One Binder to Rule Them All: Mom's Ultimate Family Organizer

I'm an on-again-off-again Flylady member. If you're not familiar, Flylady is more than just an online community of women trying to get a handle on housework -- it's a movement. The basic idea is to create standing routines for everything from cleaning the house to getting ready in the morning to running errands. The homemade manual for such an operation is a control journal, a binder of lists and routines and contact details and schedules all in one place.

Mom's Ultimate Family Organizer: A One-Stop Planner for Busy Moms is like the control journal's modern, stylish friend.

This three-ring binder is the brainchild of Amy Keroes, founder of Mommy Track'd, a website geared toward working moms. She knows busy (as do we all, jobs or no), and she polled all the moms she knew to come up with a simple collection of calendar pages, contact details, planning references, and tear-out lists, all separated by tabbed pocket dividers. This is a binder meant to live on the shelf in the kitchen, somewhere near the phone, so everyone in the family can get access.

Even if you don't fill out each page from cover to cover, this book offers a great blueprint for getting organized. Just seeing spaces for writing things down encourages you to write things down instead of cluttering your head with an impossible mass of details.

Win it! Who would like a copy of Mom's Ultimate Family Organizer to call their own? You of course! Just answer the following question in the comments, and I'll pick one lucky winner at random tomorrow at 5pm!

Flylady says: you can't organize clutter. What's one piece of clutter -- physical or emotional -- you've gotten rid of recently?

I recently took a huge box of old books to Powell's to sell. Not only did I free up space in my house, I got money back! To spend! On more books! (Now that I'm such a library goer, I plan to use my windfall on gifts for friends.)

Comments

[Elizabeth]

In the process of remodeling our kitchen, I was forced to remove the basket of miscellaneous stuff that used to hold mail and rubber bands and small toys and mementos and batteries to recharge and general stuff.

Now all those things have to go to their proper home, and for lots of them, that's the trash. It's definitely a change I'll keep when the remodel is done.

[Mary Kate]

I am just gearing up to do a good decluttering~ I am currently swimming in clutter which makes me quite anxious. It also makes me a prime candidate for this giveaway :) It would make a HUGE difference in my life.

[maya]

Definitely taking books to the used bookstore. My new rule is that we can only have as many books as fit on the bookshelves.

[Jules]

This past year we bought a house and added a new baby to our family so there was lots of attempts at decluttering - some more successful than others. Most recently, I went through all of my law school paraphernalia and got rid of all the books I will never ever look at again. It was very satisfying to sell them and remove all that weight from a spare closet.

[Martha]

I threw out an old wallet, and all the Zagats that we have newer editions of today! I am a bit of a decluttering addict:-)

[Liz]

We're getting rid of our baby stuff. Goodbye, double snap & go! Goodbye swing! Farewell, bouncy seats!

[Stephanie]

I recently began scanning all of the artwork my kids bring home from school, so that it can be saved in digit form rather than physical form. That takes care of almost all my kitchen table clutter!
(I still have to get rid of the art surreptitiously, though- my kids fall apart if they see I've thrown one of their masterpieces away!)

[Piseco]

We're a huge book family too, but I'm spending the spring weeding out, working on one bookcase at a time. I've taken bags and bags to donate already!

[Lauren]

I used to keep old magazines; I guess I thought someday I'd really have a need for that Oct 06 issue of... whatever.

Now, when I read a magazine, I tear out anything I think I like (that I can't find online) and it goes in a folder; the magazine then gets recycled.

No more magazine clutter! Plus, I have the basket I used to use free for other stuff.

[Heather G]

I have a pile of books waiting to be sold tomorrow. I also cleaned out our junk cabinet yesterday. Just about everything ended up in the trash!

[kim]

I'm trying to declutter every day and some days go better than others. Now that my last child just had her first birthday, there are lots of baby things we don't need. I'm using Craig's list to get rid of most things.

[Lydia]

We just put our house on the market, and we've gone from a completely cluttered house to nothing but stark open surfaces. Bizarre! And freeing!

I've given away all of our baby items and too-small clothes. We're lucky to have a local refugee resettlement office nearby, and it's hugely satisfying to take a piece of furniture, toy, or bag of clothes there and literally hand it over to a new refugee directly who wants the items.

[Chief Family Officer]

I've been getting rid of tons of stuff, actually (thanks in large part to my 29-Day giving Challenge). I've given away a large stack of books that were leftover favors from my son's birthday party a couple of months ago, I've given away several boxes of kids' stuff that my boys no longer need, I've donated some of my own clothes that I don't wear anymore. But the funny (sad) thing is that there is so much more that could go! And it will ... even if it takes a while.

[Val]

Just today I heaved out and freecycled all of my daughter's old clothes! I'm a freecycle addict - moreso in giving stuff away than taking it. It's so refreshing!

[mircat]

as i got out my summer clothes this year, i tried them all on and got rid of any that didn't fit or i hadn't worn in several years. felt so good to bag it up for the thrift store!

[Christina]

I am working on keeping receipts since so many stores are changing to stricter return policies as well as to keep track of our finances. However, instead of holding them indefinitely, I now go through the receipts once a month to toss anything that can't be returned or we don't want to return.

It's not a huge clutter controller, but it's a start.

[Jenny]

I've gotten rid of toys that don't get play'd with anymore and I cleaned out the hubby's crap from the living room closet. Everything is a little cleaner now.

[Carrie]

We are moving in a month, and there is all kinds of clutter to rid of! Kid toys is the big one though...there are entirely too many toys in our house!

[Ran Barton]

I recently took a huge book of metal trucks I played with as a kid and then my boys played with and called up a friend who has a son the right age and dropped them off at her house. They went from being forgotten to beloved again, which is much better than their being clutter in my house.

[Teresa]

I just went through my closet to get rid of the hopelessly out-of-style clothes from my pre-kid days. I finally realized that even if I could fit into them, I probably shouldn't wear them!

[Stephanie Summers]

I feel our home is full of clutter, and my husband is not ready to de-clutter most areas of our house. I have focused on de-cluttering my closet to set an example. It has been difficult because most of the items have some emotional value. I realize that the clothes that I am donating did not fit me very well. So, I was wasting precious storage space in our home.

I would so appreciate the journal. I like to organize, but I feel that I'm struggling to keep up. I was doing pretty well when I just had to worry about myself. Now, I have to keep up with two little ones in addition to myself. I want to set a good example for my kids by being organized - mentally and by de-cluttering our home.

[Lisa]

We just had our annual giant yard sale where I got rid of needlessly huge office furniture. While rearranging the office, I got my entire leaning tower of filing squared away in lovely folders.

[Linda]

I did a major sorting-out of outgrown kid clothes. I got everything separated into different sizes so when one kid grows into them, I'll know where everything is. I donated three big bags of clothes that are too small for my youngest child. I'm very proud of this achievement!

[Jennie]

We have a paper problem in our house. while sorting through papers recently, (I found junk mail from about 8 years ago.)
In the past two months, we have shredded and recycled two lawn sized bags of paper (old utility bills, pen pal letters from high school, high school and college lecture notes, etc.) We've still got a ways to go but it feels good to let go!

We, too, keep digital records of memorabilia. We have an entire folder in picasa of my husband's lego box lids and covers from cassette tapes he listened to in his youth...

[Wade]

I've got a set number of hangers now. One shirt in, one shirt out.