Home Management Notebook Makeover

As noted before, one of my resolutions was to dust off my household management notebook, refresh it and utilize it. On New Years Eve I did in fact pull it out and began the process of refreshing it, reorganizing it. It has served me well over the last several weeks, just as it had over the last several years, but it didn't seem personal enough. It was getting the job done but the organizational aspect needed tweaked in order to be more functional and it wasn't particularly pretty. It was a simple 1 inch binder and the cover was a printout from www.organizedhome.com. Again, functional but not pretty.
I wanted something pretty, more inspirational. Looking in my craft supplies I found a paper crafting kit by Cosmo Cricket that I had purchased years ago and I purposed to use it to makeover my notebook. This is how it looks now. Isn't it pretty?

Here's a look at the inside. On the left is my daily schedule utilizing a form from www.avirtuouswoman.org. It also has a small tag with my personal information. On the right are notecards, one for each day of the week.

Then there are seven tabbed categories - weekly, monthly, meal planning, annual/seasonal, lifestyle of learning, business, and routines.

The notecards have daily information - appointments to keep, calls to make, things to do, the days menus and chores. Just behind these is the weekly category with next weeks set of notecards and a master to-do list.

Then comes the monthly section with month-at-a-glance calendar pages printed from www.avirtuouswoman.org and special days highlighted. After this would be the meal planning section where I have a list of our favorite dishes, meal-related ideas for upcoming special events and the weeks menus.

The next section is the seasonal/annual section. Tasks or events that are annual, bi-annual, or quarterly are noted on a yearly calendar. For example, it reminds me that property taxes are due in December, that files are purged and reorganized in February, and toys are purged in June and December.

Behind the yearly calendar are sheets of simple notebook paper where I jot down ideas relevant to each month. I brainstorm - what does each month bring to mind? January: Bishop's birthday, epiphany, stars, snow, black-eyed peas, a new year, Unschool Art Exhibit and decorate front porch for Valentines. As I run across seasonal information that is new to me I jot that down as well. January: national drinking straw day and squirrel appreciation day. Civic holidays, liturgical events, and seasonal food, craft activities, household and garden tasks are all noted here. These help me plan menus, events and educational opportunities.

The pursuant categories are lifestyle of learning where I jot down broad annual and monthly educational goals and ideas, business where I keep important phone numbers and spending records, and routines where I keep track of chores and tasks related to maintaining the home and property. This notebook is a gift to myself - the gift of organization wrapped in a beautiful package!