Kids' Home Management Journal or Binder

So, the girls wanted to make a Home Management Journal of their own, titled, respectively Girls' Home Journal. They wanted a place to keep school work, friend's numbers (besides their phone), and copies of routines, etc, so we set up a small binder for them. It's been working rather well, they like having all their stuff in one central location and I thought I would share it with you!

Immediately after opening we have a list of Emergency numbers, which I've uploaded for you to use here. Behind the list of Emergency Numbers, we have a list of family and frequent contacts such as Mom and Dad's friends, etc.

Next, we have a generalized list of their daily routine, followed by the Morning Routine, After School Routine, and Evening Routine.

Each girl has her own section, which has a calendar for her to put anything on (birthdays, games, parties, etc) and behind that we have a list of all their friend's phone numbers. Also, in each section, they will have any pictures or school items that they want to keep in there. Their school schedules and report cards are in the master HMJ (Optimus Prime), but anything else would go in their home journal.

We plan to add more as we go, but I think it's a good start. Good luck with your own. Personally, I think HMJ's (or JMJ's if you're working) are great for Moms, Dads, kids, families, and anyone else who wants to stay organized. Honestly, I keep one for my schoolwork, too!

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Steps 18 & 19: Home Management Journal

Step 18

From Flylady.net:

Do you know how we have to hunt for phone number and addresses all over our home and in our computers. Now this baby step is going to help us put all of our phone number and addresses in a hard copy. This is your back up in case your computer crashes or your palm pilot.

So set up a section for this in your Control Journal. Do not obsess about this. You don’t even need ABC dividers if you don’t have room. Just a letter at the top of the page will do nicely. Write them in pencil, because they will change and you know how we hate messed up pages. LOL

Start with:

NAME Phone Number
Address Cell Number
City Work Number
State
Memo

Any other info you might want to add; Children’s Names or a memo about who they are in case someone that doesn’t know them is using your control journal to contact your friends and family. For Instance this is my mother’s next door neighbor or my sister’s best friend. If they are someone I like to send cards to then I put birthdates and anniversary date here too.

Keep in mind you don’t have to do this all at one time. You can build this, one address at a time, as you find your little stashes of them hidden in junk drawers, under piles of clutter, in old purses and on notepads stashed all over the house. Oh and don’t forget those old Christmas card envelopes you have been holding on to. Just think those can go in the trash after you do this.

Step 19

From Flylady.net

I believe that this is the last Control Journal babystep that I am going to give you. This document is personal to you. You can keep it private or you can have it out for your whole family to use. Mine stays at home. I do not take it with me unless it is an emergency.

This next section is for just those times. IN CASE OF EMERGENCY!

You are going to need to know insurance numbers. I like to make copies of the cards and you will need to update them each time

you get a new card. You have already listed the phone numbers of people to contact in a emergency.

Also here is the tough section. In the event that you are evacuated from your home for hurricane, forest fire, flood, or any kind of disaster. You need an list of things that you would want to take with you and where they are. In times like this we can’t think so our control journal thinks for us because we took the time to write these things down.

Here is an essay I wrote last year about this. You don’t have to do it right this minute, just printing it out and putting it in this section is a good start. Then next week on anti-procrastination day you can begin to take the babysteps to be prepared for any disaster.

You can do this. Just having this section in your control journal is going to help you to stay calm.

My take on it:

I don’t like having this in the HMJ, I prefer to keep these documents on me or have copies of them at a family member/friends house. Just in case the HMJ gets lost, etc.

However, it’s up to you if you want to add these items or not.

Have a great day!

Step 17: Home Management Journal

Step 17

From Flylady.net:

Today I was reviewing our Control Journal BabySteps we have done 16 so far and it looks like I left off the section about our Zones. So here is a link to all the zones detailed cleaning list. You may have to adapt to fit your home, but don’t go overboard. For now just print them out or write them down on a sheet of paper for each zone. It could take a few sheets for some of the zones.

http://www.flylady.net/images/Detailed_Cleaning_Lists.pdf

I have one section for zones.

