Post 3 - Life Binders + Guide

Life binders are amazing! I used to be EXTREMELY disorganized, but then when I had started my search for ways to be more organized, I stumbled across these wonderful things. Best of all, they don’t cost much at all and you can get everything you need at the dollar store! Everything that goes into it is up to you, so it is completely customizable to YOUR lifestyle! Have a business? Make sections for that. Are you a stay at home mom? You can customize it to that as well! Work from

home, have 4 kids and a schedule that requires you to maintain the house, work, shuttle kids to sports, need to maintain house expenses among everything? Then I REALLY suggest having one of these hanging around your house.

Life Binder VS. Filing Cabinet:

Life Binder:

These are great for the facts that you can customize them to fit your lifestyle in both organizing and looks. They are easy to store, the contents are very easy to access, and they are portable when you need them to be. You can expand your binder by getting more binders if the first gets too full so that you aren’t crunching and jamming papers into a space where nothing else will fit, and you can even organize the contents in ways that a filing cabinet will not allow.

The only issue I have ever had with this system is that if you have a home business, it gets challenging to decide where some things should and should not go. Its a matter of figuring out one binder or two separate ones, it really is up to you.

Filing Cabinet:

These are great as long as you have the floor space for them and if you don't move a whole lot. Basically if you rent and you don’t plan to stay on one place for long, these are no good for you. They're big and bulky and rather expensive to purchase. They are great for businesses, but for personal use, its basically where papers go to die. When they get too full, pulling papers out leads to ripping, and putting papers in leads to crinkling and crunching. Sometimes things get filed into the wrong pocket and just end up lost or even dropped into the back to collect dust. Great for things like taxes, not so great for commonly used items.

I have two right now, but may be expanding to a third as he primary one is getting too full. One is a primary full sized one (which is what I will be talking about in this post), and I also have a mini personal one for things like blogging, notes, reminders, etc that I carry around with me along with my planner (If you want to know about a personal mini LB, let me know in the comments. I will also cover my planner in another post).

As I said, a Life Binder is completely customizable to your life, so there is no set way to start one. There are however, some suggestions that I have for the base set up. Thankfully, as I said, everything can be acquired by a quick trip to the dollar store.

Notes:

• when picking a binder, I suggest one that has the rings that attach to the back cover as the pages wont have to twist when opening and closing, minimizing chances of ripping/tearing.
• I also suggest getting the largest one you can find for a primary home binder. These things get full. I started with a 2” thinking I wouldn’t use a whole lot of space in it, but I just kept finding things to put in it. Ended up using my college binder that I no longer used for college which is I believe a 4”.
• There are pages to the left of my blog that you can take and put into your LB. These are very basic versions, so feel free to take them and edit them in your own way using your own word processor, printing it as it and adding color via markers/stickers/etc., or what ever you will! Make it yours!

You will need:

• a binder of any color/style
• dividers (I grabbed 3 packs of 8)
• pens/gel pens
• ruler with hole punch (attaches to rings in binder)
• paper (lined, blank, decorative, grid, what ever you need)

Optional:

• colored pencils
• markers/highlighters
• pencils
• binder attachable pencil case
• post-it tabs
• post-it notes
• washi-tape
• stickers
• anything else you want to use to decorate/personalize
• plastic page protectors

Getting started:

Basically just set it up! To give you some ideas, here is what I have in mine...

Planner:

I do NOT have a planner in my Life Binder, though many people do put one in. You can find printable calendars online. If I were to put one in my life binder, I would use the one that you can find here. Instead of a planner in my LB, I bought one at the dollar store that fits in my purse. Normally I would get a Life Planner, but they run at $40+ and with a baby on the way, I can't do it. There are alternatives that are cheaper of customizable planners, and one of my favorites that you can order can be found here. This site is FULLY customizable, and has options to order notebooks and wall calendars too. Notebooks can also be customized in a way that I find works AMAZINGLY for left handed people (both myself and my boyfriend are left handed, so we appreciate this site big time!).

Medical:

I have this area sub-tab'd with post-it tabs for myself and my boyfriend and soon will have one for my daughter. Right now, my medical is taken over with pregnancy notes and lists of medications that can and can't be taken during the pregnancy. Other than that, my boyfriends tab is empty as he does not really get sick or need medications or anything. However I would put in any medical tab the days he or I have been sick, temperatures, etc. Just stuff that I would write down in case things get worse and a doctors visit turns out to be necessary. I also have at the beginning of these tabs, lists of items that would be handy to keep on hand in the case of the flu, emergency numbers, etc.

Financial:

Finances are always the most dreaded part of life management. In this tab I made lists and such for things to do with money flow. Income and spending management. So items like groceries, bills to be paid vs bills that have been paid, etc.. Doing this, it allows you to see what you are paying and what has been paid, which in turn allows you to see if things have increased or decreased easily so that you do not end up over charged for a company's mistake

House Maintenance:

This tab generally goes used more than I feel that it should. Our basement floods because we had found out that there are roots that have made their ay into our outgoing pipe lines. Unfortunately the roots are under the road, and it is in OUR line RIGHT at the junction, so the city wont fix it. This means that WE will have to pay for it. So digging up the road, paying for new pipes, filling, re-paving the road, etc…. I don’t think so… so every year it floods, we get mold, have to rip out the mold and re-drywall. Needless to say that we don’t really use our basement except for storage in plastic bins. Also in this tab are memo's to do yearly checks of fire and carbon detectors, checking of foundation for cracks before and after winter, checking the roof for damage to shingles and the gutters to be cleaned. There are a ton of things that go on the memo pages that most of the time go overlooked by most people. I also document to check these things in my planner, just as a reminder. There are other things that go in here too, but I'll just let you take a look at a post I will be posting later of printable pages.

