I often see online that people have home binders, and they have everything in them from family schedules, household cleaning and maintenance routines, budget and financial information, recipes, crafting and more.
I recently started using my Filofax as my home-only tracker of financial stuff, birthday-party and holidays planning, and annually recurring plans. I used to think I should have this stuff in my main planner, but when I realized I really only use these things at home it freed me to not have to carry it around.
Do you have a separate planner or binder that stays at home? What's in it? And how is it different from the planner you carry with you everywhere?
And as always on Fridays, feel free to discuss and/ or ask anything planner-related!
Hi everyone, I keep everything on pages that fit into a personal Filofax for 2 reasons:
ReplyDeleteIf I get bored I can switch binders easily (I have a Gillio brown, a Gillio kaki skorpion, a crimson Malden and a green Filofax Lizard) and also so when I travel I can more information around and carry everything I need and nothing I don't. (I travel about 4 times a year, one of these is to the states for the summer where I need all my USA info; I live in France otherwise.)
This is the only way I've found that works for my situation with minimum work. But I love reading about everyone else's planners.
My A5 Filofax stays at home and is my home management binder. My personal Filofax travels around with me as is my appointments diary and to do list.
ReplyDeleteMy portable planner has my calendar and day to day journaling (I bullet journal) and I have a 'home management/emergency' binder that stays at home with all my home care and sensitive info in that I can hopefully grab in an emergency situation.
ReplyDeleteWhile I'm waiting on classic/A5 sized 2 day per page inserts, I've gone back temporarily to having everything except my financial logs in a FC compact binder with 1.25" rings. Wallet, too. It's incredibly functional. I often run out of the house carrying only that and my keys, Whereas I need to keep my classic binder for the next few months, I might go back to this arrangement when my time crunch is over. I'd forgotten the secure feeling of having it all (mostly) in one place.
ReplyDeleteOut of sheer laziness I ended up establishing a reference binder in December; I wanted to switch back to personal filofax from compact Franklin planner and did not feel like investing hours copying my address book onto personal-sized contact tabs. I got to letter H and just ran out of steam. I already had a filofax personal slimline address book insert filled with phone and account numbers, just not mailing addresses. So I popped that in along with diary inserts and copied out some critical notes. And left the Franklin compact at home. I have my account ledgers inside, the aforementioned address book, lots of other stuff that I never look at. And I find it works fine. I have a task on my daily to-do list to update financials so just capture receipts and check information during the day and enter them into the ledgers/registers in the evening when I get home. And usually if I need an address I can wait until I get home to look it up. I put my frequently used mailing addresses on one sheet of address insert in the filofax which covers most of my daily requirements.
ReplyDeleteAccepting this arrangement meant that I needed to accept the fact that I will not have everything I need with me all the time. But it seems to work fine and I can settle for less than perfect these days. I do need to add all the wifi codes for the various places I travel to to the personal as those are something I may need at any moment and can just be added to the slimline address book insert.
Based on the success of this system, I have also created a work reference binder, a Franklin Quest in monarch size which takes US Letter size inserts. I file all my project documentation in there. Works very well but sometimes wish I had the information in my planner. Yesterday was away from the reference binder and needed a name which I knew was in it but was not copied into the filofax. I don't like that. I have an A5 Van der Spek coming which will become my work planner and can hopefully fit all this stuff so I don't need to maintain separate planning and reference binders for work. It is more essential for me to have my work information at hand whenever, wherever, than my personal information.
I do not have a separate binder that stays at home. Everything is in the one I carry - except my archives, of course.
ReplyDeleteI am very new to the Filofax world, but in my two months of owning a few binders, I have found I use my pocket the most. It goes with me everywhere. I wrote appointments down in it and keep a sticky note in it with my grocery list, etc. Since my pocket is an older style Finsbury, it has a nice picket at the top (like a wallet), so I put important receipts or rebate checks, coupons, etc. in there.
ReplyDeleteI have two home binders. One is a personal Finsbury, and I write appointments in it (because I find writing appointments in two binders seems to reinforce it in my brain), keep track of changing A/C filter, giving dog heartworm pill, etc. I have started to write down when I mailed out things, and other various things I did on certain days. This binder is still in the works, and I'm toying with changing over to my brand new Personal Ochre Malden!
My A5 is very plain and has no inserts except for the loose leaf paper it came with. My dream is to make a "homemaker's gardening and home care" binder. However, I'm having a hard time finding the inserts that I want for it, and I have no idea how to create what I want. :)
I just cannot have two binders. I work almost 12 to 14 hours a day and even when I'm home I have to refer to my notes occasionally. So I have just one which carries my personal appointments and info as well. Only the unused binders stay at home.
ReplyDelete