Organization, cont.

A while ago I posted about a household organizer. I won't admit how I'm not really working on that. I mean, what?

I threw this together the other day using materials already on hand. Scrapbook paper, file folders, a piece of cardboard to stick it all to and well, that's it. I want to get some magnet sheets to put it on the fridge. The Husband thinks it's silly. Pssh. It didn't come out as well as I imagined, there's some bubbling from the modge podge - but it works for now anyway. We have a growing pile of papers on our kitchen island that need to be tamed.

I just modge podged the inside and outside of a couple of file folders, made some labels and stapled it all together. Which, I should have stapled it and THEN put the outside paper on, but I was sick. So I didn't think of that till after. I'm totally blaming that all on my cloudy head. I'm going to go ahead and blame the not smoothed out parts on the sick too.


I took the inspiration first from Tumblr, but them later saw it over on Bright and Blithe which is where it looks like it originated.

 

 

Pantry Inventory and (ahem) cleanup

This is embarrassing, it really is. I go on and on about homemaking just days ago, and now I'm going to show you this.

:sigh:

So, I started on our household organizer this weekend. I did make up a quick budget (which is, yes, what inspired the binder idea to begin with) but since that's not the fun part, I spent most of Saturday making up an inventory of our food storage. I divided it into Spices (I have a lot) pantry and freezer.

I tried to take a screenshot to show you, but I can't quite figure it out. So no pictures, booooo.

For spices I inventoried them by name (brilliant!) date purchased, a column for checking if I need more and where it's located (I keep about a dozenish or more in my kitchen cabinet and the rest in a basket in the pantry.

Pantry I have the name of the item, the measurement, a dozen boxes to check off for amount on hand, a column for additionals, a column for partials and a column for notes. Hopefully this will stop me from having seven jars of mayonnaise and no tomatoes when I thought I had 4 cans. I think it will also come in handy next year during canning. The problem is going to be remembering to add in and check off when I use or replace something.

The freezer is set up almost exactly the same as the pantry.

But the pantry. Oh, that pantry. When we first moved in we made a couple of changes to it, nothing drastic, some extra shelves and some paint. I still haven't gotten around to painting the walls white, though I will.

And since then I've kept it pretty neat and in order. Until the holidays. I was off for two weeks, but organizing the pantry wasn't near the top of my list of things to do. And as a result things just got piled and shoved in there for about a month. Until it looked like this . . .

It's so bad


It really is


Oh gross


Ready??

It was really awful. I could barely fit in there, I had a stack of empty egg cartons I kept forgetting to take to the lady at the market, bags full of recycables (we really need a better system and a drastic reduction, but that's another post). It was just shameful.

So, when I went to inventory it yesterday, I had to clean it out.

And now it's so, so, so much better.

Yay! I can walk in there again! I'd still love to get one more low shelf against the left wall, and I have a couple of plates I'm going to hang on the right wall (and I still want to paint over the tobacco colored paint) but I'm feeling much, much better about it. And now I actually know where things are and what I have. Hooray!

This week for the household binder (which, like I said is going to actually be two binders) I hope to refine our budget, finish the freezer inventory, make copies of insurance documents and birth certificates, and create a sheet of who our wood and fuel vendors are, electric, cable etc . . . and bill pay information.


I've been pretty cranky this weekend. Organizing makes me cranky, but getting things accomplished feels so nice. I've got ribs roasting in the oven, homemade barbecue sauce simmering on the stove, tea in my hand and a nice clean organized pantry. Ah, it feels good :)

Household Organizer

As I mentioned in yesterdays post, I want to put together a binder (or two) as a household/bill/emergency organizer. I've been collecting ideas and thought I'd share in case it's something other people were interested in doing too.

I figure what makes the most sense is to use (surprise!) a binder, tab dividers and page protectors. I happen to already have all this at home, so bonus points for not "needing" to buy any of the supplies.

Once upon a time I followed flylady and had a cleaning binder then, and one of the things was to use dry erase markers on the page protectors on certain sheets, so you could change or check off info without needing to print the sheet new each week or month. I like that idea and will probably incorporate it with some of the task lists.

Know what's scary? The more I read on organizers, the more detailed I want mine to get! This happens to me a lot. And then the project never gets done. So I'm going to start pretty bare bones and basic, and can create more binders or add on over time. I'll start with a more general list and move it around and narrow it down over the next few days.

So far the ideas I have are:

Phone list. Just for basics and emergency. No need for take out numbers or kids friends. Not yet and maybe not in this binder at all. Right now we'll do The Husbands cell, my work, grandparents home and work, police, poison control, kids school, maybe 2 family friends as emergency contacts.

 "Events Calender" We keep a wall calender, but maybe a year calender of maybe not noted things. Not appointments etc . . . but school vacations, standing information like birthdays or other events that aren't as subject to change. Maybe I could put on here basic house maintenance schedules, seasonal chores, etc . . . too. I don't know, this one needs some refining.

Money and Finance  I'm still deciding if this should be it's own binder. Things like: budget (the one that inspired it all!), bills, online bill pay and sign in information, insurance info, copies of vehicle information

Another category I found in my searches (that I never would have thought of) is


Health and Fitness: family medical information, medical authorization form, medical insurance info etc. . . .




There are so, so many resources (as I'm finding) for creating a home-keeping binder.

Some resources I've found:



*Mom Advice: Printables
*Organized home has a section of printables for your viewing and printing pleasure as well (and more)
*Chore Charts, Daily Schedules, etc . . . here




The more I think about it, the more I'm leaning towards doing a "facts" one (bills, maintenance etc . . .) the things don't change as much and can be put on the bookshelf or in the filing cabinet and doesn't need to be referred to on a regular basis and doing more of a family binder that includes school activities, chore lists, frequently used phone numbers etc . . .

I see that many people include meal planning in their home books, and well, meal planning is really a whole project in itself for me and I kind of already have a messy little system. I don't mind refining it and I'll add the basics  to the binder (like a weekly meal sheet and pantry and freezer inventory and *maybe* often used recipes) but for the most part, meal planning and recipes need to stay separate for me.

I don't know where the binder system will take me. I do know that one giant family binder won't work. I've seen some sites where people have several binders:Home, Garden, Family, Holidays, Ideas etc . . . I don't really want to get binder happy either. For this week I'll start with one (which is where it all started) and that's the budget and bill binder. And I'll go from there.

Does anyone else use these, or have used them in the past? How does it (or did it) work for you? Any suggestions or tips?


And now, how about another years old picture I love, just because?