Home Management Binder: Family

Update: this post now contains links to download the printables shown here.  To see all my free printables available for download go here.

Welcome back to the Home Management Binder Series!  I am sharing my process of creating a home management binder, and hope to pass along some inspiration to others for managing their household.  For those of you just joining us, here is a quick rundown of the schedule for this series.

8/24 - Introduction
8/31 - Schedules

9/7 - Family

9/14 - Pets

9/21 - School

9/28 - Cleaning postponed

10/5 - Home

10/12 - Finances

10/19 - Food and Grocery

10/26 - Health and Fitness

11/2 - Beauty

11/9 - Crafts and Projects

11/16 - Vehicle

Feel free to follow along (or jump in and out depending on your needs) and make your own Home Management Binder as I whip mine into shape!  Many of the organizational tools and tips you''l see here can be used in other types of home management systems as well, if binders aren't your thing.

This week I will be showing you my newly completed Family section of my binder.  This section will serve to collect all general information needed for our family, as well as a catch all for information needed to be accessible that doesn't quite fit in any other category.  As well as a general main Family section, each family member was also given their own sub-section to hold all information about that individual.  This section will mainly be a reference section, holding all information anyone family member could possibly need to know about the other or the family as a whole.

Some pages contain sensitive personal information, so I have  chosen to photograph certain documents blank so as to protect myself and those I love.

The first page in the Family section is a dates to remember page.  I thought it would be useful to have all important dates that need to be remembered each year together in one location.  So far I have included friends' and family's birthdays, anniversaries and major holidays (more for excitement than to remember the date).  Now I have everyone's birthday's and other important reoccurring dates at the tips of my fingers so I will never forget them.

Download here

After I made this page, I decided it would also be a good idea to also include this document in my Schedules section.  Now all I have to do is look at this page once a month to see if there are any upcoming important dates.  I will then add them to my monthly calendar and I will be good to go!

After the dates to remember page I have an couple address book pages.  These will not serve as my main address book for every contact under the sun.  Instead, these will just hold all important contacts such as family members, close friends and anyone that may need to be contacted in an emergency.

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As I mentioned before, both Melissa and I also have our own sub-section within the main Family category.  So far each sub-section is exactly the same, so I will only share what one looks like to avoid repetition.  However, I anticipate they will soon look different, as Melissa and I will have different needs for our sections, and different information we'd like to store.

The first page is a general personal information sheet.  It is kind of like a cheat sheet for the person.  It has a ton personal information about that individual collected in one simple spot.

Download here

As you can see there are three separate boxes on this page, each with their own purpose.  The top box starts the page with pretty standard personal information.  This includes basics such as name, birthday and cell phone number.  I also included driver's license number and social security number in case we ever need access to those.  There are also a couple of lines left for notes, which can be used for anything we want included that wasn't covered already.

The next section is the physical section.  This list includes all physical (duh) information about the person.  Again there are the basics of heights, weight, and hair/eye color.  I then included space for a bunch of different clothing and accessory sizes.  I hope this will be useful when shopping for presents!  Again there is a section for additional notes at the end of the box.

The final section is medical.  Neither Melissa and I have any serious medical ailments, but I wanted a place to include our blood type (I thought it was important to know...not really sure why) so I included the medical section.  I also have a line for allergies and again another notes section.  If Melissa or I ever had to go on any medications, I would include the names and dosage instructions for reference.

Next in each person's sub-section is our daily and master to-do lists.  I always have so many things running through my head, I needed a place to dump them.  I have the daily to-do list for smaller errand type things, and the master to-do list for bigger more project-type needs.

Download here

Download here

Finally, each person has a personal goals page and a life goals page.  Like the to do lists, these pages are basically the same, just serve different functions.  The personal goals page is more for short term and immediate goals.  The life goals page is more for long term and well, life goals.  The life goals page is separated by time (1, 5 and 10 years) while the personal goals is just a list.

Download here

Download here

The way these lists work is you write the actual goal on a line on the left side of the page.  Then you write actions needed to be taken to achieve that goal on the three lines provided on the right of the page.  This system really helps break down goals, so they don't seem so daunting and unachievable.  It breaks down the goals into smaller bite sized increments to tackle instead of looking at the goal as a whole and not knowing where to begin.  I'm really excited to start using these pages!

There you have my Family section of my Home Management Binder.  I am super excited to have a designated area for me to dump everything out of my head, and a new system to help me achieve my goals!  I also love having all information about my family in one easy location.

You may have noticed that one very important family member was left out of this section, our munchkin Dakota!  Since she is a puppy, Dakota has different needs than Melissa and I when it comes to the binder.  So I decided to give her a whole section all to herself!  Instead of puppy to-do lists or life goals, my pet section includes all pet-related records and information.  I will be going over the specifics of Dakota's section next Friday, come by to see how you can organize all your pet-related information!

Until then, let me know what you thought of this week's Family section!  Do you have any suggestions for me to add to this area?  How do you store and organize all the information about your family?  Do you find yourself wishing you had a place to just dump the contents of your brain at the end of the day?