What Should Be in A Home
Management Binder (HMB)?
As with anything
that’s truly useful, the information inside your binder should be specific
to you and your family, and help you to run your home easily.
It is a guide to
YOUR specific home after all – and everyone’s will be slightly different,
depending on what is done in your home and by the people in it.
It can be created in lots of different ways, and contains many different things depending on your needs, but as I wanted quite specific things in mine, I decided to create one myself. – s I will post the pages in the relevant blog posts - so, you get to use it as well if you want to.
The key to a
successful Home Management Binder is to only have things in there that
you need to access quickly and easily on a weekly if not daily basis –
and things that allow someone else to run your home should the situation arise.
Your Home
Management Binder will be a collection of pages, all with sections of
information applicable to you and your home – probably separated by tabs so
that they are easy and quick to find.
There are so many
scenarios that a Home Management Binder really comes into its own – here’s a
few examples that may help you to get in the right mindset for working out what
yours should contain:-
· Your power / water / utilities fail – can you quickly find the contact details of your supplier and your reference number?
· A friend gives you a name of a great decorator – where can you put it so you can find it when you need it?
· People are coming over for dinner – now – do any of them have preferences or even allergies?
· You have an accident and end up having to stay in hospital for a few days – can someone help you easily?
· What’s for dinner tonight?
· When do you need to clean the living room?
· What did you buy your mother in law last Christmas? This one would have come in handy a few years ago, when I realised that I had bought my mother in law the exact same fleecy blanket the year before…Opps ☹
I’ve used tabs to
separate each of the categories, and have created my Home Management
Binder so that I can flick to the correct page immediately.
The Categories I
Have used in the Home Management Binder are:
1. CHORES
· Cleaning Schedule (daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal and annual tasks)
· Chores checklists (daily, weekly, seasonally etc…)
· Laundry schedule
· Quick clean checklist
· Checklist for decluttering and organising
2. FAMILY AND
FRIENDS INFO
· Personal Information including clothes, shoes sizes, medicines, medical history
· Pet info
· Goals & Family meetings
· Address book
· Party and events info
· If the worst happens (who to contact etc…)
3. FOOD
· Meal planners (4-week rolling plan )
· Shopping List(s)
· Allergies and food preference info
· Entertaining ideas
· Fridge / Freezer / (Pantry) inventory sheets
4. HOUSE
MAINTENANCE
· Maintenance calendar
· TO DO list
· TO BUY list
· Household Decorating information by room (plans, paint, wallpaper, carpet etc…. and where purchased)
· Home Inventory List (ideal for the insurance companies)
· Suppliers Details (gas, water, electricity etc…)
· Recommended or previously used tradespeople
· Car maintenance and breakdown information
· Tech info
· What to do in a home emergency
5. FINANCES
· Household Budget Information
· Debt tracker
· Savings tracker
· Gift & card budget
· Spending tracker
· Bill tracker
· Wish List
· List of Bank Names, account numbers and phone numbers
I really appreciate you stopping by, and want to say thank you - because without you I wouldn't be here.