Starting 2013 Planned and Organized... I hope!

Well we are already at the end of January 2013, I haven't had much time to blog lately but have alot of stuff I have been meaning to share!

Last Nov/Dec I decided I needed to organize things around here a little bit more. I started by buying lots of storage containers and cleaning up our rooms and bathroom and putting things just where they need to go. Than I cleaned out our freezer and cabinets and reorganized and took a inventory of what we had. With a family of our size this is a MUST! Seems like I am always buying the same thing that we have 5 of already, just because I'm not sure what we have on hand.

Next thing I started a family binder.
Included in this is is 4 sections nothing to fancy just Calendar, Meals, Chores, and Budget.

 

Here is a little summary of what is in each section and how I use it.
Calendar:
This section has printed out calendar month pages this where just where I put all of our appts., meetings, date nights, special occasions and such. Helps me keep track of things so I don't forget important things in the craziness of life.
Meals: This section I have a master grocery list (I can get ideas of what I need off this, helps me remember some things I would normally forget while making my grocery list), meal ideas, pantry and freezer inventory and meal plans for a month. There is room for recipes I would like to try, coupons and the store ad if I need to get groceries.
Chores: This section just has a list of daily, weekly, and monthly chore lists that I like to "try" keeping up with. You can print these kind of charts out from the internet on many sites.  I also have my boys chore charts in this section.
Budget: This section has our complete budget for 2013. There is room in this section so I can add the reports for each month and in the back I have a zipper pouch and folder for a 3 month period. The zipper pouch is where I put any receipts we have for purchases. Once January is done I will just put them in a envelope and place them together in the pouch to get them from the other 2 months. The folder is where I have a transaction sheet for each month. This is where I put our expenses and purchases, also the bills that come in and need paid.

Nothing major but it does seem to help me keep our house a little more organized and on top of things. Between raising children, housework and homeschooling it can get a little crazy around here at times.

Lastly I have been taking some great advice from a homeschooling mother at our co-op. She shared with all of us about preparing meals ahead of time and freezing them and doing bigger qty of things to save time. I can't tell you how much this has helped me.
To start we purchase hamburger and chicken in big qtys and cook it all up. Next I either make taco meat, lasnaga, stuffed shells, meatballs, or just keep the cooked meat in freezer bags to add to a casserole or to make something else later. The chicken I normally just shred it up and divide it into zip-lock bags. I can just pull out one of these bags of cooked chicken and make BBQ chicken sandwishes, add it to a cassrole, cream chicken and biscuits, add it to soups,.... you really can do so much with it!!!! We also have been making our own pizzas and putting them in the freezer for a quick meal. There is so many ideas that I still want to try with this but haven't taken the time to do all of them yet.

So far these few simple things have helped our house a ton, hopefully it may give you some ideas for your own. If you have any great ideas yourself please feel free to share too!