My sanity binder

*****Disclaimer: I am very aware of how "dangerous" it can be to have all of your personal important information gathered in one place. However, I am also adamant on the use of a safe within the home, or even a safety deposit box within a bank. This safe must be one in which is too heavy for a thief to simply pick up and take out of your house, also it can even be bolted to the floor, cabinet, etc in order to insure it cannot be moved. This binder is always secured in our safe unless it is in my hands in use then it is promptly returned to the safe considering its contents. So please, if you do think of incorporating  this organizational system into your household, be sure to consider your level of responsibility with regards to putting it back into a secure environment where it will be kept away from insecure eyes. If you are not sure you will be able to secure the binder every time you use it, keep the important documents and information out of it and simply use it as a general information tool.

A few months ago my dear friend Karen showed me a website that has thoroughly inspired me daily on my quest to remain organized, and continue to build on my organization obsession to help my household run smoothly. Jen at I heart Organizing is a girl after my own heart. She is a mother and business owner. She relies on her organizational skills to help save money and keep as much dysfunction out of their everyday as possible. One of the initial posts I read was regarding her household binder. Within this binder she explained she kept important information that helped her household run smoothly. She has a few different ones such a home maintenance, bills, medical etc. I have been meaning to take this as the inspiration to make my own that works for my family.

First let me proclaim my reasoning for taking on this task::::

1) Within the craziness I call my household, I am very very type A personality and my husband in VERY type B.. and throw in a wild toddler who constantly has us on our toes, things get misplaced, forgotten and misconstrued. I needed something that was easy access and organized.

2) With a military family, we move ALOT... by alot I mean for us it has been every 1-2 years lately, with an entire new region every 4 years. So while i have kept accurate records in files in my computer desk drawer, I needed something a little easier to handle in the midst of a move.

3) Ever sifted through a filing cabinet, then found the file you wanted only to discover the paper you are looking for must have fallen through the file or gotten filed in the wrong order thus making it impossible to quickly grab what you need and go... Yea.. happened to us ALL THE TIME! Being type A I CANNOT STAND not being able to find something. It drives me nuts. I have always adopted the concept "A place for everything and everything in its place" thus keeping the mystery out of where that birth certificate went, or the bill from 3 months ago that I need to compare to the bill from this month etc... properly organized and store and put back where it belongs THE FIRST TIME allows dysfunction to morph into a functional system.

There were other little things within those reasons too but those were the most important. So after my friend Karen got on point and got her household binder completed and bragged about how much easier it was to keep things together, I knew that with the extra time I had on my hands after completing my psychology degree (yep whoopie.. go me) and with Jaxon in school and my husband here before heading to VA, there was no better time then to get my butt in gear and get mine made. I knew initially it would be time consuming, mainly because I am a perfectionist and I want it done like yesterday so I knew I would work until it was close to perfect as possible. So.... If you are like me.. allow yourself an entire Saturday or weekend to complete it.. if you are more laid back.. just take it a step at a time over time and let it build. I know mine will be forever changing and adapting but that is part of the fun!

1) First was planning it. I did some research into what other people had used in theirs. I adapted that to what works for my family right now. I began simply brainstorming about what information would be nice to have readily available at my finger tips vs having to constantly look things up. I began with these following Headers and then within those I knew I would create subtitles. This is what mine ended up being (let me also advise these are FOREVER changing and I have ALL templates on my computer organized within a household binder file so I can easily go back and reprint to change.. more on that in a minute)

 A) Home

             Home Maintenance Quick Reference Page

             Home Maintenance Charts (both weekly "chores" and monthly and then yearly, separated into seasons)

             Insurance information (for us it is renters for now)

             Cell phone information

              ***this will expand as we are soon to buy our first house.. continued is what I suspect I will include after buying our home***

             Electric Company info

             Water Company info

             Home Owner's association info

             Cable/satellite info

             Home Phone info

             Alarm Company info

             Yard maintenance info

             etc (the key is to personalize this to your personal needs within your home.. anything involving the actual home will go in this heading)

B) Finance

            Finance Quick Reference

            Monthly reoccurring expenses quick check sheet

            Monthly Budget Builder

           Checks deposited (our banking is solely electronic so once we scan/deposit a check, I keep the    checks stored here just in case any discrepancies arise)

            *** I plan on expanding this to keep up with our monthly expenses and spending once we move to our permanent home as well *****

C) Automotive

             Cars quick reference

             Car 1 (camry) info

                          maintenance log

                         any maintenance paperwork

              Car 2 (Silverado) info

                          maintenance log

                          any maintenance paperwork

              Car insurance info

              Vehicle History (to include cars we have had in the past)

