Make a Home Management Binder with your Daughter- Mama’s Homestead

Why a Home Management Binder?

There are three things I want to give my daughters as they leave our home to live on their own or to get married.

A Recipe Binder filled with tried-and-true recipes gathered from friends, family, and me.
A Hope Chest filled with essential and sentimental items she needs/wants to get started in her new life.
A Home Management Binder filled with all the information she will need to manage her home.

My daughters are arriving at the age when they need to start planning their future homes. I feel this is about junior high age (high school is not too late). It’s time for them to take things I have been teaching them for many years and gather them together in a Home Management Binder. Even if she only uses it as a reference in times of chaos, I feel like it is an important gift to give her.

Proverbs 31:27 She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness.

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What is a Home Management Binder?

It is a place to gather all aspects of home management into one easy to access location.

It is something you leave at home in a place that is convenient and central. I keep mine in the kitchen.

It is an organizational system for your household, a collection of information specifically for your family.

It is full of tips, organizational tools, schedules, and lists.

You get to decide what is in it, what sections to include, or not, and how best to use it for your family.

It will change over time.

What you will need to make a Home Management Binder:

A Three-Ringed Binder (size depends on your needs)- Let’s face it, life is constantly changing. A three-ringed binder is ideal for this purpose, so things can be removed or added as your family needs change. It gives us the ability to adjust our homekeeping binders to reflect our current lives.

Sheet Protectors- Life gets messy! I use sheet protectors for pages I will be using a lot over a long period of time that I don’t want to have to replace.

Tabbed Separators- You’ll want to separate your binder in to categories so it is easy to find what you are looking for. Tabbed separators help to do that.

Pen/Pencil- I use a pencil most of the time, because life changes and I need to erase stuff sometimes.

Extras:

Zipper Pouch- To keep your pen/pencil in, so you always have one and for keeping other small items, such as paper clips, stamps, address labels, and calculator handy. If you are the creative type, throw in some Washi Tape and some colored pens or pencils.

Post-its/Post-it Flags- To mark a particular page in your binder for quick reference

Highlighters, colored pencils- If you like to color-code things

Proverbs 31:10 A wife of noble character who can find? She is worth far more than rubies.

Categories for Your Home Management Binder:

In the Kitchen- Master Grocery Checklist, weekly grocery list, menu planner, menu suggestion page (where family members can suggest their favorite dishes), recipe reference, pantry inventory, and freezer inventory

Proverbs 31:14 She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar.

Around the House- To-do lists, chore charts, cleaning lists (daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, etc.) Also in this category, stain removal basics, cleaning tips, and a home supplies inventory

Proverbs 31:13 She selects wool and flax and works with eager hands.

Scheduling- Family calendar, where the kids can add dates for events, birthdays, anniversaries, and appointments

Proverbs 31:15 She gets up while it is still night; she provides food for her family and portions for her female servants.

Event Planning/Hospitality- Party and event planning checklists, holiday planning ideas and traditions, party menus

Proverbs 31:25 She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come.

Communication- This is where I keep all things related to communication. Emergency phone numbers, personal addresses and phone numbers, church directories, forms to be filled out (camp forms, permission slips, medical consent, sports physicals, etc.)

Proverbs 31:26 She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

Finances- Budgeting and financial planning forms, goals, account information, giving, etc. Check out Dave Ramsey for biblical financial planning, books, and tools. Also, check out Financial Peace Revisited and Smart Money Smart Kids: Raising the Next Generation to Win with Money, both great books by Dave Ramsey and Rachel Cruze for giving you and your kids a great financial start and learning financial planning skills.

Proverbs 31:16 She considers a field and buys it; out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

Home Business- This is where you keep records of your home-based business or ideas to make extra money.

Proverbs 31:18 She sees that her trading is profitable, and her lamp does not go out at night.

Crafts and Hobbies- This one is for organizing your sewing/quilting room, craft room, scrapbooking space, knitting, crochet, embroidery, pick your favorite hobby, or pick a few and organize them here.

Proverbs 31:19 In her hand she holds the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

Ministry and Community Service– Information about ways to serve in your ministry or community

Proverbs 31:20 She opens her arms to the poor and extends her hands to the needy.

Faith- Bible study, scripture reading, inspirational quotes, prayer list

Proverbs 31:30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.

Family Goals- Ministry, kids, household, books to read, etc.

Proverbs 31:28 Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her

Schooling- School schedules, plans, curriculum ideas, etc.

Proverbs 31:29 “Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”

Travel and Field Trips- Travel/vacation plans (maps, dates, brochure, ideas list, food), field trip/day trip ideas

Proverbs 31:23 Her husband is respected at the city gate, where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

Health and Fitness- Fitness/exercise log (housework counts), food journal, prescription list, doctor’s notes/recommendations

Proverbs 31:17 She sets about her work vigorously; her arms are strong for her tasks.

Home/Vehicle Maintenance- Records of dates maintenance was done and what needs done in the future

Proverbs 31:11 Her husband has full confidence in her and lacks nothing of value.

Category Tips for Your Home Management Binder Together:

This Home Management Binder is meant to be personalized just for you and your family. Some of these categories can be combined or even divided into more than one.

You can re-arrange items within categories, as you see fit. For example, if you feel the category Field Trips goes better with Schooling or Home/Vehicle Maintenance items should go in Around the House, put them there. If you think Travel and Field Trips should be two different categories, you can do that too. Make it yours.

If the Home Management Binder is for your daughter, ask her what order she thinks she will use them in and help her create a binder that best suits her needs. Her binder will change through the years as she grows up and begins to manage a home of her own. She will create new categories and have a unique Home Management Binder that’s all her own.

Creating a Home Management Binder with Your Daughter:

1. Help your daughter choose the categories she thinks she will use for her Home Management Binder.

*Hannah chose 10 categories: In the Kitchen, Around the House, Scheduling, Communication, Faith, Schooling, Travel/Field Trips, Health and Fitness, Event Planning/Hospitality, Ministry/Community Service

*Kaylan chose 10 categories: Scheduling, Trips, Schooling, Around the House, In the Kitchen, Hospitality/Entertaining, Faith, Health and Fitness, Communication, Finances/Goals

2. Label tabs for the categories you will use. Add tabs for categories, not listed, you would like to add to your binder. Put the category dividers in your binder in the order you think you will use them most to least or put similar categories together. The order should make sense to you.

3. Make a fun cover for your Home Management Binder. The cover can be changed later as your daughter gets older.

*My girls decided to call it a “Homekeeping Binder” to give it a Titus 2 theme. They decorated their covers with lots of colors and the categories they chose.

4. Gather items and tools from around your home that might be good choices put into the binder. I know, in my house, this stuff was everywhere; on my desk, in drawers, in filing boxes and cabinets. Bring all these things to one central location and start organizing and purging. Add pens, pencils, markers, etc to your zipper pouch.

5. Start gathering printable pages from online sources for her to use in her binder (see list below) or make your own. Punch holes in your pages and place them in your binder behind the proper tabs. Now you are ready to start using your Home Management Binder.

Tip: Use page protectors to cover the pages you will be using for reference only. You can laminate to-do lists and chore lists and keep them in the binder pockets to use as reusable dry-erase pages.

Proverbs 31:31 Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.