Step 16: Home Management Journal

Step 16

From Flylady.net:

Your next assignment for your Control Journal is to start by building your contact list for emergencies. We did our immediate family members last time. Now we are going to write down the people we may need in an emergency. Starting with:

Call 911 if someone is hurt or there is a fire! If you don’t have 911 in your area, then list the numbers of the Sheriff, police, and fire Departments. Now don’t say to yourself, those are all in the front of the phone book. When was the last time you hunted 30 minutes for your phone book!

List the names and phone numbers of your family doctors.

Pediatrician
Poison Control Center
Husband’s Doctor
Wife’s Doctor
Veterinarian

Do not get overwhelmed by this. If you will do this now while you are calm you will have a sense of peace in those awful times of stress.

My take on it:

These are really important! We have all of these listed under important telephone numbers. We have parents, doctors, neighbors, fire department, police department, and closest relative. It’s very helpful!

Have a great day!

Step 15: Home Management Journal

Step 15

From Flylady.net:

Today we are going to begin building our personal contact information.

Start put taking one sheet of paper and writing down your immediate family phone numbers and addresses.

List the work number, cell number and home number or any other information that someone else would need to know in order to get in touch with your family. We have this stuff in our heads; it is time to put it down on paper. For example I know how to find my husband in any court house he may be in. He has five counties, but Kelly could look at my control journal to find this information if she needed to.

Your name first

Then your spouse

Then the children

Your parents and your spouses parents

Then close next of kin and next door neighbors and best friend.

This will take all of five minutes if you will just sit down and write this information on a sheet of paper. Just get started. It doesn’t have to be typed. Just start listing the names and phone numbers.

My take on it:

I don’t have one of these in my Home Management Journal, though I probably should. We know this stuff about one another as do the kids. However, you should do this if you feel the need.

Have a great day!

Step 14: Home Management Journal

Step 14

From Flylady.net

Today we start on one of the most important parts of your Control Journal; the area that contains your emergency contact phone numbers and other numbers. The first sheet you are going to fill out is your one simple page that gives the address and the phone number along with directions to your home. This is for your babysitter.

Keep in mind that this is for your Control Journal and it stays at home on your kitchen counter; unless there is an emergency and you have to grab it an GO! Many of our members have been so happy to have all this information in one place in times of crisis. At the top of the page say YOU ARE HERE!

My take on it:

Our emergency numbers sheet is at the beginning of Optimus Prime, right after the calendar. The names, addresses, and numbers of family and friends is toward the middle. We have the names and numbers of the girls friend’s along with the parents names and numbers (if they have separate cell phones). This is really important because we ALWAYS want to know where our kids are, who they are with, and their parents. We don’t ever let the girls go to friend’s houses without talking to or meeting their parents. It’s imperative!

Have a great day!

Step 13: Home Management Journal

Step 13

From Flylady.net:

Your Control Journal baby step for today is to pick a day to sit down with your calendars: Mom, Dad and children and make sure that everyone knows what everyone else has planned for the next week. We do this twice a week. On Wednesday when planning for next week’s menus and then again over dinner on Sunday Night!

Also just to reinforce your daily routines; look and see if you have, “check your calendar” in the morning and before bed routines. You know what Kelly likes to say with her daily missions when she is in Mission Impossible Mode; Synchronize your watches. This time we are FLY Syncing our calendars. I don’t want you to miss another appointment.

My take on it:

We do our weekly Family Meetings on Sunday afternoon’s on Hubby’s off week and on Saturday evenings on his on week, so that he can always be present. It’s really important for us so that everyone has a chance to know what’s going on and what to expect the following week, along with getting to add any menu items that they want.

We use a Family Meeting Agenda form to write down everything so that we don’t forget. I’ve included my Family Agenda Form for you to use if you need it.

