Idea Binders

Yesterday, I spent my 15 minutes of organizing, clearing off the kitchen counter. I found a home for every little item that was cluttering up my beautiful kitchen. Objects and papers were beginning to pile up in a bad way. One pile that was particularly annoying was a pile of magazine ideas for fall decorating and Halloween costumes. I have a binder that I throw these things in but I didn't want to put these new ideas away because I wanted to use them soon. When my logic leads to clutter then I know something is wrong in my thinking. After re-thinking I decided that I needed to organize my idea binder into seasons so I wouldn't have to search the whole thing looking for ideas and therefore I wouldn't be afraid to use it. Today I spent my fifteen minutes taking care of this. If you want to do this yourself here is what you'll need:

• An appropriately sized binder
• A package of page protectors
• A box of stick-on index tabs

I used broad categories:

• Valentines/New Year's
• Spring (includes Easter)
• Summer (includes Patriotic and picnic)
• Fall (includes Halloween and Thanksgiving)
• Winter (includes Christmas)
• Family (includes Birthdays and Family Reunions)

Don't try to keep all your old magazines and think you'll find the article you want out of it. Even if you did remember what you wanted you would never be able to find it! I rip out anything of interest to me and get rid of the magazine. It seems to be 80% advertising anyway.

I keep separate binders similar to the above for home design ideas (since we're building a home), and small home project ideas. You can make binders for any subjects that interest you. Gardening, crafts, cooking, woodworking, fishing, etc. I have a basket that I keep accumulated recipes in. Periodically I take the time to type them into my Master Cook program so I can make meal plans and shopping lists with them. If I find a keeper, I add it to my recipe binder that I use daily.

Now that I think about it I'm going to make a new binder with gardening/landscaping ideas in it!