D)  Medical (this was very important to me to keep up with all of mine and Jaxon's medical visits within the past few years)

              Medical Quick Reference

              Child #1 Immunization reports & Medical visit history

              Child # 2 Immunization reports and Medical visit history

              My medical history

E) School

              Child #1 School info by grade

               Child #2 School info by grade

               Alan school info by grade

               ** this will expand to mine whenever I go back for my masters**

E) Important Documents

               File for each of us to properly store SS card, Birth Certificate, Marriage Record, Power of Attorney etc

F) Various folder

               Online Passwords record

               Previous Residences information

               Important events and dates

             

So once I got all these things written down I knew I could go shop for my supplies. I simply went to staples and target (PS anyone realize staples is INCREDIBLY overpriced!).. I knew I needed:

*nice heavy duty binder (started with a 2inch.. might expand to a 3 once we get to TX)

*Dividers with pockets

*tabs to create subheaders

*page protectors

*a plastic folder thing to label for "to be filed or recorded" (the blue thing)

*document folders (for important doc section.. page protectors allow sheets or documents to potentially fly out of the top of it so I prefer to store them in an enclosed folder with a snap or velco to secure the documents more soundly)

*pencil pouch

*vis-a-vis pens (to be able to create my monthly budget then simply wipe it off)

*laminating equipment (my mom owned one of these already)

*a note pad small enough to fit in the binder for any brainstorming or notes (not pictured)

So for about $25 I had everything I needed.. of course spending a little more for the fun colors etc because I wanted it to be something I wanted to see.. plus I love color coordinating anything!

Next came the time consuming part. Creating the templates on the computer. I knew I could pay someone money for some they already created but possibly they would be personalized well to my liking, so being frugal, I created my own. They are extremely simple and does not show any fancy graphic design talent but it gets the job done! I will go by my headings and share what I used as my templates (however, for the life of me I cannot figure out how to share with you the actual template.. So either a) make your own,or b) email me and I can email you the file!

For each any ever section (sometimes even subsections) I made a quick reference sheet. These are for any phone numbers, log in information, etc that would be something I would want to keep log of. It makes it easy to just turn to that section and grab instead of looking through other areas. I cannot show you all of mine because well, I already filled them out but as it shows in the bottom section of this post I have a contents page.. any questions just let me know and I will promptly email you the template you might want to have a look at!

As you can see these are in page protectors, thus I can simply remove and fill out as time goes on, or reprint and then fill out again if the information changes!

This is the weekly chore log. I LIVE by this in my own home. Every day I have a task, nothing major, but every day a certain area of the house gets cleaned, instead of waiting until the last minute and cramming it into a Saturday where I would MUCH rather be spending time playing with my son or out on a family outing. Such as in GA Mondays were Kitchen days, scrub appliances, wipe cabinets, move and wipe counters etc. Tuesdays were Floors, mop, scrub floors all over the house. Wednesdays were bathrooms, Thursdays were windows/doors and dusting

Fridays were toys, reorganize and clean any toys

Saturday were devoted to family and Sundays were laundry days. Of course there are things in between you have to do, especially if people were coming over, but keeping it simple and not overwhelming to all out field day the house in one day kept things much more manageable. Everyday of course there were tasks too, dishes, vacuum, make beds etc...

This is also laminated so I can simply write on them in vis-a-vis and wipe off when there needs to be a change!

I can already tell this is going to be a life saver in our new home. Keeping track of those little things. When you changed the smoke detector last, when the air filters need to be changed, as well as seasonal cleanings that need to happen, AC check up etc..

As you can tell these are laminated. Thus I can write on them with a vis-a-vis and wipe them off every year to be refilled out next year.

FINANCE

Here is the major reason I made this binder. I needed a way to keep up with account #'s, Log in info, expenses etc.. so that instead of rummaging through the file drawer for what we spent on whatever a few months ago I can look here! And instead of having to change or look up password after password etc I can simply go to the safe, pull this out and find it.. As can my husband!

here are a few pages from mine

Laminated for filling out each month

Automotive:

This is more for my benefit. I needed an area to keep track of previous vehicles as well as car maintenance instead of keeping the papers in the glove box where they can easily be lost. Also to keep track of when the air filter was changed last or the tires rotated etc.

Medical

This was self explanatory. This area helps me to keep track of Jaxon's, mine and baby #2's current and previous doctor visits. And, I reluctantly admit, to keep track better of medications we have been prescribed or diagnosis's etc. With two kiddos I know this will come in handy!

School

This pertains more toward Jaxon and Alan at the moment. I wanted somewhere to keep track of Jaxon's School history. Considering we will move alot etc, I wanted somewhere to keep track of his teachers etc. I have a separate file box for each year he goes to school with pictures,  work etc.. but this is just for quick reference!

