Starting the year off organized...

I really don't make resolutions for a new year...I typically am back to the old ways within a week or too!!! With that in mind, I am taking a step to help our family become more organized...at least this is a concept that I am going to "TEST" out for the month of January and see if it works for us!!! 

My hope is that our new family binder will help our little family be more organized in our scheduling, tasks and fun! I have cruised the web this past week to see if I could find something that I could just order, it would be sent to me and I would be on my way to an organized life...but all I found were really great bits and pieces and a lot of ideas from different blogs on how to achieve this organization theory. After doing some researching I decided to put my own family organizational binder together. I am planning on using January as our "TEST" month to see if it does actually help in all of our organizational needs.

These are the items that I purchased to complete the binder:

- 3 Ring White Binder

- Set of 12 white tabs (I used left over address labels to print out my tabbed sections and placed them on the tabs).

- Pencil Holder (This was one that the kids had around the house...looking for something prettier...but this will do for the time being)

- My paperwork for organization - monthly calendar, calendar by week, menu for the month, grocery list (I made these in Illustrator to fit what I think our needs are and so I could choose my own color and design!)

Here are a few snapshots of the binder thus far...

 Front cover - made the front page in Illustrator using a pattern that I made up and a cute little font that states the purpose of the binder...

 My super cute pencil holder! Houses a pencil, few pens, highlighter, post-its and an architectural scale! 

Some of the tabs that I am using - I have left a few blank at the end so I can add as I go...

 I have labeled the tabs so far as follows - Family Calendar (full month view and week by week), Menu (Monthly Menu Plan and Grocery List), Cleaning, Karis-School, Blogging, Karis Kisses, Goals and Receipts. I am a work in progress so I have only filled out the first portion of our calendar, added all of Karis' important preschool paperwork (who knew), and a great blogging format I found Living Locurto.

 My attempt at the monthly calendar...here we go!!!

 My day to day calendar so far for the first week. I have included "Goals for the Week" along with space for each day of the week - incorporating family schedule and things I would like to get done around the house and for my crafty businesses when the kiddos are napping :)

 I hope to continue to share how the family binder is going through the month of January and if I find that it helps (I hope that it will) I will share February designs with you!!! 

My next item to complete is the monthly menu...hopefully if all goes well and I can actually plan a menu for the entire month (I will go for week right now...) I will share it with you!!!
 

 Thanks for stopping by!