Home Management Binder

Salam 3alaikum girls,

I am in the middle of putting together a "home management binder" to help me organize all of the papers and schedules and information floating around my house.

Right now, I am just putting together things from around my house (free, yay!) to create a makeshift binder until I figure out how much use I will get out of these binders before investing more permanently.

So far I have 2 plastic brad folders and one normal plastic folder.

The brad folders look like this:

{via amazon.com}

One brad folder holds our receipts, budget, goals, account info, travel plans, and calendars (school, cleaning schedule, tv shows lol). It is green, like money O_o
The second brad folder holds online shopping account info, meal ideas, coupons, recipes, the grocery list and store ad flyers. It is orange... like an orange. Yes I'm so creative.
The normal folder holds our apartment info, lease agreement, and documented contact with the landlord/maintenance staff, and emergency information like family addresses, phone numbers, doctors names and numbers, etc. It is purple. Because I had a purple folder.

Along with normal notebook paper I am using a few plastic page protectors and some binder clips to hold lists and receipts and such I also have some tabs for the sections. Coupons, grocery lists, and calendars are stored in plastic pages. I have some plastic pages also to store any recipes I come across in magazines or online. I can just clip or print them and shove them in the book for later.

The 10 colored tab pages, 16 plastic page protectors, and 8 binder clips of varying size were $3 total at the Dollar Tree, so it really wasn't a big splurge to get this party started. Everything else I had laying around the house.

When I get a good system going inshaAllah I plan on adding more "official" printables instead of drawing all over notebook paper. Also I may buy a real binder.

Would you all be interested in my sharing the printables here? I know homemaking binders are becoming more common.

I think the first one I will make will be for my cleaning schedule inshaAllah. Right now I have it all written on scrap pieces of paper and stuck in the binder which isn't very helpful.

Do any of you use a homemaking binder to keep organized? Do you use some other method? I would love to hear about it inshaAllah!

Affordable Beauty Tips #4

Salam 3alaikum ya banaat!

see what you can do with that stuff piling up in your medicine cabinet or laundry room!


Beauty in the Laundry Room/Medicine Cabinet!

Ivory Bar Soap: Cheaper than liquid body washes and also great for hand washing delicates. Before you go out gardening, scratch your nails across your bar soap to build up a coat under your nails, put on your gardening glove, then when you get done just rinse out the soap. It will save you time having to dig all the dirt from your nails later inshaAllah.

Bounce Sheets: Rub a bounce sheet on the bottom of your dress/pants/abaya to avoid static cling. Keep bounce sheets in your clothes drawer to keep that "just washed" smell. Bounce sheets are also great to smooth out fly-away hairs!

Aspirin: Crunch up aspirin, mix with a little water and use on skin to reduce puffiness and prevent razor burn after you shave. If you apply a paste to a pimple it will also reduce redness and pain and help shrink it up quickly.

Baking Soda: I use it for everything! You can use it to exfoliate your scalp (just add to your shampoo or conditioner) to deodorize your shoes, add to bleach and make a scrub for the bathroom and kitchen, exfoliate your lips by mixing it will oil or vaseline and gently wiping away with a warm wet cloth. Add baking soda to your toothpaste for extra cleaning power and toss some in the wash to help whiten whites.

Epsom Salts: Great for adding to oil for an exfoliating scrub. Good for tossing in the bath instead of those pricey bath salts. Just add some body wash/essential oils/leftover perfume in the bottom of the bottle for a great smell.

Witch Hazel: This is another great antiseptic/astringent. It does amazing things for ingrown hairs and razor burn. Just put some on a cotton ball and swipe over the area. Follow up with olive oil/vitamin e/ coconut oil or your favorite moisturizer! Witch hazel is really cheap but I would spend the extra couple dollars to get one that doesn't have such a strong smell to it, because the smell is quite definitely an acquired taste... You can also try adding an essential oil to cover the smell, but shake the bottle each time before use. Witch hazel also helps heal bruising and sun burns.

Housework

Salam 3alaikum ladies,

Alhamdulillah I'm back home now! As you can imagine in had quite a bit of housework waiting for me. Packing always seems to leave the house in a huge mess...

It got me thinking that I am really not good at housework. I never had chores as a kid. We were never really home long enough to do regular cleaning. I learned how to clean, but not in any regular or scheduled sort of way.

Our cleaning always consisted of  "Oh crap, your uncle is going to be here in two days. Throw everything in the cloests/drawers/cabinets and do some dusting!!"

Anyway, for now alhamdulillah I am able to be a housewife. (Since I was young I always knew I wanted to be home for family so I am so grateful that I am able to do this.) But now I am faced with having to do regular cleaning and cooking and things that my life with my family didn't prepare me for.

My interest seems to come and go... some days I am so excited about cleaning and I will clean the whole house top to bottom and I feel so good and the house looks so nice! Maybe I will even be able to keep it up for a while. Then I will go for days and can barely get myself to wash the pan I used to make dinner, let alone all of the cups and plates and spoons.

I need to get myself more regulated because I sort of swing to the extremes. MashaAllah my husband is so patient with it and he never complains, but I feel like I can do better. This is my job after all, and it is something I should take pride in.

Any tips??? I'm feeling desperate about getting into a good schedule, but unsure how I should do that.