Various

This section I have quite a few things in. I have previous residency information page in there just because I don't want it junking up my home section.  For a military family, this is actually very helpful when trying to remember certain addresses from back in the day for background checks, applications etc.

I also include in this section any pet information. For Roxie I keep her most recent vaccination records, her vet information as well as her homelink information if she were ever lost. I have already been able to use this section and it was SO much nicer then shuffling through files.

My completed Binder! Yes it is quite thick, mainly from the important document folders section. I plan on looking for some less bulky options in the future.

Here is a run down of the outline of my binder::::

A) Home

          1) Home Maintenance Quick Reference Page

          2) Laminated Weekly Chore Chart

          3) Laminated Home Maintenance Check List

          4) Renters Insurance Quick Reference

          5) Renters Insurance Policy

          6) Verizon Wireless Quick Reference

          7) Verizon Wireless Contract

B)Finance

          1) Finance Quick Reference

          2) Monthly Reoccurring Expenses

          3) Build a budget Worksheet

          4) file folder with checks deposited

          5) Each Bill Expense record

C)Automotive

          1) Car Quick Reference

          2) Toyota Maintenance Log

                    -copy of registration

                   -all maintenance paperwork

                   -purchasing paperwork

          3)Chevy Maintenance Log

                   -copy of registration

                   -all maintenance paperwork

                   -purchasing paperwork

          4) Vehicle History

D)Medical

          1) Medical Quick Reference

          2) Doctor Appointment Records (for each member)

          3) Well Baby Check up Record (for each child)

          4)Immunization record (for each child)

E) School

          1) School info (for each child)

          2) Alan school info

F)Important Documents

          1) Folder for Becky Documents

                   -SS card, Birth Certificate, Voter Registration Card

          2) Folder for Alan Documents

                   -SS Card, Birth Certificate

          3) Folder for Jaxon Documents

                   -SS Card, Birth Certificate

          4) Folder for Baby A Documents

          5) Folder for Jaxon savings bonds

          6) Folder for Various

                   -marriage license, power of attorney

F)Various

          -Pet information sheet

          -Vaccination records

          -Previous Residences

          -Random Log in passwords etc

Helpful Hints:

1) This is NOT to be a substitution fro your file folder. This just a quick reference, easy grab. Now here is my two cents on file folders also. I have one yes, mostly for alan's awards, Jaxon's school artwork etc.. however, keeping things such as bills, tax info etc... It can be easily scanned into a computer, and stored on a hard drive separate from the computer. The old school in us wants everything on paper.. These days almost all bills etc can be found online somewhere and keeping a copy of it on a hard drive takes up MUCH less room and is so easily stored and organized. Also to think of is the fact that in an emergency, a hard drive is much easier to grab than a huge filing cabinet. Keep it minimum. I have a file box for Jaxon's school (minimal.. separated by each year), a box for Alan's military stuff (mainly because he keeps it so unorganized and wild I cannot stand to look in it.. so it is his space). my household binder. then an external harddrive with important bill paperwork stored on it. Our Tax info is stored online as well as on my harddrive too.. Just print and there ya go if you ever need copies!

2). Personalize... I like to have templates and write things in. If you have terrible handwriting, feel free to type things in and just change them and reprint as you go! Simple enough. Add a little here and there. It will never be "perfect" or compeleted. Life, especially ours, is ALWAYS changing so will my household binder!

3) Use your to be filed folder well, but make a point to sit down at least once a week to organize or put in information. This too could easily become a wild mess if you just throw things in the binder.. Remember it is supposed to help you not hinder you. so while piling up papers in your "to be filed" folder is easy in a pinch, it is not a final fix.. you MUST keep up with it!

4).. If you remove something from the binder, IE the SS card or a contract . keep note of it on your small note pad as to where you are taking it and when you took it. And of course ALWAYS return it as quickly as you can as to not misplace it!

5)... Probably one of the most important for personal identity .. NEVER EVER remove the entire binder from your house (if it contains private information. That includes vacations, quick trips etc... Remove what you might need and put it in a separate folder etc to carry with you (marking what you took etc)... Taking all the info in my binder out of my house could propose a HUGE issue if ever I were to misplace it while out and about. Of course when moving that is a different story.. leave it locked in the safe! or on your person at all times within the actual move itself! Scary stuff I know!

So I know I wrote a TON... Sorry to be long winded. I just want my thought process to be understood so when you go to make your own you are able to somewhat understand my train of thought!! Any questions PLEASE do not hesitate to comment or email me!