Managing My Home – My Home Journal

She looks well to the ways of her household… Prov 31:27

Running a household takes allot of juggling. One of the most essential skills to running an efficient household is to be organised. I have gone through seasons of being super organised with many well established systems in place to being totally disorganised and feeling like I am doing more sinking than swimming. These disorganised seasons come to most of us – for me, our international move was really disruptive and it has taken much longer to re-establish good habits of organisation than it did to slip out of good routines.

One of the tools that has helped me over the past 4 years to keep on top of things was my ‘Home Journal.’ I have to say that Dawn from By Sun and Candlelight has long inspired me in this area of organisation, so thank you Dawn for all your great posts on the home/control journal and FCS! {I’ll share on the FCS tomorrow! – curious???}

My home journal is a one stop shop for me to keep all those bits and pieces of paper than I really cannot file away and forget. This is one tool that helps me to ‘look well to the ways of my household.’ It assists me in keeping informed and up to date with the needs of my family and home.

In my re-settling season – which has lasted way longer than I would have liked – my home journal was neglected, hardly referred to in fact. Somehow I have muddled through, but my home has not run in a way that makes me happy. I briefly thought about getting myself together earlier on in the year, in fact I bought a subscription to the beautiful Moms Toolbelt in January, the plan was to lavish a bit of TLC on re-vamping my home journal. But alas – I was not in the right frame of mind at that point. HOWEVER – just as the seasons change and nothing stays the same for long, so do things here on the home front. With just a few weeks of holidays under our belts, I am feeling refreshed and inspired to get back on track. To re-establish those things that worked for me and even start something new that has stirred my little home-keeping heart :o)

First things first, and the topic of this particular post – my neglected home journal. I made a trip to my favourite office supply store and purchased a new project binder that would house all the components that make up my home journal. Next – with an afternoon set aside – I took my old binder apart, threw out what was no longer relevant, sorted what was relevant into organised chaos, dug out all those bits of paper that I have been kept in various drawers throughout the house – no wonder I can never find them – and added them to the organised chaos.

Next came the fun part – choosing a theme for my journal from the beautiful options from ‘Moms Toolbelt’ and creating a cover – this will be changed each season – I’ve naturally chosen a summer theme for the moment. Next was to decide the order of things. Those sections that I use the most are in the front, those less frequented towards the back of the binder.

Inside, right in the front, I have my ‘Current Season’ planning pages. I usually work from my brainstorming ideas of previous years as well as looking to what is going on around us currently to see how I can make the events and seasons relevant in our home. I also add things here that I see but perhaps have missed date-wise for next season. I use my pinterest boards quite a bit to draw up these lists too. These plans are not only to help me bring the flavor of each season into our home, but also things that I personally want to try out. The calendar pages you see in one of the images further up in the post is an annual seasonal plan that is personal to me in wanting to learn such things like spinning, cheese-making etc.

After these ‘current season’ pages I have my month-to-view calendar pages for the year. These are filled in at the relevant time and then pinned up on my notice board so that we can keep a track of the days in our month and everyone can see exactly what is happening when.

After that – ‘Meals’. Past menu plans are kept here, a seasonal foods chart, pantry list, party/seasonal/feast food ideas I see throughout the year is printed off and stored here for the relevant season.

Next is ‘Budget Keeping’, then ‘Home-keeping.’ In this section I have list of emergency information and contact numbers, typed up directions on how to get to our home, a list of our service suppliers their contact numbers and our various account numbers with them, I have a list of important renewal dates for such things as car insurance, MOT, Road tax etc, a list of favourite home-keeping websites, My cleaning schedule which I’ve adapted  from Donna Young’s list to suite my personal needs. I also have a list of books that I have loaned out, a clothing needs list for each member of the family and a swimming pool schedule.

Next section is ‘Seasonal Planning’. My previous lists are printed out and stored here, as well as any recipe or craft ideas that I come across in magazines etc. A book-list and wish list of seasonal books is kept here. I also have my ‘Learning Grandma’s Ways’ annual planner that I mentioned above here. Each month I have purposefullyyogurt making. I have attempted this before but have NOT been successful!

‘Faith’ follows. Here I have a copy of the liturgical year and some paper to make notes of any ideas I come across to help us celebrate the seasons. I have a ‘read through the bible’ schedule here for myself as well as a book-list for books/DVDs/websites that I want to read/view or that have been recommended to me. I have a note in my weekly folder {tomorrows post} to investigate a Christian organisation that run holiday camps during the summer for children. We have missed it this year but I would really like to see what it’s all about. I will print out the info and put it in this section.

After ‘Faith’ comes ‘Contacts’. This is a simple list of all the contact details of friends and family. I have not kept this completely up to date and I have to say that I regret it as my mobile phone had juice spilled over it and I lost all my contacts. It was a good lesson in keeping a paper copy! Computers of all sorts are vulnerable to dying so hard copies are still best :o)

‘Family’ – this section has all sorts in it dating back from my children’s infant years! Their immunisation history, pre-school reports – right up to current doctors reports etc…

‘Personal’ – Blog, info on courses I want to attend etc… next is ‘Family Jaunts’ – I have some brochures I have picked up along the way of interesting places to visit – usually National Trust properties. If someone has mentioned a great place to visit I will go up onto the website and print off an information sheet and file it away for future visits etc. We often head out for the day over the week-end as a family and explore the many wonders of England so it is nice to keep a list of things to do or see nearby. Finally – ‘Homeschool’ – I have next years term schedule here, our LEA contact details and correspondence – which isn’t much. Allot of my homeschooling stuff now rests in my File Crate System {tomorrows post again} so this section could remain small.

And that’s about it! A central place for all those ‘where do I keep this?’ bits and bobs :o)