Family Meeting Form.pdf

Have a great day!

Step 12: Home Management Journal

Step 12

Flylady.net says:

Today we are going to pick a day or days that we are going to bless our homes with our Weekly Home Blessing Hour.

I do mine on Monday morning. Then there are our payroll SHEs that may not have a full hour to devote to this. So I teach them to do one or two items of our weekly home blessing a day. You can do one before you go to work and one after you get home. Then after three days your home has been blessed and you have only done ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening. With these things penciled on your Basic Weekly Plan you have a specific time to do them.

So now is the hard part. You have to pick a day to Bless your home! So pull out your Control Journal and write in Weekly Home Blessing Hour and these seven items. You can pick the order.

• Vacuum or sweep just the middles not around the walls.
• Dust
• Mop the kitchen and the bathroom
• Clean the glass in the doors and bathroom mirrors.
• Purge magazines. This means get rid of them from your house.
• Empty all the trash cans
• Change the sheets on your bed. (each family member is responsible for their bed)

My take on it:

I do mine on Wednesdays (thoroughly) and on Sundays (basic to get ready for the week), though some people do theirs only once a week. With so many kids in the house along with the dog, I have to do extra cleaning. The girls all help out and have their chore list (more on this in another post), but the main cleaning is up to me.

Have a great day!

Steps 8-11: Home Management Journal

In Step 7 of making the Home Management Journal we started working on our weekly plan. Step 8 is to figure out what day is errand day. My errand day is Tuesday since I make my menu's on Monday. That way I can get to the grocery store and get any other errands such as appointments or paying bills out of the way. Also, you can get all of your running done in one day (if possible!), leaving the other days free.

For Step 9 Flylady.net suggests to clean out your purse, file any receipts, clean out the vehicle, and plan a date with your special someone. On Fridays, I wash the dog, clean out the van, file receipts, and wash the dog bowls and her bedding. This is along with my other daily tasks. I try to plan dates with Hubby, but it really depends on what his work schedule is like.

Step 10 is just a reminder to add menu planning on the day before your errands and to remember to add Clean out the refrigerator on that day, too. Monday is my menu planning, and fridge cleaning day, however, yours can be whatever day of the week is best for you. I also make my grocery list on that day to make things simpler.

Oh and don't forget to have a calendar! A wall calendar, planner, or whatever is best for you is wonderful! That way all your family members know what's going on for the week. I print one out for each month and it's the first page in my Home Management Journal. Hubby and the kiddos can look in there and see what we've got planned. I do keep a large planner with me, too, so I can pencil in each days activity at the right time.

Step 11 is getting a grocery list example if you need one. Pretty simple. I generally just look at my menus and write down what I will need after perusing my cabinets. I'm including two grocery lists for you to use if you need them. They are basic forms from MSWorks and MSWord. Feel free to use them if you need to.

That's it for now. I've not been doing the daily Home Management Journal entries and decided to combine them all since these were so easy to do. However, if you'd like, I can start posting daily again. Just let me know!

Grocery List 1

Grocery List 2

Have a great day!

Step 7: Home Management Journal

Step 7.

1. We found a old three ring binder and put it on our kitchen counter.

2. Write down a simple Before Bed Routine.

3. Write down a simple Morning Routine.

4. Write down an Afternoon/After School/After Work Routine.

This is your first section in your Control Journal. You can put a tab for Daily Routines or just leave them as they are. Put them in a sheet protector and use the front and back. Start with your before bed routine as first; since I believe that it is the most important routine of the day!

The next section we are working on is our Basic Weekly Plan.

5. Write the Days of the week down one sheet of paper.

6. By Monday-Friday write; Do Kelly's Zone Mission for the day!

This is a work in progress, just like you are. Do not let your perfectionism keep you from even getting started.

All of this information is from Flylady.net. Thanks, Flylady!

