If my house catches fire, I'm getting the kids first, and this little tool second:
There's no offical name for this--around here, we just call it The Notebook. And we say it in a reverent whisper. Basically, it's where I keep all the catch-all papers it takes to manage this family of six.
On the cover you see a photo of my little darlings (in real life I promise they DO have faces).
Inside the front cover I have taped an assortment of important 
information, like social security numbers, combination to the padlock gate in the backyard, and the right way to set a table (it's my dirty little secret: no matter how many tables I set, I cannot, CANNOT remember where the napkin and spoon go without a cheat sheet.)
I keep a three-ring hole punch in my kitchen, and any important piece of paper that darkens our door gets punched right away. Any papers that will be referred to regularly find their way into the The Notebook. It is NOT for filing papers that I might use once or twice a year (like birth certificates). And I don't use it for keeping track of documents to be filed, like paid bills or health insurance statements. Those documents have a much less glamourous fate awaiting them in the garage filing cabinet.
My notebook is divided into the following tabs:
- Pending (for papers that I'll be working on in the next week or two)
- Contacts (my phone list)
- Groceries (where I keep blank forms for this little system)
- Church
- Adam--school (these next three tabs hold classroom information I refer to often, like snack schedules, phone lists, etc. Keepsake-type school papers head out to the filing cabinet)
- Stephen--school
- Joseph--school
- Computer (where I keep all my passwords and ideas for blog posts--a very short list at the moment, by the way)
- Soccer (I have two boys who play; this is where we store rosters, schedules, etc.)
- Scouts (I have two boys in Scouts, too; this is where we keep up with the bazillions of little papers and projects it takes to participate)
- Ideas (Just a random catch-all place to write down my great ideas that never come to fruition. This is a LONG list.)
- Notes (Because you have to keep blank paper somewhere, right?)
This has really helped me keep track of all the paper a busy family can accumulate!
If you want to share your great idea, please include your Works-For-Me Wednesday Link below. Guidelines, should you need them, can be found here.
Oh, and one last thing...Jeana and GreenGenes won my little grammar contest yesterday, with the prize being (oh-can-you-stand-the-excitement) an honorary featured position in today's WFMW post. SO, you must go and visit them first, because it is a fine, fine thing when a woman knows how to hyphenate.
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