Home Organization and Communication: Make it Happen

 

Flickr Photo Credit: Click Sense

We all know that running a home whether you are working an additional job or not is just that . . . a job. I have to admit that I have resisted for years the concept of setting up communication and documentation systems within our home.

Just keeping up with the filing, coupons, rebates and shopping lists alone can be overwhelming. But considering how many times not having a home procedures manual or accurate task / shopping list has cost us extra money . . . I think it’s finally time to start. Don’t get me wrong. We still live quite frugally in order to be able to pursue things that are a priority for us.

But David and I are both at home now, so this is a much easier concept to implement than it was when he was working long hours prior to retirement. There are two of us around each day to handle household stuff, and since we are together most of the time, things that used to have to wait until the end of the day when we were both tired to be discussed now get addressed when we are both fresh and up for problem solving. Setting up these systems now seems like a natural extension of what we are already doing. Although looking back, if we had found the time to organize some of this stuff earlier, it would have been more than helpful. Here’s our list of things to try:

• Household Procedures and Information Manual – These are great for having information available not only for each other, but also for house sitters and other friends / family members that may need to step in for you in an emergency. In addition to the obvious emergency contact information, these manuals should include such things as the location of the main water supply shut off, circuit breakers, and first aid equipment. Any lists and charts that you routinely need copies of should have a master copy here in a sheet protector. Insurance policy information, schedules for home maintenance with check lists and sign off sheets for such things as gutter emptying, fire alarm battery changing, AC air filter switching, chimney certification, etc. . . these are the types of things you need to have here. This material also gives you the basic information for a family trivia game once a month or quarter where you compete for points on knowledge of things like fire evacuation procedures, safety equipment location and emergency response procedures. You don’t really expect your kids and teens to read the manual on a regular basis do you? Besides, this will give parents a chance to catch up on this information as well. Unfortunately, the most detailed article I’ve ever seen on this subject is no longer online where I’ve previously found it. So I’m sure I’m leaving out some valuable sections that you’ll want to include. A few tips I remember are using a three-ring binder with divider tabs and sheet protectors to organize your manual. I’ll try to do some online research in the near future and post what I find.
• Green, Blue, Pink and Lavander – No, I’m not giving decorating advice for your newborn’s nursery. This is information on an idea David and I got from a lady and her husband we were recently housesitting for while traveling in Jordan. Let me tell you, we think we’re pretty organized, but these people definitely showed us a good idea or two about keeping your family rowing in the right direction. Anyway, here’s what they do as a husband and wife team to keep things running smoothly with home, work, pets and teens. In a word – lists. Here’s their trick: The husband’s to do list is blue. The wife’s is pink. Anything that definitely needs to be done that they both hate / need to hire out or draw straws for goes on the green list, which they negotiate and plan for on a regular basis at family meetings. When either one of them has to be gone for a period of time, the blue and pink lists merge, leaving the one remaining on the home front in “code lavander”. Being that both of them are ex-military, and David just retired from the Air Force, we all got a huge chuckle out of this. However, this discussion was only in half jest. These people really have their act together, and also have nearly identical tasking and value patterns to David and I. So if this is a system they use successfully, it has my attention. I’m sure you could easily get out of control with this system, maintaining a master list of who’s assigned what and assigning codes for what’s been completed and what hasn’t . . . but at some point you might become a slave to the system rather than the other way around. I think the way they make it work (and we will probably be using a similar approach) is to have their overall written lists and communicate progress at family meetings. On a side note, I’m not sure why the list of things neither wants to deal with isn’t colored brown . . .
• The Communications Log – This is more of a notebook really, with each entry dated. Basically, it’s not something you really need to worry about using religiously unless the circumstances in your home demand it ( allergy treatments, med passess, residential behavioral treatment, etc.). But is  helpful to leave open to a particular date and pop a not about whether a particular task has been achieved or if a child has earned a behavioral consequence that another parent needs to be aware of before you will be home to communicate it with them. If you’ve picked up something on the family “to get” list and don’t want your partner to go out and overspend accidentally by picking up a second one, this is a good place to jot down a note.
• Shopping Lists – These are not necessarily simply for grocery shopping. One thing David and I have discussed doing for years is compiling a master list for the house which listed all of our sizes and measurements for particular clothing items (great if you are shopping the yard sales for back to school clothes for the kids), favorite brands (for when you’re on the look-out at thrift stores), types of light bulbs for various fixtures in the house, model numbers for vehicle and household air filters, battery sizes needed for specific household appliances,  ink cartridge numbers needed for the home office, etc. This is a great idea to always have with you, so if you are stopping by the store for a home item anyway, and see a sale on something or notice an item you’ve been meaning to pick up, you’ll know right away if it’s the right thing to buy. Regarding groceries, if you have a general list of things that are needed right away as well as things you’ll need by the end of the month, you’ll know when you scour the sale flyers in the newspaper each weekend if there’s something on sale you need to jump on in order to take advantage of the price.
• Charts – I’m not saying you need to go hog wild here, but we find them helpful for things like medication dispensing (our oldest dog has several issues), multiple task lists during heavy transition times. (We recently tackled retirement, home sale, moving, 6 months of backpacking while running our business from the road, and picking up a cottage that we would be renovating when we hit the states again. Oh yeah, and we are grant and job searching in the middle of it all.) People with children use these frequently for things like chore check-off and behavioral shaping plans. Your charts don’t have to be incredibly detailed. Just a place to check off whether an item has been accomplished is a great start.
• Communications Board – This can be a chalkboard on a wall as you exit the door, a bulletin board, or a combination of both. This is a great place for reminders, children’s school permission slips, inspirational messages for family members who have a big or important day coming up, receipts for item returns, delivery menus for those hectic nights, etc.
• The Price Book – I’ve started this several times. Hopefully, this will be the year I make it happen. These come in helpful for items you buy on a regular basis, such as peanut butter, bleach, chicken, etc. If you know what stores offer an item at the best price routinely, it will help you plan your grocery shopping route and know when a loss leader sale is worth taking advantage of. I’m still searching for the list I received once from one of my newsletters which listed at which month of the year various things went on super sale. For example, even though the demand for picnic items is high in the summer, there are certain times when the mustards, ketchups and relishes will be on sale with double coupons. If you know when that is, you can really clean house on free items. Even without this information though, a price book is still worth doing.

Here are some resources online to help you get started on this home organization journey:

• Not the original home procedures manual article I was searching for, but this one is comparable and lists numerous categories for including in this family project. There are also links for printable pages to use in your own home manual.
• An article on keeping a price book, along with a printable page to use for your own version of this project.
• This article is on getting organized to build your own home and doing it wisely.

If you’re just starting this process yourself, good luck. As for me, I’ll try to keep you posted on our journey.