Managing a Household

Today I am going to share with you a simple upgrade I've made to the way I manage things around here.  It is based on Tsh's recommendations for how to keep yourself and your home organized.  It's a simple tool that keeps all your stuff together, and goodness knows I need as much help as I can get.  It's a Mommy Notebook!

Mommy Notebook, made even awesomer by its proximity to my dinner.

This is more than just a schedule-keeper, peeps.  It provides a place to keep all of the thousands of pieces of paper and information that come blowing into my house every day. Mine's not that attractive, and you could use your creative skills to make yours beautiful...but for now, mine is just a plain 3-ring binder with manila dividers (very important note: use dividers with pockets so you don't have to 3-hole punch everything).

I made little labels with my new BFF, my Silhouette.  I used the categories of Daily Dockets, (I like Tsh's Pocket Docket--you can find it here), Projects (as in, what paint colors am I obsessed with) Budgets, Cleaning Checklists, and Sundries (I just like the word Sundries so much better than Miscellaneous).

Needless to say, you can use whatever categories you need.  The Daily Dockets are like lists of To-Do's combined with a calendar.  I use mine in conjunction with a small day-planner that is tucked into the divider.  In the Budgets folder I keep envelopes for receipts so I have a convenient place to put those when I come in from the store.

After several weeks of using this system, I have the following observations to make:

1. It is waaay easier, cleaner, and (yes) simpler to have everything in one place.
2. I do better when I write down lists that are specific to each day.  If I've already decided something needs to get done today, I'll work on it more.  And, stupidly, I often forget which things are priorities unless I write them down.
3. When I track how many glasses of water I've had, I drink more of it.
4. I don't clean nearly enough, even with a checklist to go by.
5. Finally, I never thought managing a home would be as hard as it is.  I mean, I was a lawyer, for Pete's sake...how hard can it be to stay at home? (Sidenote: ego, anyone?  Changing everything about your life sure can be humbling).  Anyway, I worked hard before all this Mommy-stuff.  But for whatever reason, the tools I used to keep organized at work didn't all transfer to my home.  So I'm glad to have some guidance, some inspiration, and some gut-checks about what works and what doesn't.  Hope this peek into my simplified system helps you, too.

P.S. Lovin' the Linky's at:

House of Grace