Pagan Home Binder: Less stress, less mess, more me time - Page 3

[Aithnea]

Thank you for this thread.  I have my binder, sheet protectors, and dividers all ready to go and waiting for me.  Now I just need to gather and print off my sheets to go into it.

[Aeress]

Hey did everyone do?

Is there stuff you are still missing?

Can I help with anything?

[wombatclay]

OK... a meta question...

I have my original Pagan Summer Camp home binder.  It's huge.  And I love everything in it.  And I haven't used it.  Not even once.  It's fun to flip through, sometimes inspiring, but as a daily (or even weekly or monthly) tool it's a total dud.  I started putting together a more useful binder and... I see the same thing happening.  It just isn't useful.

So how are binders actually working for people?  HOW do you use them, or hope to use them?  Here's what I currently have, maybe you all can point me towards how to integrate it all with a binder?

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I have four children.  Each child has a slot in a filing cabinet where "their" paperwork goes (insurance claims, school registration forms, medical forms, etc).  We homeschool and each child has a tupperware style box that holds their school materials.  These boxes live on the bookcase that holds all the shared homeschool materials. 

There is a fire/flood proof strong box for seriously important papers (wills, deeds, birth cert/social security cards, tax forms, etc). 

I use the Motivated Moms home organization guide and print the week's list out and stick it on the fridge door every Sunday.  I write our weekly shopping list on that MM printout as items come up during the week, then when I put the new MM printout up on the fridge the old one (with shopping list) goes into my bag for the Tuesday trip to the store.  I also have our "price book" printed out on a single sheet on the fridge door next to the MM printout. 

A magnetic dry erase board on the fridge holds random "to do" items that are written in/erased at need.  A larger dry erase board on the kitchen wall has financial info (total debt, monthly payments, etc) as an aid to our "get out of debt" goals.

In my bag I have a small daily calendar, on the wall I have a standard calendar.  I've used crayon to color the days of the week with the standard Waldorf colors and filled in the various holidays, holy days, and full moons on both calendars.

My phone holds all the important numbers but I do have a backup print addy book with snail mail, email, and phone info for family/friends/professionals that lives in the previously mentioned strong box.

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Sooooo... my goals are to be more organized, less stressed, more spiritual.  I guess part of my problem is that I don't have a clear vision of HOW those goals would look on the ground.  And no clear vision of HOW a binder would help manifest those goals.  Kind of like buying an exercise dvd and then never using it (as if the effort of buying it is enough!)... I WANT to believe that a binder is a useful tool but I'm afraid I'm just making my clutter a bit prettier, or spending limited time/energy on something that isn't going to be helpful.

I really do love my Summer Camp binder... it's filled with songs and poems, crafts and ideas, blessings and moon info, recipes and tips.  But I'm not using any of that and the binder itself just collects dust on the shelf.  How does your binder work day to day?  Or is it not supposed to be a daily tool?