Day 3
I promise, I am wrapping up the household notebook series today.
I found two really great birthday party planners that were perfect for my over-thinking mind. One is a little more detailed than the other.
So now we are getting to my absolute favorite part of this little enormous binder... I have created a holiday tab. Under this tab I have put all of the holidays for the year. To simplify things when I got started I just did the last three holidays of this year. As time goes on I will add the rest.
So as you can imagine, for Halloween I have costume ideas, a halloween party planner, and decorating ideas that I love so much even Pinterest isn't working to hold that idea.
And just to make your husbands roll their eyes proud, there is a printable for BLACK FRIDAY shopping! You read it correctly- you can actually write down a game plan for which stores you are going to and even the specific items on sale that caught your eye! I am still young enough in my family that I don't really get a say in what dishes we have at Thanksgiving, so that's the only printable I felt like I needed but you can see on that same page there are several other handy Thanksgiving lists!
I am loving the Christmas section in my binder because each time I have gotten a catalog in the mail, I have circled things that I could give to people and initialed who it would be for and then just slipped that catalog into a clear sleeve so I have it to reference. In my mind even if that exact item is not available, I'll be able to use that as an idea source for when my brain was thinking clearly about what certain people would like.
I can also write down sizes and preferences and even gift ideas on this printable. I have a page to list thank you cards that I need to send and a gift spending worksheet. When I finish a shopping trip, I can keep track of the gifts I've gotten, where it's from and the price. Okay- this is a huge deal for me- a page to list Christmas order tracking! I tend to do a lot of online shopping and I always lose track of tracking information! I am planning to get my bake on this Christmas and it'll be easy with a baking planner and then I can just copy these adorable gift tags onto card stock to send with my baked good! When I'm putting away our decorations, I will fill out this inventory of my Christmas decor and who knows- maybe get some discount Christmas decorations at the first of the year!
I had a section for our finances, but since we are working with Dave Ramsey right now, I took it out and I might just keep our finances separate.
My family lives 6 hours away and we travel to see them about every 2-3 months. I thought it would be handy to keep a packing list in my binder for those longer trips! It's an awesome, detailed packing list that will probably make Derek jump for joy because of all the things I'm going to remember to bring! Ha- or it will drive him crazy because I'm over thinking our trips and adding like 10 bags! :)
Past this, I keep anything that goes with extra things I am involved with. I am about to start co-teaching a girls class at church on Sunday nights, so I've got information with that here.
I am also a room mom for Anna-Kate, so I put her class roster and any important information in the back of my binder for easy reference. I had planned on putting ideas for her parties in my binder... but then I discovered pinterest and I really don't have too much of a need for that yet. I keep a couple of weeks worth of her school work she brings home in the back, so I can file that in her preschool notebook. It forces me to go on and weed-out the things that I won't be keeping and then I can write down any special detail that goes with it while I'm thinking about it. I know it's a hassle to put this here and then move it to a different binder, but I keep the household binder with me always so it makes it easier for me to put things here first that I want to save.
I have a separate binder for teaching my little 2-year olds, so I don't use this binder for that. I also do the same thing "pre-filing" Thomas' things in that binder and then moving them when I get a chance to his day school/ 2yr binder.
I know that this is way in depth, but I kept finding posts about people's notebooks but I had trouble getting details on what they actually put in theirs. I also spent too much time trying to pick which template to use.
Also, this is a "living" binder. It's going to update and rotate through as time goes on. I am sure that I will be using it differently from time to time and I may not even need to have as much information in here. I created this out of a necessity I had now to get us organized and into a great routine.
If you made it through these first 3 days, thank you! I hope you stick around to see more of my fall cleaning!
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