Organizing Challenge

Ever since I became passionate about this getting-my-room-organized thing, I have been reading the blog, I Heart Organizing. Seriously, this woman’s amazing. She is one of the ones that hyped me up about organizing in the first place. And she is oh-so-practical and fun!

Every month, she issues a month-long challenge in organizing and planning one area of her life, and invites all her readers to join in. Last month was photo organization. This month is putting together a household binder. I don’t have many photos, and they already were pretty much organized anyway, thanks to iPhoto, so I did not join in that challenge. I did, however, decide to join in creating my own planning binder system.

Ok, so I know that really I don’t have much of a household to organize. But, I have not previously found a great dayplanner that functions as an all-in-one place for me to keep my life organized. I have tried several ways and none of them have been “it.” So I decided to try this out, as there is so much that can be included besides a schedule. And even though I don’t have a busy schedule and life right now, I’d rather be organized already when that season of life comes. (Hmm, thats funny, I think that the Bible says something about that. Imagine that. Luke 16:10a, “He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much:”)

The first step of the challenge was to get a binder. Wow. This is going to be difficult. Just kidding.

I already had a white, clear-pocket-cover binder. (Or whatever you call it) (Somehow I don’t think “white, clear” makes any sense, but oh well.) I decided instead of just sticking a nasty looking cover sheet in the front, I would dress it up with a little scrapbooking paper. I snagged a package of fun paper at a discount store for a couple dollars, printed off a labely-thingy and went to work.

I just love the bright colors!

And of course I couldn’t stop with just the cover..I managed to shove some of that uh-mazing paper down the binder and on the back cover too. Yes, I am a bit OCD, why did you ask?

When that was all said and done, I loved it so much, that I decided to do the same thing with my prayer journal!

This has absolutely nothing to do with I Heart Organizing’s challenge, I just wanted a beautiful cover for my prayer journal, too. I almost like how this one turned out even better!

But back to the challenge. At the end of the month, I Heart Organizing will have a big linky party where we share our success stories and blog about our binders. So I am going to save the big-o reveal-o for then. But I wanted to let you in on the project so that you could be anticipating the end result, and so you could jump in the challenge if your little heart so desires! In case you haven’t noticed, the end of the month is very stinkin’ close, so you better hurry! I Heart Organizing has some FREE printables to put in your binder that are only going to be free for this month, so get them while you can!

Just for kicks, heres the list I came up with of the things I would like to see included in my planning binder:

General Calendar

Important Dates (instead of having to transfer these to a new planner every year, they can stay here from year to year. Woo-hoo!)

Blog Posts Checklists

Gift Ideas

Wish Lists

Sizes and Measurements

Personal Goals/Resolutions/Personal Mission Statement

Random Idea Lists

Important Phone #s

Finances

Storage Inventory

There are plenty of things that I can add as they come down the road, such as menu planning and cleaning checklists, and possibly a sheet for passwords. (Not for important passwords, mind you, just in case you thought you could hack my bank account. Just those random, unimportant passwords I always forget. Like Hallmark and Walmart.)

I’m interested in knowing...does anyone else use a method similar to this? Or do you have another method that works for you?