I tried and tried to make up my own housekeeping planner and notebook and frankly, I hated it. My homemade version didn't seem to look "professional" and I did not like to use it.
After some thought I decided to go back to what I used when I was working full time: a Franklin Planner System. Yep, I forked over the money back in January to purchase planner pages that I had used in the business world and that I am now using at home. What a difference in my day.
I have used the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People planner pages for years and just as they worked for me in the office; they work equally well at home.
Last fall I needed to order new planner pages but when I was surfing the internet one day I noticed planners that women had created on their own for homemaking. At the time I felt that this would be a better option for me now that I was home full time and would also be cheaper since I would be creating the pages myself. I tried for 3 months to use my new system and I struggled with it. I finally had to admit that my homemade version just wasn't working for me and it was time to go back to what had worked in the past.
Using the planner pages that I had used for years was like partnering with an old friend again.
I have a PDA that I can use also, but for the most part I love to see things written out on paper on planner pages as it is easier for me to "see the whole picture" of what I need to get done in my day.
I didn't totally abandon the Household Notebook idea in that I have kept in it information about my houshold such as when we purchased an appliance along with the serial numbers; paint samples and their numbers for different rooms in the house; decorating ideas from magazines and so on. I find that it is a convenient place to keep bits and pieces of information that I can have at my finger tips.
In trying to save money I came up with my own planner and design and in so doing I ended up with something that I didn't want to use day to day. It was useless to me. The best way for me to explain it is to say that it just didn't look professional.
The new/old system works. Now I use my planner daily to schedule appointments, to keep me on track with housework, to track spending and most importantly to help me decide what is really important in my life and to set goals with those things in mind.
Showing posts with label Housekeeping Notebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Housekeeping Notebook. Show all posts
March 09, 2010
January 11, 2010
Housekeeping Notebook - Honest Critique
My present Housekeeping Notebook is not working. I lost control/quit using it at the end of November around Thanksgiving as I was gearing up for the holiday season. In my post back in November I noted two things: "if you don't tailor it to you and try to use something that someone else has made up then it won't work." Bingo!!! I had found some forms online that I began to use and for the most part it was working but it wasn't personalized to me. Yes there were places on the forms for me to write and plan, but the forms were black and white and stark.
Yesterday I spent the afternoon and evening making up my own forms with clip art that I liked. Each form was my very own creation made by me for me. I have monthly calendar inserts; weekly planning sheets; daily to do lists with places for appointments, household tasks, work/project tasks, personal tasks and dinner plans all on one page; cleaning schedule; laundry sheet (recipes for laundry supplies and such); weekly menu planner; baking day planner; grocery list; Bible study notes; monthly expense log; needlework/sewing project planning sheets; home project planning sheets; memorabilia project planning sheets; organizational project planning sheets; ongoing to do lists; and a fitness/food journal.
My next problem was the pink notebook/binder. I had dropped it a couple of times and the binding was splitting. I taped it back together with packaging tape until I had come up with another plan. It was junk, but hey it was free. Going to Wal-mart looking for a heavy duty binder is like going to "generic, boring" land looking for something special. You know you are not going to find it but still part of you hopes that something special will be there. Okay, I am getting a little too emotional about a binder. I didn't find anything special, but it was worth a try.
I looked around the house and I had some binders leftover from the law office. One is a large 2 1/2 inch dark gray super heavy duty binder. Oh yes - it really speaks to me and says "come hither and organize with me." Yeah right. It is ugly. I am determined and am up for the challenge.
I purchased some old fashioned floral fabric on clearance. I really think it is pretty and it is something I would have paid full price for. As a sidenote I told my DS that I had bought this fabric to make curtains for his room. He believed me for a moment and got upset.
I plan to take that gray notebook and transform it. I have some quilting batting upstairs and I will pad the notebook and cover it with the fabric. Then it will be beautiful and it will be something that I will want to have sitting out on my kitchen counter or table and I will actually use it. Also this notebook is a heavy, weighty binder and it will last.
I see the Housekeeping Notebook as a tool for me to use to be able to meet my goals, get organized and be more efficient. Basically I want to get my housework done and have time to do other things. I think getting organized is like losing weight. You have to be ready, otherwise you will fail. Last fall I threw something together in a pinch because I overreacted to an almost missed appointment. I wasn't ready to get organized. Well I am ready. Now if I can just find my pinking shears I would be able to get started on that fabric cover tonight!
