Can you organize your entire life??

...that is an interesting question for sure! But I had always dreamed of making that question a reality in my life! For many months I thought about, and researched exactly how I would accomplish this giant task, and finally in the month of September I gathered the courage (and the extra bucks), to actually make this dream a reality!
In my kitchen there is a desk that while we were designing the floor plan I specifically asked to have there, because as we all know, the kitchen is such an integral part of family life. There, is where I envisioned myself paying the bills, making my menu's, filling in our monthly calendar, and basically keeping all of the tools necessary to run our home. 
This is how I went about doing it. First, I sat down and categorized my entire life-what I do every day, week, and month, and what activities,  and ministries my family and I are involved in. After making that list I went out and bought a white half inch binder for each one (there were 14 total categories).

• Mendoza Family life (vacation planning, contact info, in case of emergency info, important letters, home papers and projects)
• Household Binder (has our monthly/weekly calendar's, to do's, meal planning, and cleaning schedules)
• John, Blandy, Justin, Jacob and Josiah binders has all of our important documents. Mine has a special section for my personal projects, lessons, and prayer journal)
• Budget and Bills binder (has our monthly budget, bills, and expense logs)
• Camp (houses all the projects I do pertaining to camp)
• Church (has my SS school class info, Choir ideas and music, youth workers papers, and any other important paper we might receive from our church)
• Retreat and Banquet Binder (has information on past,  current, and future banquet planning)
• Vehicles (has our titles, insurance info, and any car maintenance paper work that is worth keeping)
• Holiday Planner (has the cutest templates for Christmas lists, shopping, baking and decorating, lists)
• Appliances (has all of the warranty info for our appliances)

   I then decided what was important to have inside each binder. Each member of our family has there own, for example: the "Justin" binder has his birth certificate, passport, vaccine card, any important paper pertaining to his medical history and so on. I wanted to be able to just reach for any binder at anytime and find exactly what I was looking for in it. And whenever an important paper came home (like a report card) I could easily place it in the corresponding binder. Doing this has practically eliminated any loose papers lying around.

   I also purchased sheet protectors, plastic snap pockets (to keep the important documents in), and templates to print out at home from an Etsy shop that are absolutely awesome! I love it when you can personalize stuff to fit your family's needs and this shop definitely did it for us (plus, I don't have the time or skills to make them so pretty)! ;)

The shopping was the easy part, the jumping in and actually going through every single paper in our old office filing cabinet was a different story all together! I started on a wednesday, and finished up on a Saturday. Literally going through every file, paper, and folder in that cabinet-placing the "keepers" in the pre-determined categories, and throwing out the rest. It was more a mental exhaustion than a physical one, but oh so worth it in the end. Many head-aches, and "why did I do this" moments later, each document and paper had a home, and it was time to make the binders and fill them in! This was the fun part! I wish I had thought of taking pictures of the before mess that we had, but I was just too involved in the piles to think of snapping anything. Here is the end result of the efforts. 
You will see in some of the pictures the various categories of life. I can safely say they ARE organized and that has made this momma a very happy camper! :) 

All 14 binders fit neatly in the bottom drawer of the desk with room for more! When I need one I just grab it, and everything is there! :)

I sit down to plan the next weeks meals every friday evening or saturday morning.

I had to hole punch the plastic snap pockets. Bills are placed in there until payed. It's a great place for receipts as well!

Baseball card pockets are GREAT for SS card and important business cards.

weekly memory verse 

Do not underestimate the awesomeness of  a drawer  organizer! 

The giant monthly calendar. Another personalized Etsy purchase is  a 24x36 dry erase board placed in a hobby lobby frame. I just wipe it off and fill it in every month. So easy! Underneath are 2 dry erase organizers. A weekly calendar which is great  to have right in front of you everyday, and next to it a "contacts", "to do" and "notes" organizer with 2 magnets as well, for any paper you might quickly need at a glance or to file later.


This project has brought a sense of calm to daily life. There might be some things to tweak in the future but so far it has been a blessing! Hope you have enjoyed reading about it! :)