I have used just about every ‘organizer’, calendar & planner under the sun. All promise such wonderful things…however, reality is…the author isn’t me, and doesn’t know my family and our life. Sure many are pretty neat, but nothing really just ’fit’ “perfectly” for me and my family. One day, a light bulb went off…..I’ll just make my own!  

The Ultra Simplistic Homestead Binder!

This binder is just your average 3 ring binder but it has everything in it to keep my homestead in order! 

To get started on my binder,  I printed off a cover from another planner that I use some of the pages from, put in the cover sleeve ( I change this on mood and the amount of ink I have in the printer!) and then gathered up some supplies: divider tabs, paper, all those loose sheets of info that needed a home (my childrens homeschool schedules, menu planners, monthly bill schedules, address book pages, etc., etc.) and plopped them all down in a pile. Now, what categories did I need my binder to have? For me, it looked something like this:

Daily Schedule & ‘To Do’s’

Want To Do’s

Seasonal Chores

Menus/ Food Shopping & Pantry Lists

Bills/Expenses

Farm & Garden

Addresses / www.’s

Homeschool

Family Info

Medical

Herbal

Preparedness

I also got out a zippered / 3 ring case to put pens, post-its, letter opener, stamps, sharpies, etc . = Office in a Bag, for my binder too!

Office in a Bag

I also got out some of those handy dandy page/sheet protectors, for documents, and such that I want in my binder–should I need to grab-n-go—–my auto insurance info, homeschool law and my certificate to homeschool (for my state), you could put birth certificate copies, medical cards, etc., etc–whatever is applicable to your family.

So, now that you have a list of supplies– gather everything up– then ponder what categories you’ll need for your family binder…and come back later this week for….The Homestead Binder…Part II

~Lisa