Yesterday I spent the afternoon and evening making up my own forms with clip art that I liked. Each form was my very own creation made by me for me. I have monthly calendar inserts; weekly planning sheets; daily to do lists with places for appointments, household tasks, work/project tasks, personal tasks and dinner plans all on one page; cleaning schedule; laundry sheet (recipes for laundry supplies and such); weekly menu planner; baking day planner; grocery list; Bible study notes; monthly expense log; needlework/sewing project planning sheets; home project planning sheets; memorabilia project planning sheets; organizational project planning sheets; ongoing to do lists; and a fitness/food journal.
My next problem was the pink notebook/binder. I had dropped it a couple of times and the binding was splitting. I taped it back together with packaging tape until I had come up with another plan. It was junk, but hey it was free. Going to Wal-mart looking for a heavy duty binder is like going to "generic, boring" land looking for something special. You know you are not going to find it but still part of you hopes that something special will be there. Okay, I am getting a little too emotional about a binder. I didn't find anything special, but it was worth a try.
I looked around the house and I had some binders leftover from the law office. One is a large 2 1/2 inch dark gray super heavy duty binder. Oh yes - it really speaks to me and says "come hither and organize with me." Yeah right. It is ugly. I am determined and am up for the challenge.
I purchased some old fashioned floral fabric on clearance. I really think it is pretty and it is something I would have paid full price for. As a sidenote I told my DS that I had bought this fabric to make curtains for his room. He believed me for a moment and got upset.
I plan to take that gray notebook and transform it. I have some quilting batting upstairs and I will pad the notebook and cover it with the fabric. Then it will be beautiful and it will be something that I will want to have sitting out on my kitchen counter or table and I will actually use it. Also this notebook is a heavy, weighty binder and it will last.
I see the Housekeeping Notebook as a tool for me to use to be able to meet my goals, get organized and be more efficient. Basically I want to get my housework done and have time to do other things. I think getting organized is like losing weight. You have to be ready, otherwise you will fail. Last fall I threw something together in a pinch because I overreacted to an almost missed appointment. I wasn't ready to get organized. Well I am ready. Now if I can just find my pinking shears I would be able to get started on that fabric cover tonight!
November 10, 2009
Housekeeping Notebook
I knew when I was choosing to be home and not to seek further employment that I had to be organized or time would get away from me and I wouldn't get much done during the day. It is easy for me to get side tracked. I put off trying to put together my own housekeeping manual as I wanted to get my house in order and then sit down and make up a manual. Okay - mistake number 1. Didn't think it was important to plan in order to get my house in order. Then on Saturday, October 3rd we awoke to the phone ringing. It was a kind lady from our church calling to let us know that our son wouldn't need to be at the church to do the sound for their meeting until 9:00 a.m. Well - I had totally forgotten and so had everyone else that our son, Charlie, was going to do this for the woman's group. Thank goodness for that call. After our son left for church - in plenty of time - I made some coffee, sat down and had a "come to meeting Jesus" with myself. Where did I write down that he was going to do this? How could I have forgotten something like that? That Saturday I spent the bulk of the day trying to put something together.
My first rule of thumb in making a housekeeping notebook was that it had to be cheap. I could not afford to put a lot of money into a planner. I researched Franklin planners as I had used them in the past but I felt that it was out of my price range for now and none of them seemed to address the homemaker. My second rule of thumb was that it had to be pretty. I did have a pink binder that I had bought a year ago and I decided to use it. I set to work searching the internet for printable forms. It took a while to find some but I was looking for something specific to me. The one thing about a housekeeping notebook/planner or any planner for that matter is this: if you don't tailor it to you and try to use something that someone else has made up then it won't work. I knew that this planner was going to be "command central" for me. A place I could put odds and ends of notes and log them on a calendar or such as needed.
After locating the forms on the internet I headed to Wal-Mart and purchased pastel index dividers and pastel card stock. On the card stock I printed a monthly calendar that is split onto two pages. I like this big format as it gives me plenty of space to write things down and it gives me a month at a view glance. I printed off these months through December 2010. There is a space on the right side and at the bottom to jot down any notes. On one of the back sides I printed a calendar for the year and on the other back side page I have lines for advance planning. I found the calendar pages at Donna Young's website here.
After that I printed some daily pages that has a to do list, a place to write down what we will have for dinner, a place to write down the top 3 tasks I want to complete that day, a place to record any appointments and a place for miscellaneous items that I use to jot down notes or to put down my exercise log and eating log. I found this daily docket page at simplemom.net here.
I have a section for cleaning with a cleaning schedule. It is not a do this on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday kind of schedule. Instead I have listed a daily cleaning schedule, every other day cleaning schedule, then a weekly cleaning schedule, monthly cleaning schedule and I 'm working on seasonal cleaning and annual cleaning.
