Put Your Homemaking Binder Together – Calendars and Schedules {series} 3

Introduction – I did a version of this series a year ago in tandem with a book review I had done on Renee Metzler’s books Total Home Makeover. You can read the review here.

I’ve since updated the series to be a simple primer on putting together your Homemaking Binder for a new and organized year.

So to help you regain some semblance of order in your home…

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Calendars and Schedules

For me I think that the Calendars and Schedules section of a Homemaking Binder is THE most important section in the binder. You can have a homemaking binder without a cleaning section, meal section, finances section and so forth but without your calendars and plans where and how will you begin?

It’s how I start the day.

First thing in the morning (after devotions etc.) open the Calendars section and check the day’s schedule. Next up what day of the week is it? What extra things do I normally do this day? What’s on my daughter’s schedule? My husband’s? Do I have an appointment? Phone call to make? At the beginning of each week check the monthly calendar for any coming appointments and slip them in my weekly plan.

And so forth…

The Calendars and Schedules section of your Homemaking binder is all about keeping on track of your daily life.

Let’s walk through some of the forms and lists you can keep in this section…

Calendars

I like to keep three types of calendars in this section.

Monthly Calendar: Here’s where I list important appointments and any special celebrations we may have coming up.  A monthly calendar is helpful to see your month at a glance. Often too small to hold daily details you can still get a forecast on what kind of time you have available.

Daily Plans:  This form can go by many names but the key is that is holds the details of the things that you would do on a daily basis.  Calls you need to make. Places you need to go. Notes you need reminding of.  It’s your action sheet for the current day so having an editable one is nice. I either laminate this sheet with my Laminator or stick it in a page protector. This sheet is really nice if you lead an active life but still important if you’re home most days. Another thing I do is I use a template for each day of the week and place it behind a sheet protector so that I can use a wet erase pen to write in any changing details.

Weekly Schedule/Plans:   A Weekly Plan is meant to remind you of the things you do each day of the week. For example on Mondays you may clean all of your bathrooms or do the kitchen laundry and all of the towels. On Tuesday you may run errands and water the plants. Etc. This list should not overwhelm you or be too long but it’s a great way to keep up with your home which we’ll discuss in the Cleaning Section. I have several examples of weekly homemaking lists on my sites but it’s not limited to what you do at home. If it’s the same week to week but not day to day then it belongs on this list.

Now really those are the only three basic forms you need to have in your Calendars and Schedules section to stay completely on top of your days and weeks to come. Especially if you have nice detailed templates.

But just say you have a bit more going on. Say your children have busy lives. Your spouse has a packed schedule. Maybe you want to keep track of some goals. Or even what celebrations and anniversaries come up throughout the year.

You can always add more forms. But here’s a note don’t overwhelm yourself. If you find the other forms are just too much don’t use them. Stick with what works. And if it doesn’t work tweak it until it does.

Here’s a couple of forms you can use in your Calendars and Schedules section for busier households.

Daily To Do List
Who doesn’t have to-do’s? Sometimes you need to have those To-Do’s all on one list. No frills no fuss no muss as my husband likes to say. You can use this checklist such as this to keep track of ALL of your to-do’s. At the beginning of each week jot down the things you need to accomplish for the rest of the week. Prioritize your items so you know which are the most pressing.  Mark them off as you get them done. Change out for a fresh new To-Do list each week.

Daily Schedule for the Whole Family
Sometimes you need to help family members keep track.  A schedule that lists all the details for each family member will let you know where some is or supposed to be

Daily Routines and Morning, Afternoon and Evening Routines
This is a form you can use to break your daily patterns down even more. A routine, when speaking of the ones we do in the home, are the tasks you do each morning, afternoon, or evening to keep your days running smooth. They are key to keeping you on top of things and can go a long way to adding hours to your day.

Morning Routines are the steps you do each morning to start your day such as…

• Get up and make bed
• Get dressed, tidy bedroom
• Devotions
• Wake children and have them do their morning routines
• Make breakfast
• Eat breakfast
• Clean up after breakfast
• Off to school

Afternoon Routines of course only come in to play if you are home during the day. At work? Out and about? Not so much. Homeschooling families may find afternoons a great time to reboot the household…

• Do a load of laundry
• Get the kids out for gym time in the out of doors
• Run errands
• Tidy the house after a busy morning
• Or get your WAHM hours in.

Evening Routines This is family time. Get the family together. Have dinner. Create a family activity for the evenings at home. Later

• Family Dinner
• Family time (if you feel so inclined)
• Getting the next day’s essentials prepared.

Next Week Menu Planning.