Posted in Cottage Homemaking 101

Leah asked about my binder so I thought I would post and tell a little about my plans for it here. I like the half-size binders because they are compact so I purchased a premade one from Walmart. It is a cherry red color and already had the monthly and weekly forms as well a telephone directory. These I will use most from this planner.

Let's move on. I have looked all over the web for the type of forms that I need. So far my favorites have come from Donna Young's website. I am in love with the Excel  monthly sheet and downloaded it to use for my homeschool planner. I also printed out her version of a weekly menu and grocery shopping list. I may eventually make my own but for now I am very grateful for hers.

I have looked at several homemaking binders on the web. I love them all. My needs for a binder are a little different. Instead of lots of different sections I need mine simplier. I get distracted easily and if I have to flip back and forth between sections I WILL GET DISTRACTED. 

I want everything that I need to deal with in one place. I will be putting everything that I need for the month all together. For example the July section will have a monthly calendar, weekly pages ( for the to-do lists), 5 weekly routine and cleaning checklists (so I can SEE what I need to do), my zones list ( which already has the detailed cleaning list on it), 5 weekly menu planners with grocery lists on the side, homeschool monthly planner for each child, and my monthly budget sheets all together. All the other months will have the same information included.

I think I will have these catagories separate with their own tabs since I will not need each one every month:

Medical

Recipes

Birthdates

Internet

Phone numbers and addresses

Journaling

Correspondence

Children's chore lists

Christmas

Prayer journal ? I may keep this with my Bible study stuff instead.

Well these are my thoughts. I will post more about it when it is completed. Right now I am trying to learn how to work with Word and Excel so I can make my own forms. I have the budget, medical and journaling forms completed so far.

Ginger

Homemaking Binder Websites:

Life With Christ

With the Fruit of her Hands

The Sparrow's Nest

Mrs. Catherine

Home Keeping Heart

Home Works Best (several Links on her page to see the whole thing)

Keeping the Home