How to Make a Household Binder

A household binder is an organizing system that allows you to keep important information easily accessible to all (human!) members of your home. Its main purpose is to help you to effectively manage your household.

Many families use this binder system, but it can also work for roommates sharing an apartment, or even if you live alone! Each binder will be slightly different since all households have unique needs.

1) The first step in creating a binder system is to take some time to write down everything you might want to include in your binder. Remember that this binder is different from a personal planner since everyone in your home should be able to use and/or refer to it.

For example, I like to keep things simple, so my household binder contains sections for:

• Meal Planning
• Cleaning
• Important Contacts
• Car Maintenance
• Emergency Information

My husband and I don't have children (yet), so binders for a family with children may include other items such as school information and schedules, and chore charts.

2) In addition to being functional, I also wanted my binder to look cute, so I made a set of printables for the various sections listed above. You can find them in my Etsy shop, Fresh and Organized, you can make your own, or you may be able to find free printables to suit your needs online.

When put together, my household binder's sections ended up looking like this:

CLEANING:

• House Cleaning Guide

This guide is where we write down what cleaning tasks should be done on a daily, weekly, monthly, or occasional (or seasonal) basis. It's further broken down by different areas of the home.

MEAL PLANNING:

• Weekly Menu Planner
• Monthly Menu Planner
• Detailed Grocery Checklist

I've found it is SO much easier to plan our meals on a weekly basis because I feel better prepared and it helps us save money at the grocery since we know exactly what we need to buy.

CONTACTS:

• Important Contacts

I have an iPhone where I store contacts, but this is where I can write numbers for immediate family, electrician, plumber, and customer service for various appliances in our house.

CAR:

• Vehicle Maintenance Log

EMERGENCY:

• Important Emergency Information

3) The third step was to purchase supplies I needed to create the household binder. These included:

• Plain white 3-ring binder
• Page/sheet protectors (I prefer to put papers in these so I don't have to deal with a hole punch)
• Dividers (optional)

4) Finally, just print your printables, put them in their protective sheets and insert them into the binder! Keep the binder in the kitchen, home office, or somewhere else that's easily accessible and most of all, remember to USE IT! :)

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