Monday, June 8, 2015

Mini Binder Organizer

So very excited to show this to you.  I made my own calendar/organizer.  And I LOVE it!!!

I started looking for cute planners on the internet.  Mostly via Pinterest.  I saw some really cute ones, but most of them were $30+ and didn't have exactly everything I wanted.  So I started looking at free online printables.  There are a TON of free printables out there for pretty much anything you might need.  I just kept Pinteresting and Googling until I found ones I liked. I came across The Scattered Squirrel blog.  She has so many printables in cute colors! I chose the half size monthly calendar and the half size daily to-do.  Then I also came across The Polka Dot Posie blog. I loved her small home management planner pages!

These seemed to fit what I was looking for, at least for now.  I'm sure there's a million other pages that I could add.  That's the beauty of this system too, you can add and remove.

Ok, here's the materials I used:
1" Mini Binder from Walmart $5.97
Mini binder filler paper Walmart $2.44
Mini binder write-on plastic dividers Walmart $2.88

Three hole punch

    
Paper cutter or scissors
Either personal printer, or library/office store to print sheets 
Free/$0.25 per page.

*I used the library on campus because my el cheapo printer will not do borderless printing.  This was needed for the home management printables to come out right.* 

Ok, so I printed out all my pages, then cut the pages in half with a paper cutter.  It is so much easier with a cutter, but you could use scissors. 

After I hole punched all the pages, I assembled them in my binder in the order I wanted, using the tab dividers. Simple.

And here's the finished product!

No cover page needed because this is pretty on its own!

The first page is emergency information. There are pockets on the front and back cover for loose papers, coupons, etc.  You can also buy mini binder page protectors and pockets if you need them.

Doctor's office numbers for quick reference.  See the pen holder on the back cover? Nifty!

Make note of any annually occurring appointments

Special dates such as birthdays and anniversaries

Quick reference for holidays upcoming and past

The second tab is my monthly view calendar. I prefer this to weekly so I can see the whole month at a time when planning events, appointments, etc. I color code this calendar with my colored Sharpie Pens. Black for the month and numbers for the dates. Blue is friends and family, Pink is Premier, Orange is work and school, and Green is finance.

The next tab holds my favorite page! I love to do lists, and the record of phone calls, emails, or texts that need sending. A great tool for goal setting, prioritizing, and using your day efficiently!

Third tab is to do lists. My favorite! Good for those longer term events going on, that go past just one day, or packing lists, grocery lists.  Any lists!

Fourth tab is a place to keep track of contacts.


And finally, this last tab is really neat too. It holds pages like this 
list of books to read...

Movies to see...

 Recipes to try... 


So for about $12 (plus the cost of printing), I have a totally customizable organizer, that I can reuse each year.  

What do you think?  Do you use paper planners or digital?


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