Let’s get something straight from the start…I am a Type A girl and I love organization. I especially love my old school paper planner, page protectors, 1″ 3 ring binders, my label maker, colorful tabs and sharpies.

Maybe the binder is my love language. I have joked for years that if anything happens to me everything my family needs to know is in “the binders”. Need to know when the dog had his last rabies shot? Looking for Grandma’s pumpkin pie recipe for thanksgiving dinner? Filling out a form and you need the date of your child’s last tetanus shot? SAT score? Our electric bill amount from August last year to see if the bills is more or less? 4th grade report card? Clubs and awards from high school?

It’s all labeled, in a page protector and in the appropriate themed binder. It’s nice to know I can locate all those things when and if I need to and it’s painless. So much more efficient than digging through piles of paper or a file cabinet.

I keep our binders inside a cabinet all lined up for easy identification. It’s kind of a good sickness. I moved and made sure the family knows where the binders live in the new house.

I keep my stash of page protectors in the little drawers of the cabinet. I never run out of coffee or page protectors. If anyone in my family has to turn in anything anytime to anyone it’s well protected in a plastic sleeve. Those who know me know this is a fact😂

So, if you are lacking a system and ready to get life organized this is for you. If you are already organized and have your own system -kudos to you, my kindred spirit. Everyone needs some kind of system and this one may (or may not) work for you. I’m sharing what I’ve found is easiest to maintain and hope it’s helpful to others.

Now- what’s in all those binders? Here are my categories:

-BUDGET binder

-HOUSE binder

-PET binder

-HOLIDAY binder

-MEDICAL binder

-TAX binder

-CHILD binder (one per child to use K- 8th grade)

-COLLEGE binder (one per child 8th-12th grade)

-IEP or any ongoing documentation binders

-FAMILY binder

You may have additional categories so keep thinking!!

SUPPLIES

-1″ 3 ring binders (1″ is the perfect size for my contents)

– tab labels

-sharpies

-clear page protectors

(this type A girl does not like holes in the paper and flips out if the holes rip. Just sayin’)

– label maker

I’ll go into more detail over the next few days as to what I keep in each binder. You may want to combine themes/categories, skip categories…you do you!!!

If you are interested in starting a binder system this is the PERFECT time because all of the supplies are on sale in the back to school aisles!

Tally up your list of possible categories and hit the sales while you can. We have some organizing to do~ Kristen