Household Notebooks

One type of notebook that I have found it very helpful to keep is a household notebook. This notebook serves as my central location for items that help keep my household running smoothly. For ease of use, I have found it much easier to keep my household notebook in a binder instead of a bound book. Mine is currently in a zipper binder which also has a pocket inside the front cover.

My household notebook consists of the following sections:
• FlyLady’s Eleven Commandments
• Tab 1: Routines – Copies of my standard routines. It seriously helps me to keep a regular schedule. Life happens and there are times when I have to adjust it, but I try to stick to it as much as possible.
• Tab 2: Financial – This contains my household budget, copies of current financial goals and my master price sheet.
• Tab 3: Goals – This section contains copies of the goals I have set financially, for the household and for myself
• Tab 4: Contacts – This section has a sheet with all of my doctors contact information, a sheet of assorted household contacts and then an alphabetical list of all the household’s personal contacts.
• Tab 5: Emergency Preparation Tips – a list of all the things I need to do to prepare for an emergency. Click here to see the list.
• Tab 6: Household Cleaning – A list of tips for household cleaning and removing stains
• Tab 7: Copies of Cards – Copies of our insurance cards, credit cards, drivers licenses, etc. (front and back)
• Tab 8: Leave Time Summary – My summary of leave time available and used for work.
• The rest of the tabs contain information related to working on my current goals.
• Working On: Household Inventory

Not everyone will want this much detail in their household notebook and some people may even want more details. This notebook contains a lot of personal information about your household so I would suggest keeping it in a secure place. It is definitely handy to have it all together though.

For ease of updating, most of the information in my notebook has been typed up on the computer. That way I can easily keep my information up to date and in order.

There are two sites that I have found very helpful in setting up my household notebook. In fact, the original idea for this came from one of these sites although I can no longer remember which one. The sites are:
Fly Lady (they call it a control journal)
Organized Home

A similar notebook you may want to consider keeping is a public household notebook. This notebook could contain schedules for all family members, menus for local restaurants your family enjoys, contact information, gift lists for family members, etc. This notebook would be available for all family members to use and could even be useful for a babysitter or housesitter.

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