can be written down on this list to make sure it happens.  You can find this printout here.

I really appreciate having a prayer journal, to continue to pray for others and to look back and see how the Lord has answered prayers.  Click here for the prayer journal printout.

A Bible reading log if you're wanting to read through the Bible.  The printout is available here.

The next section has a few things compiled together, exercise, doctors logs and travel info.

This Exercise Log I made on Word to keep track of my workouts, especially if I've set a goal that I want to complete.

This is another one that I made and we'll see if I use it, I used to write them on their Doc file in our filing cabinet but I wasn't being consistent.  Maybe this will be the better option to keep track, not that we go to the doctors very often.

I love this, I have multiple copies already printed out so whenever we're getting ready for a trip I grab out the premade list and get to work gathering everything we'll need.  I started with this list here and then modified it to fit our family.  It saves so much time in that I don't have to make a packing list each time we're going on vacation.

This is similar to the list above but made for our camping trips.  I compiled this list the last time we went camping, which also includes meal ideas that work well for tent camping.

This last section is for Projects and things concerning my Blog.

 I made this list for when I have ideas for blog posts I can write them down and make sure I share them on the blog.

At this moment in our life our Project List could fill up a whole book just with our house but there are always projects I want to do (especially thanks to Pinterest) so I can write them on this list so I don't forget what I want to do and I can prioritize that projects.  You can find this printout here.

The last page I have in my binder are more specific information for each project.  This is a great resource to write out specific instructions and items you'll need for each project.  You can find this printout here.

So there you have it, that's what you can find in our Home Management Binder.  I always keep a few extra sheet protectors in the back in case things change with our binder.  Every paper is in a sheet protector to keep it nice and easy to use.  Like I said, as we begin to slowly implement everything we'll see what works and what doesn't, but you have to start somewhere.

This project can take some time to assemble but is well worth your time and effort in the end to help you keep and manage your home.  There are lots of other resources and ideas out there Home Management Binders, I would highly encourage you to check them out!