Happy New Year! January is National Get Organized month. Along with losing weight or learning something new, getting organized or becoming more productive are popular New Year’s resolutions. Creating and using a home management binder (HMB) should be at the top of your list of tasks to complete to gain control of your home and its activities. HMBs keep what you need to run your home usually is a three ring binder. I have one and believe all homes should. There are many benefits to having one but here are my top three reasons:
- The ability to put your hands on just what you need when you need it creates an amazing sense of calm, peace and confidence.
- Creating and using a HMB is a tangible version of your family’s goals. Creating one makes you slow down and think about each member of your family and how all your lives fit together.
- Anyone in the family (within reason) can use it to find the information they need. Yeah, independence!
I just updated mine. I also googled HMB to see what was out there. No exaggeration there are hundreds of sites out there to tell you how to make one and what to put in it. Here is a list of what most of those websites tell you to put in your HMB:
- Calendar
- To Do List/Chore lists
- Monthly Budget/Pay schedule
- Contact lists
- Website passwords
- List of Birthdays/Important Dates
- Babysitter Notes
- Auto maintenance
- Weekly meal planner
- Grocery list
- Take out Menus
- School schedules
- Book/movie lists
- Freezer Inventory
- Bank Account Information
- Medical Expenses/Doctor visits
That is a massive amount of information. These binders can be lifesavers especially if you have a nanny of someone else in your home often. The point of these binder is that they make your family’s life easier. So for me, I wouldn’t suggest putting some of this information in a binder.
Every productivity expert including me will tell you that wherever you keep your calendar/schedule should be portable. A HMB is not portable. Most people use their smart phones to hold their calendars these days. There are many family calendar apps. Cozi, iCal and Google are some of the most popular. I use Google. With one click on the icon, I can see my calendar, my shared calendars with my husband, each of my three kids and the family calendar all nicely color coded. I can put information or appointments on any one of their phone or all of them if needed. Best of all, they can add information too so that I can see it. As soon as they know I need to be somewhere at a particular time (aka I need a ride from mom), they put it into their phone under our shared calendar. Please know my kids are all teenagers, I am not suggesting that you get your 8-year-old a phone.
With all that said, I do have a schedule section of my HMB. Under that section you will find my kids’ class schedules, along with their teachers’ information, their locker numbers and combinations for when they forget after a long school break.
Website passwords, please be careful what you put in this section. I would suggest getting an app-some popular ones are LastPass, Dashline and 1Password. Research to find one that works with your phone and you like the interface. Again I do have this section, in it you will find passwords to accounts for my kids like Tumblr or Steam but you will not find my bank account or other financial institutions, my insurance company, or any other company I do business with.
I do have a monthly budget and a place for the few bills I get like from doctor’s offices. But again, I would not list every financial institution with account number and passwords like I have seen on numerous free printables on website telling you how to make a HMB.
Here are the sections I do have:
- School schedules
- Bills to pay with a month budget
- Computer Info (kids’ passwords)
- Auto Maintenance Tracking sheet
- Workout Routines (which my husband and I rotate)
- Books (Currently I have two copies of a reading challenge from a friend, one for me and one for my husband)
- Take out Menus
- House (in here is HomeSmart account info, sprinkler system info I never remember, HOA regulation about paint color)
Here is the important information to take away – knowing where to find information when you need it puts you in control and creates peace. Creating a home management binder that works for your family will take a few hours but will that much or more during the rest of the year.