Home Sweet Simple Home

On Flylady-

Here’s how I did Flylady- I started by spending a good deal of time perusing her website and printing oodles of stuff out. I took the basic routines and tweaked them for myself- starting by writing right on the print-outs. I marked my big family calendar with the weekly zones and referred to my zone cleaning print-outs (complete with my own notations). After a few weeks of this I decided I needed my own control journal and used the marked up print-outs to help me set it up.
I named my control journal My Home Manual- I liked the name better and now I see while traveling the Land of Blog that others have homekeeping binders or home management binders (even nicknaming them HMB!)- it has, dare I say it, become a “trend”. A good trend. To me- caring for my husband, raising my family and taking care of my home are the most important jobs I have and so I resolved to treat them as jobs and give the care and keeping the effort and dedication I would give to a “paying” job. [Let’s not forget too that the care and keeping of our family is our first and most important ministry for the Lord.]
My routines have evolved and streamlined and much of the time I don’t even have to refer to my manual. Its part Flylady, part Organized Home and ALL ME! If you google home management binder you will find a slew of stuff to help you or overwhelm you- be careful and be choosy!

Here’s a glimpse of what’s in my binder:
Amy’s Routines- Morning, Afternoon & Evening
Basic Weekly Plan (also a basic weekly plan for youth work)
Weekly Checklist
Zone Cleaning List
My Menu Plan
Monthly/Seasonal To Do’s

My Home Manual also includes- address book, desk calendar, bill paying necessities (with budget) and paperwork needed for tax purposes.

An added bonus of the Home Manual- if anything were to happen- like say, getting a nasty sinus infection and being hopped up on meds that make you “different”, my dear sweet adorable husband knows right where to go to see what needs to be done to keep on keepin’ on- like what bills to pay which week, what’s for supper and what needs prepped for breakfast and let’s not forget he can easily locate the number of the pizza parlor downtown! All kidding aside- having everything in one easy to locate location would simplify things greatly for my husband if something did indeed happen to make me unable to perform my daily duties. It’s another way to protect and safe guard my family.

Great post!

12:46 PM, 2008-Mar-19 .. Posted by Anonymous

Hello Mrs. Wagner!

I just popped over to your blog after Googlin' homekeeping journals and wanted to let you know that I'm including a link to your wonderful blog at my blog, The Barefoot Mama. I'm doing a post on home management journals and really loved all that you had to share in this entry! Hope that you guys are having a beautiful March - have a blessed Easter, mama!

Kelly
www.thebarefootmama.com