Okay - that is a lot of cleaning. However, I made it up to do some cleaning every day spread out among 6 days with Sunday off. I estimate that I will have about 90 minutes of cleaning a day to begin with but after being on a cleaning schedule for a while I estimate that it will be around 75 minutes a day. 75 minutes a day is quite doable for me. I have not started this cleaning schedule yet. I have spent time decluttering and getting used to being home and I have been taking things slow. Up to now I have been cleaning what needs to be cleaned and not worrying about it. I am starting this cleaning schedule tomorrow so we will see how things go. Sometimes when I am feeling good about myself and life I tend to take on too much and am overwhelmed. But I have tried to make up a cleaning schedule that is not overwhelming. My thought is that as long as I get on some kind of schedule I will see improvement. Even if I choose to take a day off from cleaning my house, it should remain in order as I would have been on a schedule.
I have a section for menu planning but haven't done much with that and hope to tackle that next. Again, I am taking baby steps and do not want to set myself up for failure.
I have also put in a section for Christmas as I have been keeping an ongoing list for gifts to buy or make and recipes I am finding that I would like to use for the holidays.
This notebook is a work in progress and it is not finished as I have more sections I would like to put in it. I am finding that Sunday afternoons offer me the best opportunity to pull out this housekeeping notebook and look ahead to the week for planning and such. It is also the best time for me to sit down and add new sections and ideas.
Sections I need to add: addresses and phone numbers, a section with a list of my pantry items and freezer items, a section with a list of renovation projects to plan and so on.
As time goes on I am tweeking it. I have to remind myself to look at this notebook every morning so that I don't forget any appointments that I have calendared for the day.
My main goal of having a housekeeping notebook is peace of mind. I have one place that I can turn to for family schedules, projects to work on, tasks that need to be done and so on. Also, when I am away from home and think of something I need to do I write it on a piece of paper and when I get home I put it in my notebook.
When I have time I will post a picture of what my notebook looks like.
My first rule of thumb in making a housekeeping notebook was that it had to be cheap. I could not afford to put a lot of money into a planner. I researched Franklin planners as I had used them in the past but I felt that it was out of my price range for now and none of them seemed to address the homemaker. My second rule of thumb was that it had to be pretty. I did have a pink binder that I had bought a year ago and I decided to use it. I set to work searching the internet for printable forms. It took a while to find some but I was looking for something specific to me. The one thing about a housekeeping notebook/planner or any planner for that matter is this: if you don't tailor it to you and try to use something that someone else has made up then it won't work. I knew that this planner was going to be "command central" for me. A place I could put odds and ends of notes and log them on a calendar or such as needed.
After locating the forms on the internet I headed to Wal-Mart and purchased pastel index dividers and pastel card stock. On the card stock I printed a monthly calendar that is split onto two pages. I like this big format as it gives me plenty of space to write things down and it gives me a month at a view glance. I printed off these months through December 2010. There is a space on the right side and at the bottom to jot down any notes. On one of the back sides I printed a calendar for the year and on the other back side page I have lines for advance planning. I found the calendar pages at Donna Young's website here.
After that I printed some daily pages that has a to do list, a place to write down what we will have for dinner, a place to write down the top 3 tasks I want to complete that day, a place to record any appointments and a place for miscellaneous items that I use to jot down notes or to put down my exercise log and eating log. I found this daily docket page at simplemom.net here.
I have a section for cleaning with a cleaning schedule. It is not a do this on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday kind of schedule. Instead I have listed a daily cleaning schedule, every other day cleaning schedule, then a weekly cleaning schedule, monthly cleaning schedule and I 'm working on seasonal cleaning and annual cleaning.
Okay - that is a lot of cleaning. However, I made it up to do some cleaning every day spread out among 6 days with Sunday off. I estimate that I will have about 90 minutes of cleaning a day to begin with but after being on a cleaning schedule for a while I estimate that it will be around 75 minutes a day. 75 minutes a day is quite doable for me. I have not started this cleaning schedule yet. I have spent time decluttering and getting used to being home and I have been taking things slow. Up to now I have been cleaning what needs to be cleaned and not worrying about it. I am starting this cleaning schedule tomorrow so we will see how things go. Sometimes when I am feeling good about myself and life I tend to take on too much and am overwhelmed. But I have tried to make up a cleaning schedule that is not overwhelming. My thought is that as long as I get on some kind of schedule I will see improvement. Even if I choose to take a day off from cleaning my house, it should remain in order as I would have been on a schedule.
