How to put together a functional family binder |part 1|

Happy Monday!

I am excited to be sharing a fun little project with you. I have been married for 5 and a half years and during them my husband and I have just struggled to get onto the same page with our organizing, scheduling and budgeting. We've tried to balance well and work around one another's preferences and such but with job changing, small paychecks and babies coming along we have just NOT been able to make any progress it seems. We are finally seeing the other side of that and are functioning together SO much better. With that, I created a new planner with budget and various sections for our important information to add into a binder so we can both know exactly where to go for the important family pieces.



I want to share  with you how I did that and what our process is and I'm going to break it up into sections for you to keep focus on ONE piece at a time so it won't be too overwhelming. So, without further ado, part one:

Your first step is to decide what size you want kind of information you want to include in your binder.
Things you could look at including could be:

• a budget section


• insurance section


• address section


• birthday section


• meal section


• recipe section


• certificates (wed, birth, socials)


• car titles


• planner pages


• calendars


• spot for bills


• notes section

I know there are so many other things that you could possibly add in there. Sit down, make a list (don't know about you but I'm a list makin' girl) look at what works for you/what doesn't work for you, find the pieces you'd like to use, here is a little organizing printable for you to get your thoughts in order.



the creative jayne // family planner series \ binder planner sheet

The following is what I decided to include in ours (you can get your own on Etsy in my shop!):



I have a beginning page with our family mission statement and mission verses on. You can read about that here and I will be doing a future post about creating your own!



A year at a glance since that is a must for every planner.



A year at a glace family chore list. As you can see I haven't filled in mine but Andrew began filling his thoughts in. A spot to pick a reflection verse for the year and a spot for yearly goals.



Then we move onto the month's page. I have a spot included for goals, a verse and freezer meals to plan. On the opposite page is our budget worksheet. A spot for goals, monthly bills, check boxes to mark paid, a savings tracker spot and so on. I made it to be rather flexible with what and how you fill it in.



Then a weekly spread. I have a spot for weekly goals, daily tasks, chores, and appointments/errands.



Here is a month we didn't fill in yet for you to see.



I also used some page dividers to add in other information. I have a section for addresses and phone numbers, family information and car titles as well as birth certificates, our wedding certificate and our social cards. Another section that I have is my house inspiration boards, hair inspiration photos (I always use a photo to describe to my stylist how I want it), menu section with menus that I find on Pinterest that I really like - I print them off so we can replicate them during the months.



I also put in the vaccine information that we get. I like to keep track of it since I can never remember what we get. In this same section is our health insurance information.

Once you gather all of your own information and paperwork, here's the super fun part: you get to decide on a binder. I have seen a lot of ladies use pieces from Martha Stewart's office collection like this one:



You can find these beautes at Staples and Amazon (I'm sure there are other places as well but these two seem to be the most popular places to snag them at).

This next one is my personal choice, found at Target:



I tried to find something that I liked but wouldn't be too girly for my hubs to use. I haven't gotten fun little dities to add in there yet but I'd like to get some post-its, my husband wants a special folder for bills, I want to get some washi tape to make my flaggies with (washi doesn't stick permanently so it makes great little peal and stick flags or markers). There's also so many different stickers and labels you can get for these things. And page dividers. I just want to make a run to the local Staples so I can pick in person. I like it better that way. I'm a touch and feel kind of artist.

Hope this has helped you with an idea of where to begin and what to add into your perfect, functional family binder!!! Let me know what kinds of things you would add in and what kinds of things you look for when searching for family binder printables!

Tomorrow we are going to take a look at calendars and what kinds of things to look for, add on and so on. Be sure to subscribe by email so you don't miss any part of this series - there should be a box just below my about me pick over there on the right! -------->

Have a blessed day friend!
<3 Kayla

Part 2