Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Organizing: Brain In A Binder

UPDATED!!!

Last fall I went to a Hearts At Home conference.  I did a session with Karen Ehman called "Keeping Your Ducks In A Row".  She gave all types of great tips for organizing.  One that I loved was Brain In A Binder.  It is crazy and yes I am still getting used to.  She keeps hers on the kitchen counter and I keep mine in my organizer in the dining room.  I have pictures below so you can see mine.

The cover is the picture of my family - My Husband Shawn and my two kids, Bryson and Keelin.
The next page is my "mission statement" - the reason I do what I do
I combined my Daily Task and Weekly Task into a spreadsheet form that I hang on my bulletin board by my calendar.  That way I can always see and so can Shawn.  I use this so now I spread out the house cleaning through out the week plus the monthly to do's are on there as well.  I really like it so far!
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4

The next several pages are my Yearly items (I am still developing these because I just started)
The next page is my Weekly Menu and Shopping List.  I create several menus and rotate them so I don't have to think of new foods every week. (I am working on this still - we are changing the way we eat so I haven't got into a groove yet.)

The next section is folders - there are 5 folders - Family, Shawn, Salena, Bryson and Keelin
This is where I file all the papers that pertain to whomever.  Invites, calendars, schedules.  My calendar doesn't have enough room to put all the details so I write the basic and then put the details in the appropriate folder and refer to it when needed.

This has been helpful so far and I look forward to using it more as Bryson enters school and has more things to be a part of.

Another thing she does is a Today Clipboard.  You get a clipboard that opens up where you can store stuff.  On the clipboard is a "Todays Sheet".  You write things for that day on it.  The items inside are those that need to be taken care of that night before bed.  Example: A permission slip for school.  When you kid comes home and gives you the permission slip you place it in your clipboard and before you go to bed you fill it out and place it in his bag.
This is great because you can keep the papers all in one place.  I am sure as your kids get older they will know to put important papers in your clipboard.  I can email the sheets too so you can see what I have and start with that.  I am still forming mine but I love it so far!  (salbegs@gmail.com)

Here's a link to Karen's page too : http://karenehman.com/home/2008/03/18/moms-brain-in-a-binder-ready-to-order/

Here is a link to the teaching from Hearts At Home that you can purchase (CD or MP3): http://www.catapes.com/viewresults.cfm?cid=134
Keeping Your Ducks In A Row would be for this concept.

Below are pictures.

Front of the Binder
Mom's Mission Statement
Daily Tasks
Weekly and Monthly Task
Yearly Task (one page)

Menu
Shopping List (one page)
One of the folders
Today's Clipboard

Inside Clipboard

2 comments:

  1. Salena, this is great! I love this and considering going this route rather than what I have been doing, though it works lol. Having three kids plus two in school is getting chaotic with papers, schedules etc., this is a new system that sounds like it will work for me in the days ahead. I am possibly homeschooling in the future so this is a definite great organizing method!

    Thanks for posting! I am totally adding you to my blogroll, it's nice finding blogging buddies that I actually know LOL

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  2. awesome Sal!! i missed that seminar so thanks for sharing this, i totally need to do it!!

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