I have a section for menu planning but haven't done much with that and hope to tackle that next. Again, I am taking baby steps and do not want to set myself up for failure.
I have also put in a section for Christmas as I have been keeping an ongoing list for gifts to buy or make and recipes I am finding that I would like to use for the holidays.
This notebook is a work in progress and it is not finished as I have more sections I would like to put in it. I am finding that Sunday afternoons offer me the best opportunity to pull out this housekeeping notebook and look ahead to the week for planning and such. It is also the best time for me to sit down and add new sections and ideas.
Sections I need to add: addresses and phone numbers, a section with a list of my pantry items and freezer items, a section with a list of renovation projects to plan and so on.
As time goes on I am tweeking it. I have to remind myself to look at this notebook every morning so that I don't forget any appointments that I have calendared for the day.
My main goal of having a housekeeping notebook is peace of mind. I have one place that I can turn to for family schedules, projects to work on, tasks that need to be done and so on. Also, when I am away from home and think of something I need to do I write it on a piece of paper and when I get home I put it in my notebook.
When I have time I will post a picture of what my notebook looks like.
November 06, 2009
Pulling things together
I have spent the past several weeks - close to two months going through my house decluttering. I got discouraged many times because to look at the entire house and what needed to be done was entirely overwhelming. Having a messy, cluttered up home with closets disorganized and full; my pantry and freezer disorganized, the basement needing to be cleaned out makes a person tired - just thinking about it was overwhelming. Combine that with trying to keep up on the day to day chores of a home, well it was no wonder I was discouraged.
At one point I thought I must be inept as I had managed a law firm and worked a lot of hours so I sat down one day and just started pondering what I needed to do. At work I had taken major projects such as probating an estate and made a checklist and broke the project down into manageable pieces. That is what I did at home except I added one more caveat - I would not spend an entire day working on decluttering and cleaning up. I would spend a portion of the day and take small steps. Last Saturday it happened. I was putting things away upstairs and I stopped and looked around. It looked pretty good. You could walk around without knocking over piles of clothes, papers and junk. I still have a small loft area to work on but the upstairs looks wonderful. I was shocked when I realized that I was 98% done. I had taken probably 30 minutes at a time working on putting things away, throwing things away and making a pile of things to give away.
Now, I make my bed in the morning (never did that before), take my shower and then do some general pick up of the house and I feel so much better. Before I was embarrassed to have my family come home at the end of the day to a messy house. After all I am a SAHW/SAHM and being home during the day meant I should be able to give them an orderly home.
Lessons learned: 1. A messy house costs money. I couldn't find some things so I would go out and buy what I couldn't find such as paper, pens, pantry items, clothing and so on. 2. Trying to tackle a large task in one day or week can be overwhelming. Breaking it into small allotments of time is easier and also you will not feel like giving up or getting tired of working on the project.
Now that my house is in order it is time to get into a daily, weekly, monthly, annual housecleaning routine. I have been working on a housekeeping manual and my next post will describe that. It comes with a lesson to be learned also: As a SAHW/SAHM I need a professional working planner such as one that I used when I was employed outside of the home.
At one point I thought I must be inept as I had managed a law firm and worked a lot of hours so I sat down one day and just started pondering what I needed to do. At work I had taken major projects such as probating an estate and made a checklist and broke the project down into manageable pieces. That is what I did at home except I added one more caveat - I would not spend an entire day working on decluttering and cleaning up. I would spend a portion of the day and take small steps. Last Saturday it happened. I was putting things away upstairs and I stopped and looked around. It looked pretty good. You could walk around without knocking over piles of clothes, papers and junk. I still have a small loft area to work on but the upstairs looks wonderful. I was shocked when I realized that I was 98% done. I had taken probably 30 minutes at a time working on putting things away, throwing things away and making a pile of things to give away.
Now, I make my bed in the morning (never did that before), take my shower and then do some general pick up of the house and I feel so much better. Before I was embarrassed to have my family come home at the end of the day to a messy house. After all I am a SAHW/SAHM and being home during the day meant I should be able to give them an orderly home.
Lessons learned: 1. A messy house costs money. I couldn't find some things so I would go out and buy what I couldn't find such as paper, pens, pantry items, clothing and so on. 2. Trying to tackle a large task in one day or week can be overwhelming. Breaking it into small allotments of time is easier and also you will not feel like giving up or getting tired of working on the project.
Now that my house is in order it is time to get into a daily, weekly, monthly, annual housecleaning routine. I have been working on a housekeeping manual and my next post will describe that. It comes with a lesson to be learned also: As a SAHW/SAHM I need a professional working planner such as one that I used when I was employed outside of the home.
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