-Three Ring Life-: Family of 6 and still organized?

Here I go with my oxymorons again- urban farming, paintetly crazy, on and on. Before I even get going on this post I have to tell you that my house is quiet, and it's kind of throwing me off balance. Im not even typing as fast as I normally do, maybe because I'm not being rushed... hmm.
I manage to stay organized even with my chaotic schedule. Most people think they can't get organized or that it takes up too much time to stay organized but they are wrong! Come on, try it ;-) there is nothing to gain but a little sanity and that is an amazing thing. Our Family Binder is a powerful tool on the road of information for our home and all the members of the family! I heard about this about a year ago and it has really helped me. The binder contains things like schedules, address and phone numbers for friends, addresses and phone numbers for the family yellow pages from dance studios to garden centers, basic medical information, cleaning schedule for the house, birthday and anniversaries, you get the point. When I need something related to any of these things, which is often, then all I have to do is pick up one binder.

My family binder looks like this-

Obviously I use Rosie the Riveter on a lot of stuff and my family binder is not any different. A calendar is a great go to item to have front and center. I color the days that we already know will be filed with a birthday, anniversary, holiday or vacation and I match the color on the bottom with the event (that's what I blocked out in the bottom white section). Then I put what the averages are for the month temp wise so that I kind of have an idea of what to expect. In the upper right section I have a list of my main projects for the month. This helps remind me what I need to focus on or accomplish. For April I had this website, my dance wear company, organize my laundry room and get the garden boxes filled with dirt. So there is the cover and I made it in Microsoft Publisher but if you are using a Mac I would suggest using the program called Pages.

The tabs of my family binder-

You can make up your own tabs that fit your family and you don't have to have 8 tabs either. Avery sells tab dividers in 5 as well, if you're feeling really frisky you can get up to 26 tabs but that would probably just get confusing unless you were combining your family binder with your coupon binder.

I found some great prices on my binder supplies and if there is one thing a busy mom needs- save time and money!!! I use only Avery because I believe that you get what you pay for and their Heavy Duty binders have never let me down. Because the company makes a great binder for a reasonable price I also use their tab dividers and I am loving them. So here are some links to get you started. Next week I will detail all of my sections and how I set them up.
If you have any questions please leave a comment and I will answer you!