Step 6: Home Management Journal

Hey guys! I took a break from blogging and the internet in general to spend time with my family. Nate works odd hours and was off for several days in a row and this was the girls' first weekend off from school, so I thought that some family fun time was needed! It was relaxing and entertaining. Did you know that a six year old girl can stuff four pieces of sliced cheese in her mouth and not choke? I found that out this weekend. Interesting information, yes?

Anyway, back to the Home Management Journal.

Flylady.net says, for Step 6, "We are still working on our Basic Weekly Plan. Do not get hung up in your perfectionism and try to do too much.

With our system we will never have to spring clean again, but here is how we accomplish the detailed cleaning weekly so things never look awful.

We simply do Kelly's Zone Mission for the day.

So on Monday-Friday of your Basic Weekly Plan put; do Kelly's Zone Mission for the

day. After five days of missions you have spent only a few short minutes a day and the accumlative effect is a home that hugs you. All of this fits together nicely.

Have you done Kelly's Mission for today? They are posted on our website every day.
http://flylady.net/pages/FlightPlan_Missions.asp ."

So, today check out the cleaning missions and make sure that is part of your routine. Have you done your zone mission for the day?

Step 5: Home Management Journal

Step 5

The next step for the Home Management Journal is pretty easy. Take a sheet of paper and put the days of the week on it. FlyLady suggests:

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday Date Night

Saturday Family Fun Day

Sunday Renew your spirit day

This is the set up for your basic weekly plan. The rest will be filled in during the next step. Flylady suggests that we go about this slowly so that we don't get too frazzled and want to quit. I think this is an excellent idea. I tend to do a lot for a couple of weeks, then get tired of it and stop. That's how my house turns chaotic and I've got to stop that. By just doing simple steps, one at a time, I can build up to a larger, more complex routine.

So, be thinking about what you would do when. You've seen my basic Weekly Routine. There are some weeks that I deviate from it, depending upon what's going on. So, remember, it doesn't have to be exact, it just needs to give you a plan.

Also, I have a Weekly Checklist that I've uploaded. Feel free to use it if you need to. I made this on MSword, but I got the information from FlyLady.net.

Step 4: Home Management Journal

Step 4

Step 4 is about getting your Afternoon Routine together. This is mostly for those of you who work outside of the home, but it can be adapted for those who work in the home, too. FlyLady has these suggestions for your Afternoon Routine:

1. Get home from work and change clothes and put on lace up shoes.

2. Get dinner started; fill the sink with hot soapy water; clean as I go!

3. Sit down and drink some water for 5 minutes

4. Set the table and put some candles out

I've posted my Afternoon Routine and I've adapted it to my schedule. I'm glad I actually made this post because it reminded me to add to my Afternoon Routine. I forgot to add one of the most important aspects of my afternoon....HOMEWORK! I get a lot of my homework done while Baby D is napping or after he goes to bed. When he is awake, it's nearly impossible to get anything done. This summer Alex and Cami helped out a lot, but they will be back in school in two days, so I must plan ahead.

I found that the Afternoon Routine was needed for me because, as FlyLady says, "it helps bridge the gap between the morning and nighttime routines." That way I don't get completely off track.

Good luck!

Step 3: Home Management Journal

Step 3

According to FlyLady.net, the next page in the Home Management Journal is the Morning Routine. She says to keep it simple and the example she gave was this:

1. Get out of bed and hit the ground FLYing!

2. Make the bed.

3. Get dressed to shoes: Shower, fix hair and moisture or make-up

4. While in bathroom; Swish the toilet and wipe down the counters and put things away. Swish and Swipe is what I call it.

5. Empty the dishwasher

6. Check Calendar for appointments

You can add more as you see fit. She says at the bottom to add WHAT A WAY TO START MY DAY!!! Sounds good, yes? You guys have seen my Morning Routine and I've added a few things that personalize it, however, the information that FlyLady gives you is good enough at first, if that's what you prefer. I keep this in a sheet protector and that helps, especially since the kids look in the book to see what's going on. Don't forget to put this in your Home Management Journal under "Daily Routines."

