One of my favorite home organizing tools and one I could not live without is my Simple Household Planner.
Over the years I’ve purchased many different household and life planners, but couldn’t seem to find one that was a perfect fit. .
They were either too elaborate – taking more time than they saved, or the layout didn’t jive with the way my brain works.
Most were too small, not offering enough room to schedule or organize my family of seven. Others included way more details than I cared to track.
Not to mention, the really good ones cost a small fortune. I cringe when I think about the dollars I’ve shelled out over the years on planners that didn’t fit my needs.
I designed my own DIY Simple Household Planner
A couple years ago, I started experimenting with building my own planner. I jotted down ideas, made lists, prioritized and created my own templates.
After much trial and error, I developed a SIMPLE customizable system that works for me and it just might work for you too.
It’s not fancy or elaborate. My simple household planner is just plain and SIMPLE. Exactly what a busy woman like me (and maybe you) needs.
This simple household planner will help you move all the thoughts twirling inside your head onto yearly, monthly, weekly and daily planning sheets.
The best part about this planner is that it’s flexible. There are several styles of each planning sheet so you can try them all and use what works best for you.
The price is right too! Right now, you can download the DIY Simple Household Planner which includes over 20 planning pages for just $2.99. Plus, when you purchase the planner, you’ll be registered to automatically receive any new planning sheets I create in the future for FREE!
How to Make Your Own Simple Household Planner
Putting together your own simple household planner is easy and frugal!
You’ll need these supplies
- Simple Household Planner planning sheets (buy here)
- 1-1.5 inch binder with pockets
- Plastic pocket write-on tabbed dividers
- Double-page monthly calendar – this is the one I use or you can grab a free printable one >> click here.
- Yearly Goals printable planning page
- Monthly Goals printable planning page
- The Big List printable page
- Week at a Glance printable planning page
- Daily Planner printable planning page
- Meal Planning printable planning page
- Shopping List printable page (optional)
- Family Favorites printable page (optional)
Organize your categories with dividers
All the planning pages fit perfectly in a 1-inch binder and are organized with plastic pocket write-on tabbed dividers.
I used the single pocket dividers but you can buy dividers with pockets on front and back if you want to increase your storage capacity. You can also recycle dividers from other projects by using a drop of lemon essential oil to remove existing ink or by using my favorite label maker to create new labels. They look good as new!
The categories I use for my simple household planner are: Yearly (goals), Monthly (goals), The Big List, Weekly, Daily, Menus, Kids and Important. Pretty simple, huh?
Your categories may be similar but you’ll want to customize them to fit your life and needs. In what areas of life do you need help staying organized? Make those areas your categories.
Decide on a calendar
The first section in my household binder is the family calendar. I like a two-page, monthly calendar with room for notes and to do items for that month.
I purchase mine on Amazon because I like the tabbed months and I don’t like trying to figure out the whole front to back printing thing, but if you’d prefer, there are lots of calendar options on line that you can download and print for FREE! This is one of my favorite options >> click here.
Assign each family member a color and use colored ultra fine sharpies or fine tip gel pens to jot down appointments and activities for each person in their specific color. This will help you see at a glance how many different directions you are going that day, which also helps you determine when you need to stop scheduling. You can also use colored washi tape for this purpose.
Set and achieve Yearly and Monthly Goals
The next two sections of the planner are the Yearly and Monthly goals worksheets.
With my kids running in different directions and me trying to keep up, I sometimes lose site of self care and living with intention. I created these worksheets to help me focus on those things that are important alongside caring for my family.
Both pages mirror each other making it easy to translate yearly goals to bite size, actionable chunks on the monthly pages.
There’s also a blank yearly and monthly goals worksheet that you can customize with your own goals categories.
Don’t forget The Big List
The Big List, which I affectionately call my brain dump, is one of my favorite sections. You know all those thoughts that rapid machine gun fire through your mind all day? The chores, errands, tasks, ideas, projects? Things you don’t want to forget, but can’t get to just yet?
This is the place you put those so you can move on with your day and come back to them later and add them to your monthly goals sheet or your weekly/daily planner.
It’s literally a sanity saver!
Choose your weekly planning page
Next comes the Week at a Glance page. This is where I plan my entire week. I categorize my tasks from highest to lowest priority, jot down my menu plan for quick reference, add in my action plan for working toward my goals and note household chores that need to be accomplished.
And if you’d rather not carry your goals over to this page as pictured above, then you can use this version:
Forr those of you who like to see your entire life in one glance, I’ve included a two-page view where you can jot down all of your appointments, goals and to dos.
That brings us to the daily planning sheet.
Daily Planner
Once I have my weekly planner completed – I usually make time for this on Sunday afternoons or evenings – I move on to the daily planner.
There are FIVE different daily planning sheets to choose from with space for you to prioritize your to do list, plan your personal daily schedule, track your goals, jot down your menu plan, supervise housekeeping and more!
I complete this worksheet, usually the night before, by pulling information from the Family Calendar and Week at a Glance page and adding in any last minute items.
Choose your Menu Planning pages
Finally we come to the menu planning section. I like to use the 2-week Menu Planning page as shown above, but you can also choose a 1-week version or a monthly version.
Sometimes I use both the monthly and a 1-week or 2-week plan. I’ll jot down all the possible meals I could make during the month with groceries I have on hand and this helps me plan better week by week and spend less at the grocery store.
Extra (optional) Details
I’ve also created a Family Favorites printable where you can keep track of your family’s favorite meals.
And a Shopping List to keep you organized at the grocery store.
The last two sections of my planner are labeled “Kids” and “Important”.
I keep anything important related to kids in the “Kids” category. For example, this year’s school calendar, their student ID numbers, copies of sports schedules and physicals – and any other paperwork I don’t want to lose.
The Important section is for items I need to keep close at hand for easy access or things related to tasks I am completing.
I have to keep quite a few plates spinning at once, as I’m sure you do. The more I have written down, the less likely one of those plates crashes to the ground. I really don’t know what my life would be like without my simple household planner.
Tips for Creating Your Own Household Management Binder
- Remember, what works for me, may not work for you. Then again, it just might. The key to success is knowing yourself and implementing a system that you will actually use.
- Brainstorm what areas of your home and life you need help organizing and maintaining.
- Think about how simple/complex your system should be – some people need streamlined, for some, the more details the better.
- I’ve kept my binder very simple, but you can go all out if you want. Add in whatever will make your life easier!