Household Notebook: Use It To Organize Your Home Life

A household notebook, also known as a home management binder or a homemaking notebook, is like a master planner for your home's needs and family's lives.

One purpose of your notebook or binder is to get all that information you are trying to remember, like your daughter's soccer schedule and the last time you flipped the mattresses, out of your head, and onto paper, where you can more reliably review it when needed.

household-notebook
Photo © Istockphoto.com/tomazl

Each family's home management binder will be unique, just like each family is unique. However, there are some common parts of most organized family's homemaking notebook.

Schedules and Routines

Daily schedules, for both adults and children
Checklists for various tasks, such as morning and bedtime routines for children
Weekly schedules
Family calendar
To do list

Cleaning and Chores

Resources

Car and Home Maintenance

Car maintenance schedule
Vehicle inspection checklist
Vehicle maintenance log
Home maintenance checklist
Home storage inventory
Household inventory (and why you should create a household inventory)

Resource

Free home inventory software review and link

Food, Drink and Other Errands

Grocery list
Grocery price list
Coupon organizer
Meal planning
Recipe organizer
List of recipes to try
Pantry inventory
Freezer inventory
Shopping list for non-food items
Errands

Resource

Free printable grocery list

Family and Friends

Contact information and address book
Personal information page for each family member
Clothing sizes for each family member
Lists of books to read, DVDs to watch

School and Extracurricular Activities

Children's school papers
School schedules and calendars
Lunch menus
Carpool schedules
School information page
School reading lists
Summer programs information
Sports schedules
Scouting and PTA materials

Health and Safety

Emergency contact information
Medical information for family members
Emergency preparedness checklist
Home safety checklist
Fire safety checklist
First aid checklist
Prescription drug records
Health insurance information
Pet health records
Home security checklist

Finances

Household budget
Bills to pay
Checkbook register
Passwords for online accounts
List of credit cards, banks and accounts

Legal Information and Documents

Insurance information
Tax paperwork
Contents of safety deposit box
Warranty information
Vehicle records
Family records, such as birth certificates, marriage certificates, wills, etc.
Property ownership documents, such as deeds, leases, stock certificates, bonds, mortgages, etc.
Contracts

Holiday And Other Celebration Planning

Christmas gifts, budget, meals, and traditions
Thanksgiving meals and traditions
Planning for other parties and celebrations
Holiday gift list
Seasonal greeting card list
List of birthdays and anniversaries
Gift suggestion list

The contents of a homemaking notebook are really only limited by your imagination, and can include any collection of information which helps you organize and enjoy your family more.

Learning how to use each section of your household management notebook is key to effective household management.

The contents of the notebook or binder, listed above, such as cleaning schedules and meal planning, can incrementally improve various areas of your home life as they are learned, implemented, and maintained.

However, once you begin to add more and more sections to your household notebook, and therefore are implementing more of the basic skills of Household Management 101, you will notice all these little steps forward add up to have a transformational effect on your home and family life, the household management snowball.

Are you ready to create a household notebook?