The Home Management Binder
Or as I like to call it, the "Get-your-sh*t-together woman!" Binder. As a mom of a pretty much 2 year old boy (his birthday is this Sunday) and another baby boy due this October, I find it difficult at times to keep track of all the things I need to do around the home between diaper changes, lesson learning, snack eating/throwing, and baths.On top of keeping a child alive and occupied my mind is constantly filled with worries about what my son is getting into and trying to put my feet up for 5 minutes here and there to prevent vericose veins from taking over my entire body! I decided to reach out to the world wide web for help.
How can I organize my home, time and life, so that I can remember all the thngs I need to do during the day and week. How can I prevent bills from being forgotten about and chores from piling up into endless jobs?
Then I came across a wonderful site called DIY Home Sweet Home. The authour has some pretty impressive and useful printables ranging from menu planners to monthly and weekly calanders, pantry and freezer inventories and many, many more.
I printed off the ones I needed in colour, and photocoppied any that I needed on a daily/weekly basis. for example, My weekly cleaning schedule I only need one copy of so I filled in the colour version. The Monthly calander I need a new one every month. So for that one I printed 12 black and white copies and used the colour one as a cover sheet for that section. That way I still have the pretty colour copy to keep in the binder and I can photocopy it when I run out.
I put each colour copy in one of those plastic sleeves, which you can purchase at the dollarama 10 for $1.25. I also purchased a simple slim binde at the same dollaramar that has a clear pocket on the cover to add a pretty covor sheet, also available in the printables.
I'm also not much of a cook. It's not a strong suit of mine, not something I get much pleasure out of. So I prefer to keep things as simple as possible without turning to too many processed foods. So I am starting to put together this simple recipe book of meals that take under an hour to complete or meals I can quickly make in the crockpot. Whenever I find a good, easy and quick meal on pinterest or on facebook, I jot it down in this little cue=card book, which I have divided into 4 alphabetical groups.
To make things even easier, I double the batch of food I make , so that I have enough to feed my family twice. That way I can vaccuum seal and freeze the second portion and have a meal for another time that I don't need to cook at all. All I need to do is open, and reheat. This is also a great prep for when the new baby arrives.
So how are my home management skills coming along? Let's say it's a work in progress, but it's a good start for now.