I've added a pdf file with my morning routine if anyone wants to have a look. Feel free to use it if you like, just be sure to not say it's your own and give credit if you use it anywhere on the net.

I hope everyone's weekend is great!

Morning Routine.pdf

Step 2: Home Management Journal

Hello! Did you get all your supplies ready to start your Home Management Journal? They can just be things you have lying around the house. I had to get dividers and sheet protectors but everything else I had around here. Remember I'm still adding to my journal, too! I'll give you the information for step 2 from FlyLady.net, then I'll tell you what I have in mine so far. Sound good?

Step 2

These are the dividers for your control journal. As you progress through the 15 steps, you will gradually fill each section of your control journal. Remember: baby steps and keep it simple!

1. Daily Routines and Reminders: all your daily routines: Morning, Afternoon, Before Bed, etc. (FlyLady uses a yellow divider)
2. Basic Weekly Plan: many of you have not developed a Basic Weekly Plan yet. No problem, just have a sheet of paper labelled for each day of the week. (FlyLady uses a blue divider)
3. Zones: this is where you will put your detailed cleaning list for each zone (5 different colored sheets). Go to the FlightPlan to refer to FlyLady's detailed cleaning lists.
1. Zone 1: Entrance and Dining Room
2. Zone 2: Kitchen
3. Zone 3: Bathroom and one other room
4. Zone 4: Master Bedroom
5. Zone 5: Living Room

4. Menus & Grocery List
5. Emergency Numbers
6. Address Book (ABC dividers)
7. Personal (FlyLady uses pink)
8. Then some blank dividers for your own sections.

In my Home Management Journal (called Optimus Prime aka The Book of Knowledge...the kids loved that!), I have the following sections:

1. Calendar and Emergency Numbers (police, fire, 911, Hubby's cell and work, nearby relatives numbers and neighbors)
2. Daily Routines (daily schedule, morning, afternoon, nighttime, and my weekly plan)
3. Menus and Recipes
4. Cleaning (the FlyLady Eleven Commandments, my weekly checklist, and he FlyLady detailed cleaning list)
5. Budget and Bill Pay
6. Contacts (relatives, friends, neighbors, kids friends and their parents)
7. A section each for all four kids which has their school schedules, copy of immunization records (no SS#'s!) and personal chore charts)

As I go I will add more. I also have several templates for chore charts, cleaning lists, and budgeting that I can upload if anyone is interested. Just let me know!

FlyLady's Detailed Cleaning Lists.

Home Management Journal

The Home Management Journal has been something that I've wanted to make for a very long time. When I saw how to make one, step by step on FlyLady.net, I knew that I absolutely HAD to make one. I'm really glad that I did. It has all of the information that my kids, my husband, and I need and all of us can look in it and see what's going on that day or the next or any time during the month. It's absolutely invaluable.

I thought I would take you step by step through the FlyLady.net journal making (she calls them Control Journals. Sound like a plan to you?

Step 1.

Get your supplies ready. Things that you might want to include are:

1. A notebook
2. White or colored paper
3. Blank dividers
4. ABC Dividers for addresses
5. Jan-Dec Dividers for seasonal reminders such as birthdays and when to change furnace filters
6. Sheet protectors (not the matte finish unless you have some, they are hard to erase)
7. Dry erase markers in your favorite color
8. Some kind of calendar for your schedule
9. A small note pad for making lists or post it notes
10. A little zippered pouch (for stamps, paper clips, and small items)

Here is a picture of the front of my Home Management Journal. It's not completely full yet, but I plan to add more to it.

p.s. I was thinking of making a post called "Touch of Nature Thursdays" where I give information on natural cleaning products. What do you think?