clearing the clutter

I make piles... piling has always been my organizational tool of choice. That being said, it just isn't working for me. When MaryClaire was in PreK I juggled all of her school papers. Not very well mind you, but I was able to stay on top of it for the most part. I may have forgotten to pick her up from her school picnic at the end of the year last year, but I'm blaming that on baby-brain and blocking it out... :)

Since MaryClaire has started Kindergarten and Brian is in PreK this year {which I realize I have not yet documented} it's been considerably tougher to keep everything straight. I bought a large basket in hopes of keeping all school papers "organized". See for youself how that has worked out for me...

Yeah... In my dreams I have a beautiful space to store all of my papers in a neat & tidy way. In reality we don't have a great office space. We walk right into our kitchen & throw all of our papers on the counter. The begining of 2011 I'd finally had enough. I was ready to take back my brain and get organized. While searching blogland for inspiration I came across an idea that has totally saved me from all the clutter.

I never realized a home management binder even existed, but it has saved me from myself! The front page consists of emergency information.


Then I have a monthly calendar and a weekly calendar to keep track of anything & everything. I also have a daily to-do list.

My favorite section is cleaning. I now have a basic daily cleaning list and a weekly list of chores that I follow. I am SO organized, and I feel GREAT!

After that I have a schedule for all of our bills and I've gotten REALLY organized with our billing information.

The last two sections include basic medical information for everyone in our family and then a list of online passwords. It is a work in progress, but it is changing my life. I love it! More to come soon.

By the way, I also have one of these...