My Household Notebook

I’ve been asked about a reference I made to my Household Notebook several times over the past week. It’s really much simpler than my research notebooks for my books, but I’ll tell you how I organize things. How you create a notebook will entirely depend on what you need for your own household. Mine changed when we bought the house—we have more upkeep, repairs, etc., to keep track of.

My household notebook is fairly simple:

Section 1: Ledger

• I keep track of all our bills in the ledger section. I use columnar pad sheets and filing tabs—with 1 page assigned to each particular bill. It’s easy enough to add a second sheet that way when I run out of room on the last one. And the tabs make it easy to flip through to find a particular bill.
• I also keep a binder pocket in this section to hold extra columnar sheets and one to hold the bills that need paying.

Section 2: The House

Here I have a number of sections, separated by plastic dividers and filing tabs. They are:

• Menus: I keep menus here (I go through phases where I plan out what to cook/eat for the month). Also a good place to keep a running shopping list of staples that you need, what you have in the freezer, etc. but only if you keep it current. Otherwise that sort of thing just takes up space and makes you feel bad if you don’t keep it current.
• To Buy: list of things I need to buy for the house; and a binder pocket to hold any relevant coupons.
• To Renovate: notes on things that need renovation, and a binder pocket to hold any relevant information. Also, good section to add in three-hole punched articles/pictures on renovation you might find in magazines that you want to keep (instead of having to hold on to the whole magazine).
• The Gardens: Same as To Renovate.
• Resources: I keep a list of all home repair people, the gardeners, plumbers, etc., that we use—their names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses. Also I include instructions that come with various services that we use. Include a binder pocket to hold little booklets, etc. I also keep recycling information in here, and any city utilities info we need to keep track of.

Section 3: Holidays

• I use plastic dividers, filing tabs, and binder pockets in this section.
• I keep copies of our holiday invitations we send out, lists of people we invite, gift lists, etc. in different sections for our various holidays.
• I also keep my birthday list of birthdays.

So, there you go—my household notebook. I hope this helps you develop your own and may it help you keep things organized at home!

Yasmine