Thursday, March 17, 2011

What I love about my home organization notebook

I'm a little afraid to show you my housebook because I've tried other systems before to keep myself domestically organized and they've turned out to be dismal failures. But this one has been in place for about two months now and I'm still excited about it; so I'm going to take the risk.

Things I love about my household binder:

1. I get to cross off a to- do list that includes very small, mundane tasks. I even get the satisfaction of filling in a box for drinking each glass of water and another for wiping down the counters.

2. My daily, weekly, bi-weekly, and monthly to do lists only need to be printed off once. I've stuck them in pocket protectors and use a dry erase marker to fill in the boxes. Each day I wipe off the old marks and start fresh. For the every- other- day and every- other- week tasks, I place a small dot to the left of the box if I did them previously; so I know that they don't need to be done on that day/ week.
3. I can easily add to my to do lists. There is a place on each list where I can use my dry erase pen to write additional one-time tasks. If I don't get to those tasks that day, I just don't erase them when I start out fresh for the next day.

3. It uses the "Papyrus" font throughout and makes me happy every time I look at it. (my favorite font :-)

4. My binder has lots of pockets (in the binder itself and also in the form of pocket protectors) I use these to store all of the random bits of paper that would otherwise accumulate on my counters (That weeks grocery ads, recipes, important letters, etc). It's so great to have everything in one place!
5. I keep an abundance of looseleaf notebook paper in the binder. When an idea/ question pops into my mind I scratch it on one of the sheets and then later file that sheet under the appropriate tab.

6. The system is completely adaptable. If I find that my daily to do list makes unreasonable demands on me or doesn't include something important, I just go to the computer file that has the list, make my edits and slip my new piece of paper into the pocket protector.

I should note that I often don't complete every item on my list, and some days I'm in such a whirlwind of busyness that I completely ignore the lists. But even when I don't physically check off the items there is still something satisfying to me in completing tasks that I know would ALLOW me to check an item off a list if I bothered to do it. I feel a little silly when I realize how vulnerable I am to these little manipulative tricks, but they really have helped keep me on track.

What household organizing tools have you found helpful? Building new good habits is so worthwhile but often so difficult. I need all the help I can get!

7 comments:

Sandi said...

That's a great system!

Christy said...

I'm doing the exact same thing, with dry erase pens! Mine is clipped to the fridge right now, but I'd been thinking about going to a notebook so that I can include my meal-planning stuff, which currently litters the counter. I check off glasses of water, too -- and tummy time for Owen.

Deanna said...

Do you use a timer? I live by mine! Even the 3 yr old knows how to reset it and that it mean "change" - come inside or stop cleaning her room or something.

LaVonne said...

A very organized system :) Thanks for sharing it.

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Molly said...

looks great! ..could we peek at your lists? I always love to see what other's include in their routines. I wasn't raised doing chores so I'm fumbling through this!

Having Fun at Home said...

Tanuvasa, please feel free to send me an email and I'll reply with the lists. My email is kmagill1212 at gmail dot com.

Christy said...

I'm doing the exact same thing, with dry erase pens! Mine is clipped to the fridge right now, but I'd been thinking about going to a notebook so that I can include my meal-planning stuff, which currently litters the counter. I check off glasses of water, too -- and tummy time for Owen.