Get Organized #2: Family Binder

Here it is:

Fancy, ey? Just keeping it real! Go ahead and make yours cuter (anything’s cuter). We keep this in a cabinet above the computer desk in our kitchen, so it’s easily accessible.
Inside the front cover I keep Boxtops For Education and the sheets our school wants them turned in on.
Before the first tab I also have a school calendar (we’re on year ’round and I can NEVER keep straight what days my kids are supposed to be there) and a ward (church) telephone list. You might want to put a family phone list or emergency contact numbers or something like that.

Next we have a divider tab for every member of the family. The boys are there, the page protectors just block the view.

In each section I keep things that are child (or parent) specific. For example, BC’s tab has phone lists he needs for church and meeting schedules. My tab has things like my book club reading schedule. Macy’s has her violin receipt (we can switch sizes for a $30 fee…provided we can find the receipt) and piano and orchestra information. She also has a schedule of her church activities. My older 2 have lunch money deposit slips in theirs as well as sports schedules, in season. Campbell’s has his preschool carpool calendar and preschool policies and procedures.

In the back pocket, I have some basic first aid information. This might also be a good place to put Poison Control’s number and things like that.

So, that’s our family binder. I’d love to hear any other ideas you have or things that you think would be good to include!
Next up? My calendars.

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Comments

  1. tinahead81 says:

    this is a fabulous idea! not sure about you guys, but we have medication that we take daily…so you could keep the refill info handy in there too!

  2. brown paper packages says:

    I have had one for years, and I LOVE it. We also keep a phone list with the numbers we call the most (pharmacies, doctors, hairstylists, insurance, etc.). I hate looking things up, so this is a quick reference.
    With the medical info, I also have a dosing information sheet for children's tylenol and motrin–if they are under 2 it isn't listed on the bottle, and I'm always forgetting. It saves a call!

  3. Char @ Crap I've Made says:

    We have the dosing sheet, too…including a bootleg one for cold meds that says "for professional use only", LOL!

  4. The Mangerchine's says:

    What a great idea, I don't have kids yet, but when I do, I'll surely "borrow" this idea. My current family binder is more of a meal plannng, grocery shopping list, address book, calendar, to do list, budget, Christmas and gift planing, craft project idea etc. book.

    Shannon

  5. momto2munkeys says:

    Great idea…both my kids will be in activities starting next month,hubby is starting school, and I'm starting bible study…I was stressing about remembering all our dates and info….Thanks a ton!!!!!!

  6. RN 4 Kids says:

    cute idea! I am going to do that….but could you please put some cute picture in the front sleeve? it's just really not YOU w/out some creative do dad in the front… :)

  7. Will you come down and help me get organized? An why do you have to be so perfect and have it all!?! Seriously, all that you touch turns to gold. Speaking of gold, that carpool calendar is so good it deserves a gold medal…

  8. Well I need to get started on my family one now! I keep one for my house. Every time I paint a wall, I write down the brand and paint color and the room I painted. When we buy new appliances, I keep all owners manuals and anytime we get a repair (air conditioner, foundation) I keep all paperwork. I had my binder sitting out for showings on our last house and got so many compliments. The new owners thanked me as I passed it on to her.

  9. Shanon Ridenour says:

    What a great idea to put it all in one place like that. I have little things all over the house it seems so I think I'll be consolidating it into a single go-to folder. One thing I'll add is a list of everyone's birthdays (sorted by month) so I can see at a glance who in my family/friends has a bday each month.

    I'm off to find a folder!

  10. I also have pocket folders in mine that keep take-out menus we use (way too much!), postal stuff (laels, stamps, addresses), and a master calendar that has a space for every member of the family. I even keep my weekly household chore list there. Flylady has a bunch of ideas on how to use a household notebook and some free printables.

  11. jenpetersen says:

    Char,
    Just put a picture that one of your kids has made for you in the front. You can rotate it every once in awhile.

  12. I'm a big fan of flylady and she calls this her control journal. I need to re-do mine, but have kept one for a few years. :)

  13. I love my family binder! One very handy feature in ours is the family night planner. It keeps track of who's doing what and our rough plans for upcoming months. It's so nice to have everything in one place!

  14. I have one of these that has slowly been developing. It started life as the Flylady control journal, but lots of her ideas were things I didn't need. I've added bits from Organised Home (especially the Organised Christmas pages, they are far more useful than the Flylady Christmas control journal imo).

    Like someone else mentioned, I have all of the phone numbers that we might need, like our favourite takeaways, electricity emergency number, credit card cancellation number, things like that.

    And our Education Department has provided a 'School Days' folder which has a few very useful pages that I use. One of them is an excursions page, it is a table with headings: Activity, Date/Time, Venue, Things to Take, Cost, Paid, Permission note signed/returned.

    It's great seeing what other people keep in their folders, good for adapting any ideas that would work for me. One of your commenters mentioned a house folder – a garden folder is also useful, especially for noting the names of trees & plants.

  15. Kathryn-nannygoat says:

    I love all of your organizing ideas! They are so do-able! :) I bought my file for 2010, it is going to make my life so much easier… thank you.
    ps I have a little boy named Campbell too. He will be 3 next month. :)

  16. Jenn Murray says:

    I, too, am binder happy. I have a home management binder that is for a calendar, bills, take out menus, pizza coupons, to do lists, and things to buy lists. I keep a seperate binder for medical stuff, one tab for each kid with their birth certificates, SS cards, medical records, etc. SO EASY

  17. Just stumbled upon your website. Some great ideas. I have several binders in my kitchen (which is where I seem to spend most of my time). One binder is strictly for takeout menus – it is labeled separately and also includes notes regarding what we have ordered and liked (and perhaps not liked), as well as some of my kids favorites since we sometimes order takeout to surprise them and I can never remember what they like. Another binder for school ‘stuff’. I have dividers for each child (all 3 are in different schools right now, so days off, etc are not quite in agreement all the time). Our schools supply phone listings, as well as teacher handouts from open house, teacher conferences, etc. which I keep in this binder. A third contains contractor phone #’s as well as last service dates (which comes in handy when trying to determine just when was the last time I had the septic tank pumped).

  18. Lucylyn says:

    My sister has something similar for her two boys. It’s not so much to get organized or anything but more of a way to keep the keepsakes. She has a big binder with a whole bunch on page protectors and only has is separated into two sections. One for each of the boys. Every time they bring home something from school like an awards or art or something along those lines she just adds it to the next empty page protector in the boy’s section. When I saw this I thought it was a great way to keep important things about the boys lives with out having to take up a tone of space. I scrapbook, and I know if it were me I would try to make a page out of each of the awards or something.

  19. when one gets older the medical info gets larger. Sections for MD, med list, pharmacies, medical test done and DATES of test,(doctors ask for procedures and dates, like I can remember all of them!

    Also have a section for household maintenance, what repairman was used and cost

    Another section for car maintenance (some items may still be under warranty if we know the dates)

    This is MY memory book, not pretty like the pictures etc but sure serves useful purpose.

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