Giveaway + Household Organizer, Part I

It's that time of the year again - no, not Christmas, that's gone by... the fun time that follows Christmas - the time of organizing!  Okay, so maybe it isn't THAT fun for many of you, but personally I find nothing more relaxing and refreshing than knowing that everything is where it should be.  What a great way to start the year!

One thing I noticed when I started blogging was that a lot of people had Home Organization Binders, or Household Notebooks, or House Management Books, or whatever other name you wanted to call them.  It is basically like a central command station for the house - finances, meals, calendars, activities, etc.  All in one spot.  And I knew I needed to get me one of 'dem.  So I naturally went where any slightly crazy normal person would go - Pinterest.

I found some great inspiration - and the best was over at I Heart Organizing (Ahhh... so do I!)

She really gave you great examples of the types of things that are important to include in your family binder.  After reading her posts, I got to work and created my own house binder.

I created 6 sections: Calendars & Agendas, Meal Planning, Finances, Chores & Cleaning, Family Information, and Contacts.  Here is a sneak peek of the first three sections:

This section includes:
Daily Planner, Weekly Planner, and Monthly Planner*

This section includes:
Weekly Meal Plan with Ingredient List
Favourite Meals & Quick Fixes Sheets
Grocery & Freezer Inventory

This section includes:
Monthly Bill Checklist for Year
Account and Policy Information
Budget & Consolidation Sheets
Spending Trackers

I put them in a binder with a clear sleeve, so that I could put a pretty picture in the front.  I will show you my actual binder in work tomorrow - my daughter scribbled on it tonight with sharpie, and I have to transfer it to a new binder.  (Tip #1:  Do not leave sharpies, the household binder, and a 20 month old in the same vicinty.)  I printed my pages with text in them, but I found it more useful to just have blank space to write in as things changed.  Like for instance, my grocery inventory changes with what is in season, so I found the blank boxes more useful than a set list so that I could easily change it.  I put every sheet inside a page protector, and then wrote on them with a marker like this:

Then I just use a baby wipe to wash it off whenever I need to change something or reuse a sheet at the start of a new week.  It works awesome!  I also used page dividers with pockets on both sides, which are super handy.  I keep recipes, newsletters from school, bills, etc, all in the pockets that match up with the corresponding section.  I found my dividers at the dollar store, and I was so happy with them because often, when things are in page protectors, they are the same width as the dividers, but these are super wide, so you can use the tabs even if you have dividers.

Tomorrow I will show you my next three sections and show you some pictures of my household binder in use.  But, I wanted to show you some of my household organizer so that you could see what you could win.  I will be giving away 5 copies of my organizer to my followers once we reach 200 followers.  If you would like to enter, comment below.  You may enter up to three times.

(1) Follow Becoming Martha and leave a comment saying that you do.
(2) Blog about this giveaway and leave a comment with the blog link.
(3) Place my button somewhere on your page and comment with the link.

You MUST be a Becoming Martha follower/subscriber to win.

The organizer will come in a PDF file, ready for you to print (it is sized on a 8.5x11 inch paper, full bleed).

*The calendar section does not have a monthly planner because I always print the monthly planners at Anything but Perfect - they are simply too cute not to.  However, if you win and you would like a monthly planner that coordinates with the rest of the calendar section, I would be happy to make one up for you.

Enjoy, and happy organizing!