Free Home Management Binder
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When you homeschool and organize

To me, long term goals accomplished are especially sweet and satisfying. I heart organizing but it has to be balanced with serving God, caring for a family, homeschooling, leading a field trip group, organizing co-ops, running New Bee Homeschooler, supporting New Bees and all other educators and homeschoolers that click our pages here.


You can see why I enjoyed doing this project that had been planned for a few years. Too, most of you that follow my blog know my obsession with binders and planners so that helped prod me along. My inspiration for the cover and colors on this binder came from a card I had bought from Target. I find inspiration in all kinds of things.


Enjoy the binder and all the free printables as I blogged and shared this with my blog followers first as we created it together! {Tina}

How to Plan a Home Management Binder...does it really matter?

It matters to me because I not only want something that is organized but "useful" to my family. Those two words, many people think are synonymous but they are not. Something may be quite organized but if it does not fit  my needs, then it is a waste of valuable time. Don't waste your time, have clear cut expectations what you want out this tool.


Ask these questions.......

BEFORE you buy supplies ..

1. How big will it be? 


2. Do you want something slender or to have pockets to hold kitchen appliance instructions and warranties?

Myself, I opted for a larger binder because I wanted this baby to "work it" for me and store all types of warranty and directions needed for house appliances. I wanted it located in one spot and I wanted to add to it as I went along.


3. Where will you store this Home Management Binder? Is storage an issue? If so, you may want something more slender.

I chose a 3 inch brown binder initially from Office Max the {in place brand} like the binders pictured below because it holds 600 pages. I want to fit all my appliance instructions for my kitchen in it and have plenty of room to grow and expand. {Note you can still use my printables, just not the spine insert which I made for a 3 inch binder unless you choose that size too.} I can see that changing out binders is beneficial if it gets a lot of use or if you want seasonal changes to match your kitchen.


4. How many "extra" or "unique" item do you want in your binder?

For my family, I don't have toddlers anymore and don't need "messages for a babysitter" section. You may want babysitter instructions, kids sleep time routines, proper medicine dosage, medical consents or young child's favorite books and toys section for others who care for your children.

My husband does not work a shift schedule, yours may or may be out of town regularly for work. You may want to include a section for that timetable.


5. Do you like color on your printables? I happen to LOVE color and as you notice most of my work is color, including all the free printables for this binder. I figure if I am going to look it at a lot, it better look good.

As I go along, I will pin other free Home Management Printables from other sites, even black and white printables on our Pinterest Board - Home Management Binder.


6. How important is it to you that pages are editable? This is something I learned about myself along the way. I shared with my blog followers starting out this project in my blog that I thought most of the forms would be hand written {I happen to like to print using different colored hues of pens}. However, as I went along, I noticed how many of the forms I felt should be printed because of how important the text is like our Family Emergency Plan. I still have some forms to fill in by hand but realized I really like editable forms.

Supplies deserve a starring role

  •  Binders are important. I happen to be obsessed with them. I designed covers with many colors in mind so you can change out binders when bored. {me}
  • Page Protectors. You want to put everything in a page protector.
  • Tabs
  • Pockets
  • A plastic zipper pouch to hold highlighters, your acid free pens and other supplies when using your binder. 
  • Not to be forgotten are bright colored acid free pens for filling in forms.

About my printables

  • I enjoy sharing and freely share all the printables I make. It's all my hard work. However, please do not download them to other sites. They were created with a creative commons license.
  • All of my forms are in color, including the cover.
  • A LOT of my forms are EDITABLE. Important: Be sure to copy/paste a couple of copies of any form you may need to update later. After you fill it in, it may be more work to delete information when you update. So having another copy {or two} of the original is a good back up plan.
  • All of my forms have lines for DATES on them. It keeps you organized so that you know when you updated last. Be sure to use the date line. One form like Family Apparel will need to be updated more often because children's sizes change as they grow, whereas the Family Emergency Plan may not need to be updated as often.
  • I happen to like Table of Contents in any planner. It serves as a Quick Glance of what forms you have. I provide a free download of my table of contents.
  • Also, where possible I try to make wallet size forms. The Family Apparel and Medication Card are smaller than a credit card and need to be printed on plain paper so they fold easily.
  • The feel of the Binder is better with cardstock for all the printables but not necessary. ME? I like cardstock and still like to put each page in a page protector.
  • Like my Curriculum Planner that has several options and growing and because I now have the main part of it done, I will continue to add forms to this Home Management Binder

1. Select a Cover. {download comes with a spine insert & back cover}. Add a Calendar Section at the front too if you like that. I do.

Download this as a back cover.

 If you downloaded set number 3, this page is already in the download. I placed it here separately because you may want to use this on the back of your Curriculum Planner too. It works beautifully there too.

2. About Us Section

This section  keeps all of the personal information in one section. I personally feel it is way more organized to have Medical Information, Family Clothing Sizes, Emergency Plans, Allergies in one spot than to be flipping throughout the binder. Those forms are in this About Us section.

I want to turn to one spot and have it all there.Most all of the forms here in this section are EDITABLE.

