New Year's Resolution: 52 Weeks of Pinterest #1

Two years ago my New Year's resolution was to cook a new meal every week and my husband was in heaven!  It was really nice to get away from our everyday ordinary and ever since I have been more willing to try cooking new things just because.  And thank goodness otherwise we're eating spaghetti Monday, taco Tuesday, chicken something Wednesday, left over Thursday, and pizza Friday EVERY week, lol.  Now for some that might be okay but my husband grew up with an amazing cook for a mom so I had to step my game up!

This year my husband has requested the same resolution, but I wanted to put my own twist on it.  My New Year's resolution for 2013 is to create something new from Pinterest every week.  Now I know you're thinking, "Holy cow!  That's going to get pricey."  In reality this will probably be a lot of new recipes we try out but I did want to throw in some DIY and crafty things for the house and classroom.  My first new Pinterest creation was a family organizational binder! (Sorry for the photo quality, had to use my phone for the pictures since my camera battery was dead)

I did this for a number of reasons. 1.)  I just love to organize, lol. 2.) We just began our own family as husband and wife and I wanted to have all of our combined information in one place. 3.)  Ever since the wedding and holidays I have felt very UNORGANIZED and what better way to start the year than getting it all together!

There were hundreds of different blogs with some great ideas on how to organize the binder and really, for me, when it came to deciding what to put in it, it just boiled down to what OUR needs were.  Here are the tabs in our family binder:

Calendar - List of Birthdays and Anniversaries, 2012-2013 Monthly Calendars, and (thank you Martha) Weekly, Monthly, and Seasonal Cleaning Checklists.  I put the cleaning checklists in sheet protectors and use wipe-off markers to check off as I go so I can reuse them.  In the pocket of the divider I place birthday cards just waiting to be sent.

Meal Planning - The Eat Sheet (a weekly menu planner/grocery list), Family Favorites Cards so I can always go back to a crowd pleaser when I can't think of anything else, and menus to our favorite take out and delivery places reside in the divider pocket.

Budget - Annual Bill Schedule (this has to be my favorite because I am forever forgetting if I paid a bill or not) and our family budget.

Contacts - Our Neighbors contact list, Our Family contact list, Our Friends contact list, Medical and Health Insurance contact list, Insurance Policies contact list, Utilities and Services contact list, and Website Usernames and Passwords (these are the sign-ins that if they fell into the wrong hands we would still be okay).

Family Info - Here we have copies of all the essential documents for both me, my husband, and our dog, Bailey.

Emergency - Here we have copies of the cards in our wallets (front and back) in case we should lose them, we now have the numbers to call and cancel our cards, emergency phone numbers (fire department, hospital, etc.), doggie CPR (I know, I know, but she's like my child so why not!)

A big THANK YOU to Ginny from Organizing Homelife for all the wonderful printables and she has many more that I didn't even mention!!!  If you also have the organizing bug and want to make a binder of your own here is what I used:

• 1" binder (it is enough for the two of us but if you have a growing family you might want larger)
• 8 pocket tabs (I have two left over)
• large zippered pencil pocket
• sheet protectors

Simple as that!  If you have created your own Family Organization Binder I would love to see it!  Of course this project has led me to create my own personal mini binder and that will be my next post :o)

Sabra