Cleaning Schedules:

I absolutely HATE cleaning. The only way I get it done is by following my daily, weekly, monthly, and 6-month schedules. It helps to keep my house clean and grossness free, especially since dust and cat hair accumulates like crazy breeding dust bunnies… as much as I HATE cleaning, I have a few friends that when I look at their houses, all I can do is cringe. I never want my house to look like theirs does, so it's motivation enough to actually stick to the routines. I love organizing, but hate cleaning. So I made it work in a way that it feels more like organizing.

Manuals/Receipts/Warranties (MRW):

Yes, I put manuals into my LB. My boyfriend thinks I'm weird for this, but he has no idea how many times in the past that this has become handy. Especially being pregnant right now and having what is referred to as 'pregnancy brain' where you forget EVERYTHING, yea. On top of pregnancy brain, me and appliances do not always get along. Printer manuals, fridge, deep fryer, slow cooker, etc. It's all in there. He has recently had an appreciation for this section though since we got a bunch of baby furniture. Especially when while putting the crib together, someone (eh-hem) had stuck a piece up into the fan and he wanted it replaced. Just had to go to the binder to find the info on how to get replacement parts. I also keep warranties and receipts for these things in this section. The ones that wont allow you to hold punch because they’re too thick, or receipts because they’re too thin, I put into plastic page protectors and clip into the binder at the back of the section.

Taxes:

Its generally suggested to keep anything taxes related for up to 7 years. So each year, as I put the new year of taxes in, I take the last one out and shred it. I used to think that it was a silly thing to do until the government came after my dad one year trying to say that he did not pay a HUGE amount from a tax season 6 years prior (a couple thousand dollars). Thankfully he still had his tax papers from that year and basically told them to shove it (though he was much more polite about saying it). Since then, I keep everything tax related for up to 7 years.

Gov. Info:

I keep in this spot information to do with my drivers license, health card, SIN card, info sent to my by the government to do with Employment Insurance from layoffs (seasonal jobs like golf course work etc.), and anything else like that.

School Receipts:

I went to college twice. Once in 2008 for PSW (was not a job that I could emotionally handle), and again last year (Sept 2014) for hairdressing (let me know if you want a post for hair advice!! If so, give me ideas on what you would like to know, cause it could go on forever otherwise!!). I do not currently owe to the college that I know of, but in case it comes back at me, I keep these on hand.

Exercise:

Right now my old routine is in here, but I plan to replace it with a new one for after baby is born to get back in shape. I also have my old standard yoga routine in here along with my current modified one for use during pregnancy.

Cell Phone Records:

I recently let go of mt cell provider because now that I'm not working till I am healed, I am always at home! I use a wifi app for FREE calling, and everyone contacts me on facebook in terms of texting. This helps save money since now that I'm always home, I have no use for a cell phone plan (all cell phones, activated or not, are always serviced by 911 access, so going out is still not an issue in the case of emergencies). As for texting, sure I enjoy it. However, when I'm out, I'm usually busy, so why would I text when I should be paying attention to the road? Why would I text when I'm trying to make a decision on what item would make a better purchase? Texting and walking? Forget it! I walk into things as it is. HOWEVER! I still keep my old cell phone records for the same reason as taxes. 7 years people! I've had my cell phone provider try to tell me a couple of times that I did not pay, which I can and have proved them wrong.

Banking:

I have in here the start up contract, statements, credit card payment info, etc. I also put into plastic protectors things like void checks and anything else that could be important. If I had the mortgage in my name, I would also put it in here (provided that it was through my bank. Otherwise I would put it in a separate tab).

Car:

I do NOT have this as a tab myself as I do not have a car. I do not like driving, I get anxiety because the people in my city do not seem to know how to drive. When I did have my car, I had almost been t-boned by someone not paying attention to their red light, someone had tried to play chicken on a one way street, its ridiculous and I don't like it. If I were to get another car, I would put the purchase agreement, the insurance, and any maintenance information in this tab.

Cooking/Meal Planning:

I put meal plans in here and cooking instructions. There are a lot of family recipes which comes in handy around Thanksgiving and Christmas. I also have a printable page that allows me to plan out meals for the week. It makes grocery shopping so much easier when you know what you will be making! This is helpful as I hate grocery shopping with a passion.

Health:

To assist in grocery shopping and making sure that a certain someone (boyfriend) doesn’t just gravitate to just junk food, I have a chart of the food groups in here along with a blank list for making grocery shopping lists. This way I am making sure that even though I know he will grab a bunch of junk food, there will be a majority of healthy food that is actually good for you too (being pregnant, that is very important… I'm saying this as I shove a salt and vinegar chip into my mouth, but that’s not the point! I had an apple earlier, so its OK!)

Journal:

These are handy for venting for me. I do a lot of journal entries on my computer, but it's not always personal enough. There are times that I want to doodle/sketch, and I can keep these things here. I also have a way that I vent when someone makes me really upset. I write them a note. I obviously never give the note to them as the things I tend to say when I get to this point would ruin the relationship with the person, but it allows me to get what I want to say out and I can sit and rethink how to word it in a much more polite manner.

Pets:

Any vet bills or info in general goes here. Its always good to have these on hand just like its handy to have on hand medical info for your family. They are after all your fur babies!!

I plan to add a few more tabs. A babysitter tab when that starts, baby food recipes since I got a baby bullet from my baby shower, a tab for daycare, and a tab for school. Of course these all come later and is thinking way ahead, but they will eventually show up there.

These are just some ideas. These are what work for me, but they may not work for you. So on that note, just customize yours to work for your life style! Of course, feel free to personalize it to suit you. Use colors, stickers, etc. If you have any suggestions, advice, requests, etc., comment below and I'll do what I can!