Command Central Binder

A few months ago, I decided I needed to get it together. 'It' being, my house. I looked up home organization and found a few blogs to help me get started. A common recommendation on these blogs was to begin with paper clutter. I didn't think we had a huge issue with that since I bought a folder system to separate our mail, but it was pretty....empty. I sorted through 3 separately located piles of mail and random papers we had accumulated and found a lot of expired coupons, invitations to events we forgot about, and junk mail we should have tossed.

Through Simplify101.com I learned about creating a home reference binder. The site calls it the "Command Central Binder" which I kind of liked. It's for the whole family to use. I put our daily, weekly, and monthly calendars in it, so if Neal (cuz he's the only other person who can read) ever needs any of that information, he can just look it up. I don't, but you can create an emergency family plan section, with doctors numbers and things like that. There is a lot less pressure on me to remember everything. We also use this as a place to keep important mail that comes in, coupons we need to use, etc. I've taken pictures of every little detail!

So here it is:

"Let there be order!" sang the robin. And a picture of me and my 3 little birds. (We had an old children's book which was half destroyed so I cut it out of what was left.)


You can get directions from simplify101.com by going here: http://www.simplify101.com/create-home-reference-binder.php

You have to give them your email address, and they will send you a pdf with all the details on how to organize your own binder. It's free!

I keep a collection of post-its and a pad of paper in the front of my binder. I use both pretty often for making grocery lists, and for writing down information when I'm on the phone.

This is my daily goals page. This was a free printable from iheartorganizing.blogspot.com

This is where I write down my daily check list, people I need to contact, and places I need to be.

A Peek at the Week is a little more general. I have this sheet in a page protector. I write directly on the plastic and it wipes clean with a little lysol. I could use a dry erase marker but I don't want things to get wiped off prematurely. I used to do this with my daily goals sheet, but found that the extra step of wiping it clean every day was discouraging me from using it at all. So now I print out 14 daily goal sheets at a time and use a new one every day.

Behind a Peek at the Week, I keep our monthly calendars.  I only print and keep a few in the binder at a time.

 

I don't use this as often lately, but this page is to write down and check off our home improvement projects. We have a ton, not all of them are written down yet, but checking this stuff off feels SO rewarding.  

This is a calendar of community events through the summer for families, and they are all free! I went through and marked the ones that would be interesting for our family then I put them down on the monthly calendar.

This is a page protector made for cards. It's so convenient! I had probably 20 cards in various pockets of my purse before I organized them. These are the important ones.

The next pages are mostly things we have received in the mail, and need. This binder is more for things we need to be able to reference or use soon after we aquire it, so we don't keep anything in here for more than three months usually.

Got a bill for a speeding in a photo enforced area...seems fishy. Looked it up and it's legit but totally unconstitutional. So we'll be contesting that...

A bumper sticker I need to put on my car...after I clean it. I should probably put, 'Clean Car' on my daily goals sheet.

My Visiting teaching list and supplies. (I have a letter route, so I send out 10 letters with a newsletter every month.)

A coupon for a free shutterfly book.

Our utility bill.

Invitations to Relief Society Activities.

The schedule of articles we will be studying in Relief Society for the next few months, from the ensign.

The Ensign! I love these things! You can put any magazine or small book in your binder, without having to go get it professionally drilled. Maybe some people don't mind that. All I know is, for the first time ever, I know where my conference issue of the Ensign is, at all times!

In the back pocket I keep stamps, envelopes, a thank you card, and a blank card.


I flip through the binder almost daily, so everything I keep in there is a reminder to use it, and if it doesn't get used, it gets tossed. As for my issue with making piles of paper...I don't have that problem anymore. If it's not important enough to go in the binder, it's not important enough to keep. So it gets tossed (recycled). A good tip I got from these organizing blogs was, when you sit down to open your mail, do it with a trash can right beside you. If you don't need something, get rid of it immediately! All other paper, like the titles to our cars and our house, birth certificates, passports... they are all stored in a portable file bag.

This is my collection of permanent Sharpie markers. Making lists is more fun when I do it rainbow style.



Here is a link to all of the free printables from iheartorganizing: http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/p/free-printables.html

You can also buy a fairly inexpensive package from her on etsy with monthly calendars and some other things. Since I'm kind of poor right now, I just use whatever free stuff I can find. But MAN, would I like some cute calendars!