I haven’t posted about this, but I’ve spent the last several weeks combining the best of all my various organizing tools (the menu plan on the fridge, next action list in my purse, the housecleaning spreadsheet, the calender on the wall, project folders in my work area) into a master household notebook.

The biggest advantage is that it’s portable and set up with GTD type of project management, which works for me. I keep it in the bag I use for work, and do a daily review of everything I have going on during the time I wait to pick my son up from school.

I’ve been using this for a few weeks now and WOW, am I ever feeling organized. I have been truly ready for everything and making progress on everything. It’s a wonderful feeling.

I should say, that the big master household spreadsheet I’ve written about was only ever intended to be a tool to analyze what was taking too long, how often things needed doing and to measure my progress if I altered a few habits. I’m still going to use it occasionally for that, but not as a big to do list. Instead I combined like tasks into a much more simplified weekly cleaning chart.

The household notebook is a soft covered 3 ring binder divided into sections:

A quick notes section

• a plastic pocket for me to slip things that I’m currently working on and can be done quickly (like TBR school forms)
• A master grocery list of all things grocery, with check boxes for what I need to get.
• A next action list, just a lined page for jotting down all the little things I need to do

Household Routines

• Menu plan page, a chart with a column for each meal and a row for each day of the week, I plan for the whole week before getting groceries
• A weekly cleaning checklist, with a column for “daily minimums” for each day of the week, a column with weekly jobs and a section at the bottom where I add in extra things that I want to achieve around the house during this week.
• Monthly calender for keeping track of events, appointments, etc

Kitchen Section

• a page for recipes to try with columns for the recipe name, where I will find it, notes
• Printouts of recipes I want to try go in the binder (until I’ve tried them, then they are filed with the cookbooks
• A list of sure win meals and snacks with details about ingredients

Goals and Projects

• a lined page listing each goal or project I’m working on, with a column for whether it is active for for later
• a separate page for each goal where I make notes, brainstorm,etc.
• other things like instructions or pictures are added to the binder behind each goal

Events

• right now, the only thing going on here is a checklist for getting my son’s birthday party organized, and the master guest list

Christmas

• weekly checklists to get ready, courtesy of OrganizedChristmas.com
• List of baking to be done
• A list of movies, books, and music that I want to use over the holidays
• A list of christmas presents purchased, who for
• List of who to buy for, ideas of what to buy
• Christmas menu plan (yet to be filled out)
• List of christmas activities and traditions that I want to make sure we do

Kid’s activities section

• print outs and notes on things I think it would be fun to do with the kids. Brochures, instructions….

When I review the notebook, I plan my next actions from all the different project pages, and add them to the “Next Action” page at the front. Then when I get home I only focus on those things and not all the other loose ends. Pages that I’m finished with come out each day and go in the recycling and once a week I start up new menu and household chore pages. It only takes a few minutes each day, during time that was otherwise just spent waiting.

It probably sounds complicated when I write it out, but it has been wonderfully simple.