A Productive Project

Sometimes being a stay-at-home mom gets a little monotonous. It makes it hard to stay motivated. Recently, I decided to find a way to be more organized and manage our home better. I have always been a messy person, but I have gotten really tired of my house being a constant mess. With a bit of inspiration from Pinterest, I decided to create a Family Binder. The intent of the binder is to have everything in one place so we never again lose our shopping list, forget if we've paid our bills, or lose track of where our money is going.

First, I brainstormed what types of things I wanted to have in the binder. This included things like a weekly menu, a shopping list, a monthly calendar, a bill-pay checklist, an expense spreadsheet, car maintenance logs, babysitting instructions, important phone numbers, etc.

Then, I divided them up into broad categories like Home Management, Food, Money, etc. These categories became the dividers in the binder.

So far, I have just been trying to work the binder into my daily routine. For the Home Management section, I created daily and weekly to-do lists. I also divided up our house into zones for cleaning. I have four zones and try to deep clean one zone per week. Each list is in a page protector and I use a dry erase marker to keep track of what I've accomplished. I already feel so much more productive after checking off things every day. And the theory is that every room in our house should be thoroughly cleaned at least once a month. For some of you, that probably sounds like it's not enough, but for me, it's a huge improvement. The daily list helps me get up in the morning and get things done. Every day, I am reminded to do laundry, to empty the dishwasher, to make the bed, etc. This is the first time in my life that I have regularly made my bed. Shocking, I know.

Another part of this project was to create a chore chart for Eddie. I have felt that he really needs to learn responsibility. Since he doesn't read yet, I used pictures on his chart, which now resides on our fridge. We use magnets to keep track of what he does each day. When he completes all 6 of the "chores" in the top section, he earns a nickel. If he tries a new food, he earns another nickel. And if he does something else that I ask him to do, he earns another nickel. It is nice to have him cleaning up his own toys, not fighting about getting dressed, and reminding me to let him help with the dishes.