Portable Office Part 1: The Components

A long, long time ago (in a galaxy far away....just kidding!) I started putting together a binder to hold my budget papers and bank statements to keep me a little bit more organized. Little did I know I was starting what turns out in bloggy-land to be A Household Binder. I started looking for some inspiration and came across IHeartOrganizing, a blog I have fallen in LOVE with!

Source

Her household binder is beautiful, colorful and just plain amazing! If you need help knowing where to start, check out her Etsy shop here: she offers printables that will help you organize! I got alot of ideas from her! From there she had a link on her post that sent me to A Bowl Full of Lemons, another great organizing blog. Seriously, these two blogs will help you whip your life into shape and give you lots of inspiration with their posts AND the posts from their readers that they feature! Her home management binder was very organized and helped me to finalize the tabs that I needed for mine.

But I was struggling with where to put it once everything was together! I have a file folder drawer in my desk that was in bad shape. I hardly open it anymore because the handle is falling off (and I would have to take everything out anyway to put it back on) so why keep anything in there anymore? So, I decided that I was going to take Lemon's advice and create a portable office!

Source

Here is what I came up with. Now I still have to print off a bunch of things (which is where part 2 of this post is going to come from) including a cover sheet, budget pages, calendar pages, a weekly breakdown of where our money needs to go, (since I don't make a set amount each week I need to be able to adjust quickly) but I don't have ink right now. So, I will post about the details soon, but for now - here are the components of my new Household Portable Office!

New (nicer) bag to come, but for now this one will do.

My expandable file folder (which replaced my drawer) on the right, my household binder on the left

Inside of my expandable folder: includes tabs for veterinary papers (sub-tabbed by animal's name), utility douments (sub-tabbed by company), rental agreement information, instruction manuals, pay stubs, tax documents, vehicle service documents, and the folders below. The pocket on the front holds pens and scissors, and there is a smaller expandable folder below that, which holds my old planner sheets, and new blank ones, and envelopes.

Folders - 2 sets, one for important documents (birth certificates, marriage licenses, etc.) and one for medical documents (receipts for services, information like feeding schedules, etc.)

Stay tuned for the reveal of the inside of my Home Management Binder! I can't wait to show you!