* Organization
* Housework
* In the Kitchen
* Fertility, Birth, and Babies
* Homeschooling
* Health
* Christianity
* Frugality
* Other
Things to Do with 3-Ring Binders
I do everything with 3-ring binders and page protectors. Well, okay, not everything,
but a lot of things. I thought I'd pass along some of the uses I've found for them.COOKBOOKS
When I got The Freezer Cooking Manual from 30-Day Gourmet, I immediately took it apart. I put every page in a page protector and put the pages in a 3-ring binder with clear outside pockets. I put the cover in the outer pockets. This allows my book to open flat, protects the pages from the inevitable splatters of a freezer cooking session, and made it expandable so I can add recipes printed out from the 30-Day Gourmet site. I don't do this with all of my cookbooks; it would take way too many page protectors!PRAYER JOURNAL
Another binder is divided into 8 sections - one for each day of the week and one for every day. These are labeled as follows:Every Day- Praises, Goals, Schedule
Sunday- Church
Monday- Nation, Government, Leaders
Tuesday- Missions
Wednesday- Friends
Thursday- Self
Friday- Family (immediate)
Saturday- Family (extended)
I printed out photos and/or representative pictures for the specific people and things in each category, leaving blank space beside, above, or below them and inserted the pages in page protectors. I use dry erase markers to write more specific prayer requests with the people and groups. For example, the picture of my husband is consistent; I always want to pray for him, even if he doesn't have any specific requests. If, for example, he's currently praying for wisdom in knowing which car to buy, I will write that in. I can erase that particular request when it's no longer a need. (If the dry erase has been there a while and won't come off, color over it again with new dry erase ink. When you rub THAT off, the old ink should come off, too.) I also have some print-outs in the front of my notebook about prayer, meditating on Scripture, etc. You could keep notebook paper in the book, as well, if you like to journal your prayer requests.
In case you're wondering what's IN these categories for me:
(This is the ideal; I'm not actually doing very well with this right now.) Every day I praise God. I don't have any pictures in my notebook for this yet, but I plan to include some pictures of things I appreciate - violin, my family, sunsets, whatever. This is just to remind me to praise and thank God. The goals and schedule part is to remind me to look over and pray over my long-term goals and my schedule for the day so I can be sure that I'm keeping them in mind and in God's will.
Sunday is "church day". I have pictures of my pastor, deacons, and other church leaders. You could also include a photo of the church itself, for praying over the local body in general.
Monday is "government day". I have pictures of the President and First Lady, the Vice President, our state senators, federal and state representatives, and state governor. (I got these from HSLDA's Legislative Toolbox.) If you have a mayor or other local leaders, you could include them, too.
Tuesday is "missions day". What you include here will depend on what aspects of or groups in missions you choose to pray for. Mine has a page of three Bibleless people groups (from Wycliffe Bible Translators) and a map of Canada with Saskatchewan highlighted. The Canadian thing is because our last church was partnered with a Baptist association in Saskatchewan. I need to add a picture of the group my sister works with in India. You could include prayer cards for any missionaries your local church supports, a map of a country you have a burden for, or whatever will remind you to pray for whomever you feel led to pray for.
Wednesday is "friends day". Guess who that has pictures of. Right; my friends. (Actually, it doesn't have any pictures in it yet, 'cause I don't have pictures of the people I want in it.)
Thursday is "self day". It contains one page. I have a picture of myself in the corner, and mostly have just decorated the page with a pretty border. It also has a flame on it (to represent the Holy Spirit and remind me to pray for spiritual things) and an umbrella (to represent "showers" of blessings and remind me to thank God for His blessings in my life). I use this page to list everything from "new house" (when we were looking) to "help me be a godly wife" to "closer relationship with God". Some of those things will stay on the page longer than others!
Friday is "immediate family day". This has a page for my husband and a page for each of my children which so far is only one (child).
Saturday is "extended family day". It's for pictures of my parents, grandparents, sisters, in-laws, etc. I list requests in this section for everything from health to godly husbands to help with driving tests to trips to India.
This system is not to keep me from praying for things on the days they aren't "assigned", but to keep me from failing to do anything justice because I'm trying to pray for too many things at once.
INSTRUCTIONS AND WARRANTIES
This is a very large binder at our house - about 3 inches, I think - and we need to start another one. Most people don't even know where to find their instruction manuals and warranty paperwork. If they do, the paperwork is usually in file cabinets. I discovered that it fills up a file really quickly and then it's hard to find what you need when you need it, so here's what I did. I filled up a binder with sheet protectors and stuck plain white labels on each one, in the upper right corner. I slid the paperwork for one item into each protector (with a couple exceptions, which I'll mention in a moment). Then I labeled each one with whatever term I'd use to look for it. For example, I'd look under "vacuum cleaner" for the vacuum cleaner, so that's what I wrote. I'd look under "Corelle" for the Corelle dishes, so that's what I wrote. When there were several, I wrote the additional information in smaller handwriting on the label. We had three telephones, so I wrote "telephone" on three of the labels, but I wrote "G.E. corded" on one, "cordless" on another, etc. Then I put the pages in alphabetical order by whatever was on the label.There were a few things I lumped together. One example is Pampered Chef products. I have multiple kitchen tools from Pampered Chef, and they all come with little bitty slips of paper with the care instructions on them. I put all of these together in one page protector, under the heading "Pampered Chef". Likewise for multiple (identical) air purifiers.
SEWING PATTERN INDEX
This one doesn't require page protectors. I don't know about you, but I think that folding used sewing patterns back up to fit them into the envelopes is worse than refolding a map! Here's what I did. I bought a couple of fileboxes (the plastic kind from Wal-Mart that are made to hold lots of hanging files). You could use an actual file cabinet, or whatever your patterns will fit in. Then I bought a bunch of 9x12 manila envelopes, 1 per pattern. I put each pattern in an envelope, first writing the pattern number (and a letter/letters representing the company - S for Simplicity, M for McCalls, NL for New Look, etc.) on what is the upper right corner when you turn the envelope sideways. Then I filed them in numerical order. I plan to eventually cut the (original) envelopes in half and glue them (with glue stick 'cause it doesn't wrinkle up) to the outsides of the manila envelopes.I then have binders (plural because mine contain other stuff, too. You could just use one) with index pages. These pages are in categories. For example, one for outerwear and accessories, one for interior decorating projects, one for shirts, etc. (Some of these now have multiple pages.) There are several columns here - one for special notations so I can mark for maternitywear, holiday stuff, etc., one for a description, one for the pattern number, one for the size, one for the pattern type. The description is just what it says - a description of the pattern. The pattern number is that number I wrote on the top of the envelope - S2103 or NL5677 or whatever. (The reason for the letters is in case I have patterns from two different companies with the same number.) The size is the size, including size grouping. I mean, 6-8 girls or 6-8 womens or one size or n/a (for teddy bears, slipcovers, etc.). The pattern type is only applicable if you have other patterns - like crochet patterns or plastic canvas patterns - along with sewing patterns. I keep crochet, knitting, and sewing patterns together, and just mark that index with K, C, or S so I know which type it is. This allows me to skim down the list if I'm looking for a crochet pattern, specifically.
One nice thing about the envelopes is I can keep homemade pattern and patterns printed from my computer filed with the others and they're a uniform size. I picked out letters for them (I think X for patterns that I printed or copied and R for patterns I made), but you leaving those letterless would be another option.