Household Notebook

So you think businesspeople are the only folks who need a personal planner? Think again: families need an organizer, too, to keep life moving smoothly on the home front. Whether it's called a household notebook, a home management binder or family organizer, this simple idea saves time, cuts stress, and enhances communication in any-sized family or household.

A standard-sized binder stocked with calendars and schedules, planner forms and inventories, a Household Notebook creates a one-stop information center for busy families. Whether it's a carpool schedule or a co-worker's phone number, the Household Notebook holds the information you need to check each day.

It's that time of year: we're building Christmas notebooks or holiday organizers to help us plan and prepare for the holiday season.

Need inspiration to make your notebook pretty? Check out this Flickr set! Pretty and practical notebook covers make it a delight to get ready for Christmas:

Christmas Notebook Covers

Life tips blogger Kristin loves the household notebook concept, but adds a big "But!": information you shouldn't include in your household notebook.

If your notebook fell into the hands of a stranger, what information would it disclose? Get Kristin's guidelines for keeping your family binder a friend, and not a security risk:

What You Should NOT Put Your Home Organizer

What's the fast-track to an organized holiday season? Create a Christmas holiday planner notebook! Organizing holiday preparations in a simple three-ring binder takes the household notebook concept to new holiday heights!

To create your tool for efficient holiday planning, try these pointers from sister site Organized Christmas:

Creativity and color know no bounds with this papercraft project from blogger Stamps Paper Scissors. It's a whole 'nuther take on the Christmas notebook in a pretty, portable package--and it's a gem of the scrapbooker's art.

Following the Houseworks Holiday Plan or Christmas Countdown this year? Consider this project an alternative to a conventional Christmas notebook.

Better, you'll find a complete how-to to make your own version. Don't miss the free download for "gift guide" page sized to fit. And wait! Aren't those our printable calendars? We love it!

Holiday Organizer

Printable Gift Guide

When blogger Elizabeth and her friend Kim took on the challenge to create household notebooks, they aimed high.

Deciding to create more than just a simple binder for household information, they envisioned their notebooks as "living books" that would help teach their daughters to keep house.

In these posts, Elizabeth shares her Foss Family Home Companion, while Kim outlines her Family Management Journal. Both notebook tours go further: they explain the thinking behind these two young mothers' decision to create order for their families, now and for the future.

Don't miss Kim's downloadable dividers and forms in Microsoft Word format. Check them out:

Elizabeth's Family Home Companion

Kim's Home Management Journal

Home Management Journal - The Basics

Home Management Journal - Housekeeping

Home Management Journal - Cleaning Forms and Lists

Scrapbooker Kristin, blogging as Artfully Inking, shares a very creative Christmas planner with this notebook tour. Her Christmas Planner shows how our free printables can be customized and incorporated into crafts projects and gifts.

Using trimmed, oval-shaped pages from the Christmas Countdown forms library, her holiday planner includes pretty chipboard covers and dividers for a custom, one-of-a-kind creation.

Love it!

Kristin's Christmas Planner

If you're visually oriented, there may be resistance to the idea of a household notebook. Who wants to flip all those pages ... and what happens when you set the mail down on top of your daily schedule?

Clever blogger Jumping On The Bed has an in-your-face solution: a home management board. Using a large dry erase marker board, she juggles schedules, lists and information right on the wall. Check out her not-notebook solution for better home management!

Home Management Board

Wondering how to set up a Christmas notebook to get organized for the holidays? Take a tip from LauraKaye. She's leading the way with this page-by-page walk-through of her Holiday Grand Plan binder, including links to printable forms:

laurakaye's Holiday Grand Plan Binder

Making a family notebook? So are the home managment gurus Janet and Kathy at Delight In Real Life.

They're offering free .pdf forms for menu planning, financial management, information--and even a pretty cover. We like their suggestion of trimming the cover then using scrapbooking paper as a border. Neat!

Family Notebook Forms