I want to be an organized person and maintain and organized home, but my intentions are better than my follow-through. I try to always put things away, but there is always something I would rather be doing and I frequently give in to those impulses. Every now and then I get on a cleaning and organization kick (contributing to Ethan’s “thing-of-the-month” theory), and my apartment looks great. However, inevitably we hit a busy time in our schedule or I get sick and it all come crashing to a halt. Then, the thought of getting everything cleaned and running properly again is too overwhelming and I give in to the chaos. Clothes pile up on the floor. Dust accumulates on the bookshelves. Spoiled food hides in the corner of the refrigerator.
Since I currently have a lot of time on my hands, I have been putting quite a bit time and energy into a creating more sustainable home management systems. Eventually I will return to full-time employment and would like my apartment to stay as clean and organized as it has been this past month when I have been home. Coincidentally, I stumbled onto a blog called The Complete Guide to Imperfect Homemaking and the found lots of great ideas for staying organized. The blog author created a home management binder to keep track of her to-do’s, menu planning, entertaining, take-out menus, blog post ideas and lessons for her kids. I loved this idea and decided to make a home management binder of my own.
Home Management Binder
The inspiration binder from Imperfect Homemaking was a fancy and fabric covered. I did not want to spend money on a binder since I have about 10 in my closet. I chose to use a plain white binder with a clear pocket on the front to hold the cover sheet I made on my computer.
Section 1: Menu Planning
I try to stick to a weekly grocery budget and planning a menu and making a grocery list helps me reign in food expenses. However, I usually make my menu on one paper and my grocery list on another and sometimes necessary items get forgotten. I created this form, adapted from Imperfect Homemaking’s menu planning form, so that all grocery planning is kept in one place. Keeping it in the binder allows me to see what I made in previous weeks, avoiding too many repeats and remembering great meals I want to make again. I also like that the grocery list is organized by store layout so that I can get through the store more efficiently.
Section 2: To Do List
This is another great idea I took from Imperfect Homemaking. As I think of things I need to do, I add them to a post it, kept in the front inside pocket of the binder, and stick them in the unsorted section. On the right side, I created categories that my to-dos fit into. I only have two items “on deck” in each category. When I finish a task, I throw away the post-it and select a new one from the unsorted section. This keeps my to-do list from feeling too overwhelming. At any time, I am only focusing on the “on deck” items.
Section 3:
This section was my own personal addition. Now that we live in a mansion (by former beach-dweller standards), we have more space to keep clean. I reviewed several home cleaning schedules I found online and created one that was appropriate for our needs. It was important to me that the entire schedule fit on one paper so that I could see everything at a glance. I printed and laminated it so that we could write on it with a whiteboard marker, allowing Ethan and I to split up chores and mark off completed tasks. So far, this seems to be working. I pick one or two things to do each day and by the end of the week, it is all done.
Section 4: Raz
First, sorry for the terrible picture quality. I also added a section to my binder to keep track of Raz-related documents. Right now, we are three weeks into puppy school and have weekly homework. I started keeping our homework sheets in the binder so we can quickly look up what we need to practice with her. In case you are wondering, she excels at sitting and extended sitting, but has trouble with coming to us when she is distracted.
"Thing" of the Month 