Household Notebook

The household challenge is complete!

We finally have a little organizational center--a household notebook! And, I'm really excited about it!!

So here's the breakdown of our family's "little black book"...

An emergency information form immediately on the inside with 5 divided sections:

 TO-DO:
- Daily to-dos from Simple Mom. I think the form is perfect--a section for the most important tasks of the day, a section for work, for notes, for health--it's great! I laminated it, so it's perfect for wiping off & reusing. Also, I printed on both sides so I can have two days before erasing.

 - Cute monthly tasks pages from Tidy Mom & a blank project to-do list I made to keep a running list of household projects we'd like/need to get taken care of.

Cooking:

We've done a lot more recently with trying to menu plan, cut our grocery spending, do more eating from home, and doing more freezer cooking. In this section, we have a:

- pantry staples list from $5 dinners which I'll use to keep track of what we have

- freezer storage sheet from Life Your Way to help keep track of freezer meals/items

- grocery list from Simple Mom

-  monthly meal planning grids from Life as Mom I'm nowhere near being able to plan the whole month, but I figure if I even just keep track a week at a time for now, the full planners should end up being a good resource in the future.

Cleaning:

Ah, cleaning. This is not my strong suit. We don't have a set routine; no set cleaning tasks on certain days; no set rotation (*note: this doesn't mean that we don't ever clean--it's just we have no organized method in doing so :) ). So, to that end, I found some people who have shared their set ways and rotations. 

I printed a full year cleaning calendar and Money Saving Mom's Cleaning List. We'll use those as a starting point. Then, we also have blank ones, so that we can fill-in and determine what works for us.

Birthdays & Holidays:

- Birthday/special date organizer from Life Your Way 

- a Gift List that I made to keep track of presents that purchased throughout the year for various occasions. Details include "for", "what", "$$", "occasion" and "location". This way we can keep track of what we've purchased, how much was spent, what it's for, and where it is in the house! :)

- a Gift/Wish List that I made to jot down when something comes to mind/we see something at the store. 

- a few Birthday Party planners from Everything Mom, which could be used for any party/get together you're hosting!

- a Christmas Decor Inventory (eventually, I think it might be good to have this for all the holidays we decorate for).

Contacts & Accounts:

- A chart to keep track of all of our accounts/bills including due dates

- Phone Directory 

- a business card page to keep cards from companies we like

So, there you have it--our household notebook! I'm sure it will be an ever-changing "document" as we figure out how to make it work best for us. But, I sure am happy with this start!

What about YOU? 

- Did you complete the challenge? Or have you already been keeping a household notebook? 

- Anything major you think I'm missing?

I'd love to hear your thoughts!


*See lots of completed binders/link yours up at Life as Mom.