Creating your Evicting Clutter Toolbox

Good morning to all the beautiful ladies out there in blogg land!

Today is a beautiful Tuesday morning. The sun is peeking over the horizon and turning eveything it's rays touch a gorgeous morning gold! The autumn air is cool and crisp and the trees are starting to show their fall colors! It's a great day to be alive and serve the Lord.

Today we are going to put together the basic guts of our toolboxes. We will utilize these to better organize our current day, plan for the near future, and set up a routine to keep our houses clean(er).

The first item we are going to work on is our home management binder. Ladies call it different by different names. Cindy Rushton calls her's her "Brain in a Binder". I call mine the "Central Nervous System" of my home. But whatever you name it, it's simply a binder designed to pull together all the information you need for daily home management.

Today we are going to put together the basics of your binder. Towards the end of this challenge, after you have gotten a better feel for how you like your's set up, we will set aside a day to dress it up and make it beautiful. It may be something that is functional for you, but you'll be more apt to use it if it brings beauty to your day.

So go gather your 3 ring binder, your divider tabs, some blank printer paper, some note book paper, and a 3 ring pencil pouch (oops... I forgot to put this on the list last week... sorry).

The first thing you need to do is decorate the cover for your binder. My binder has a clear plastic cover that I can slip paper inside, but if you don't have a cover insert you can still decorate your cover. Simply sit down with your blank piece of paper. Borrow your kids crayons, markers, colored pencils, etc... and get creative. Have some fun! Do you have stickers? Even more fun!!!! Give the cover of your binder a taste of your personality. When your done with your art project slip it inside the cover or tape it to your cover with some clear packaging tape.

Next we're going to assemble the inside. Take your dividers and with a pencil label the dividers. Use a pencil so you can move the contents of your binder around until it's set up the way you like it. Label your dividers in whatever order you preferr. Label them:

• Monthly and Weekly Calendars
• Daily Schedules and Routines
• Cleaning Routines
• Finances and Budget
• Menus and Shopping Lists
• Homeschooling
• Holidays and Celebrations
  

You can label the extra dividers if you wish. Some categories you might like to use are:

• Gardening
• My Faith and Prayer Journal
• Loving my Husband
• Loving and Raising Children
• Personal Projects

Put your dividers inside your binder with some blank note book paper in each divider. Put your pencil pouch inside the front of your binder to hold pencils, pens, markers, post its, etc. Print off some calendar pages for the month of October and November and place them behind your calendar tab. Don't worry about what goes inside other dividers right now, we will work on that thruout the month.

Starting tomorrow we are going to work on our entry ways. Then each week we are going to work on one room of the house. Next week we are going to start with the kitchen and work our way around the home.

Will our homes be spotless when we finish this challenge? No. But what we will do is hopefully foster habits that help us to keep our homes less cluttered, more organized, and easier to take care of.