Home Management Binder!

Happy Wednesday Everyone! As promised I am here to deliver my Monday, Wednesday, Friday posts. I have been working on a lot of blog stuff today and almost forgot to post. That would have been embarrassing. But I am here with a home management binder walk through. This is what I use to keep our house organized, it includes our budget, media inventory, cleaning schedule etc. Its a great tool to have and I can't wait to get to filling out the pages.  Lets Dive In!!!

The system I am using for the binder is the ARC system by Staples. I got the clear organizer for this project and I love it because I could choose or design my own over. 

As you see above the cover is clear and its pretty sturdy. I also invested in the Arc punch because it allows me to really use this system to its fullest. I can tear out the pages as I go, fill them out, then put them back in. I also add our bank statements from the previous month for budgeting purposes. Its like a filo fax, only 8 x 11 size and much more accessible for me.

This is my cover page, I got it from the etsy shop iheartorganizing. These printables are by Jen and she has great home binder printables as well as planners you can print off at home. Go check it out.

So behind the cover page, which I put in a sheet protector that I just used my arc punch to punch, I have this pocket folder. These are from staples here in packs of two, and are really handy to store my pay stubs for the year, receipts, pens, etc. They come pre-punched as well.

Behind the pocket folder I have a zipped folder, this holds stamps, stickers, anything like that sort of thing that I want to keep safe. I also got them pre-punched at staples here. They also come in packs of two. 

The next page is this special dates calendar, Jen has one in her shop that was mentioned above that I have in another calendar but this one I got from another etsy shop. They all serve the same purpose so it doesn't really matter which one you have. I just liked these colors. Zack wrote in our birthdays already, it was kind of cute, that was the first thing he did with the notebook when I showed it to him.

Next is the most used section! The budget. I printed off these pages for the rest of 2014, I put this binder together in August so I had 5 months in here. Page 1 has categories for rent, utilities, savings, income, food, clothing. Page two has these categories you see above, and page three has columns for Personal items, medications, free budget, eye glasses, cosmetics, toiletries, printer ink/paper etc. The vertical columns are for budget, actual, difference and comments. I love this system. I am just someone who writes things down and this really works for me, as I mentioned before I print off our bank statements from the previous months, highlight items in the certain columns and use that to put in our actual column. It really helps me to see where my money is going. Last month I was shocked to find out I spent around $500.00 on items that are completely unnecessary, this month I have a plan to really save that money and get back on track. These printables help me with that.

I made these myself but I know Jen has a very similar layout in her Etsy shop. If you would like mine specifically I can make those available as well. Let me know in the comments.

Page 3 of the budget worksheets.

Now behind those budget sheets I have the password tracker, there are a lot of websites that I go to and this helps me keep track of all the passwords. I pay the majority of my bills online so this is handy to keep in the budget section.

The next section is the media inventory section. I use this to keep track of our DVD's (I'm a movie collector), books, video games, etc. Anything media related goes here, we have a lot of STUFF :)

Behind the full inventory list is a checkout system. That way I can keep track if I let my family borrow books or movies for different things and I can bug them if I don't get it back.

The next tab houses this cleaning checklist. I like that I can write what needs to be done in these time frames, then I refer to it to make sure that the cleaning has been accomplished in our house. Even though we live in an apartment right now its still important to clean it.

 The next section houses this important info printable. Again from Jen's shop, all of the above mentioned printables can be found there as well. This one has information for doctors numbers, banking information, etc. Its handy to have it all written down for future use.

The next section is this gift giving plan, and then a party planning printable. I don't host many parties but I do like to use this guide to plan out gifts, especially during this time of year.

The next tab is cooking information, its a master list of our favorite recipes and another list for recipes to try. I was keeping this information in the back of my planner but it grew to be a really long list so it was better used here. The nice thing about these printables is that I can print them out as I need them, right now I have three in there, in the future I can get more and add it in as I go.

Last section is for the Master To DO lists. I always have a running to do list of things I basically need to do everyday, this helps me so I don't have to write those out every single day.  Instead I can get this laminated and use a white board marker.

Oops I forgot one section is for car maintennce. I use this tracker to help be on top of when our cars get updates and when its time to change something in the future. I printed two off one for my car and one for Zack's

And the end, I have more of those zip pockes and a folder pocket in the back and some pages for blog organization.

I love this system. It really helps to keep me organized. I use it everyday and I would be lost without it. Thanks so much for reading and let me know in the comments if you have any questions or want to see more details of something.
XO
Caitlin