About the Family Information Sheet - This form has a box at the top right. I use that to put our neighborhood security gate code. That box could be used to identify the apartment you live in, subdivision or security codes, or like here in Texas we have FM {farm to market} roads and need more instructions on how to find our house. Remember to think of these forms as information so that if you are sick or have a trusted babysitter, they have all information they need in one area.

 Form to post on family command center at home if a family member takes medication.Dnload here Family Medical Information

Form for your wallet. Print on regular paper so it fits. It is smaller than a credit card. {Fill out by hand} and print off and update as your children grow.

Fold in half and then in thirds. See picture below of medication card folded same way. It is as small as your insurance card.

3. Contacts Section

If you are like me, most of your contacts are on your cell phone and/or other devices. HOWEVER, the whole idea of using a Home Management Binder Contact section is so that others {your children, your spouse, a friend caring for you while you are sick or resting while pregnant} who may need this list have these useful numbers. It is also a place for you to store numbers you may not use as often.

Most all of the forms here too are editable.

Dnload here Friends Contact          

4. House Keeping Section

The Daily Chores/Weekly form I created so that ANYBODY could use. Really, don't we have enough cutesy free forms on the net for young kids? {I love 'em too}. The problem is that they outgrow them real quick. So I created something that even *I* could use or teenagers. It can be filled out once and then print off one copy for each week or laminate it and use dry erase markers.


Remember use your date at the top line so that if your needs change {kids grow older, I grow older..lol} or you need to update your cleaning routine, you know when you did it last.


The Monthly Cleaning Schedule lets you list for each week what you want to accomplish AND if you choose to use it as checkoff list, there are boxes.


The Weekly Cleaning list your "map overview" to layout your housework.


Fall and spring cleaning list are designed to be used by ROOM. I have seen so many forms that list way more rooms than my house has or not enough. So by leaving it blank, you make it EXACTLY for your use. Fill in the ROOM in the blank box and list the chores to be done.

Chores - {Daily, Weekly, & Monthly Cleaning}

Seasonal Cleaning

5. Meal Planning Section

I happen to be a 30 day menu planner girl! But as expressed I get wild hair from time to time and need something different.


There are {2} 7 Day Menu Planner pages to choose from. Since I have some girlfriends whose husband works shift work, their week begins on a "different" day. So I just listed the numbers 1 - 7.


Then I provided a "traditional" 7 Day Menu Planner with the days of the week.


Then of course I love 31 Day Menu Planners. I color coded every 7 days so that you can see one glance at a time. I plan for 30 days but shop weekly. So seeing the whole week at one time speeds up the process for myself.


Also I wanted a full page Recipe Page. {editable yes}

6. Home Projects Section

My goal with this section was to arrange the forms in a way that if your project needed light planning, then only use form 1 and then proceed to form 2 and 3 if your project was more detailed.


For example, gardening is light planning {not light on performing it} on hiring outside help or contractors normally. Whereas a laundry redo or renovation is more time consuming and details will need to be kept. So for a garden or lighter project, use the first page only. I know some gardens require more detailed planning but just using that as an example.


That is how I normally approach my form making anyway. I start from easiest to more time consuming planning tasks.


Also I thought long and hard about the advantages, if any, of having this editable. I find in working projects they are just that "work in progress". It would be hard to have all this information to fill out at one time since normally on a project you have to run to stores or locate items on line. So for me this form will have to be filled out slowly writing in my notes as I made my way through the project.

You may need all the way to form 3 on some projects. This page has an area to list important phone numbers or contacts to remember for this project. Also, some after project thoughts. When we gutted our older home, I wanted to be sure I remembered a cabinet style I liked when we updated the rest of the cabinets. Jot down what you want to remember and store it in your binder. Maybe there were some do's and don'ts you learned and may want to repeat them or not on your next project. Here is the place to do that.

7. Home Financial Section

This form is the Monthly Budget and is EDITABLE. Editable forms, to me, are ones that either set a budget in place or keeps information stored for a while. Forms to fill in by hand are ones that we either write day by day or add info a little at a time. {like my curriculum planner}.


This monthly budget form should be something your family works toward meeting. A plan of action! I have "Source" down because some of us need to identify where our incomes comes from. There may be child support payments, social security for a young child, dividend profits or maybe you contribute to the income on a part time basis or you are the sole provider. Use that area to fill that in.


The GROSS INCOME and EXPENSES boxes were made to be highlighted better.


The MONTHLY SPENDING form is for ACCOUNTABILITY. We have it as much as we don't like it. This form is for "Actual Spending", a tracking form of a sort. So it is not editable because most times we will be hand writing in one expense at a time. Then a small area at the bottom if we had a deficit or surplus if we saved.


This form can be used to track ANYTIME the budget gets adjusted.

8. Home Inventory Section

9. Pretty Stuff and Extras

Now if you want to "pretty it up" and add some other useful items in your binder, I have added the "extras" here. I will continue to add in extra "pretty stuff and other forms" as I get a wild hair. Also because I like a Table of Contents Page in my binder, I will add that here too if you want to add one to your binder. An important part of being organized is being able to glance at anything you have and our table gives a pretty glance.

 
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