I'm not going to lie. This project is expensive! And I'd much rather put the money towards fabric, or something prettier (which I do have plans to beautify these later!), but I know that this is what is needed. I believe it will be an investment worth making! Besides, I have been giving the craft room, soon to be homeschool room, some overhauling and I made around $70 in selling some excess in the last two days!
I will be ordering most of my supplies from Amazon.com up front for three reasons...#1 There isn't a large selection to choose from at our PX #2 Paper in Europe is a different size. (Learned this the hard way and am currently having to chop all my printed pages!) Meaning that pretty much any accessories I find on the economy will also be sized differently. and #3 Purely for my sanity. Even if each section is completely organized I can hopefully "throw" the binders together and go back and work on each section as needed. If you don't have the money up front though I would still continue with the challenge this week and then figure out what you can afford and buy what you think is needed most at this point.
Your challenge this week is to look at your Brainstorming list, organize it, and shop for supplies! Similar to what you would do back in high school/college when writing an essay or an 11-Step Paragraph. Decide how many main categories and sub categories you want. How many binders do you want? What do you need to make that section most functional? You can look at my list from last week to see how I broke it down. I'm certain I will be rearranging a few things once I get it in front of me, but your list should help to get you a good start on what supplies you will want to get.
Your number #1 item will definitely be a binder!
These can get expensive all by themselves. I've seen 3" Binders from $12 all the way up to $22!!! I would check your local Good Will/Thrift Stores for some that you can find at a cheaper price. I didn't have such luck at our Thrift Store, but I did find these online for $6.99 a piece! For two of my binders I'm also going with a 2" binder. This could easily be something you only buy one of for now and save the money for the others.
Item #2: Sheet Protectors!!
Item #3: A Printer!
If you don't have an printer at home you can easily save any documents to a USB or disc and take them to your local Library or Office Supply Store. Our printer has been quite temperamental lately and only decides to print some of the time. (Not a good time for it to decide to do this!) So I might be making a trip to our Library on occasion to get some of these pages printed.
If you don't have an printer at home you can easily save any documents to a USB or disc and take them to your local Library or Office Supply Store. Our printer has been quite temperamental lately and only decides to print some of the time. (Not a good time for it to decide to do this!) So I might be making a trip to our Library on occasion to get some of these pages printed.
Item #4: Dividers!
This is where it can get a bit confusing and having your outline will really help you to decide what you need! I decided to go with Colored Dividers for my main categories, and White Tab Dividers for my Sub Categories. I also decided on the 5 Tab sets for my main categories, and 8 Tab sets for my sub-categories. The goal is to have to visuals in deciphering/aiding in separating each section...color and size of tabs. (You're probably thinking I'm a bit crazy right now with the amount of thought that I've put into this.) I also choose tabs that are Write-On! I really don't like the plastic tabs where you slide in the little piece of card stock; they never seem to stay put! The Write-On tabs aren't permanent either. So if you decide you need to rearrange your binder you can just relabel your tabs!
These are the 5 Tab Colored Dividers for my Main Categories. I need 4 of them at $5.44 each!
Here are the 8 Tab White Dividers for my Sub Categories. I'm a little concerned about the long-term durability on these, but since I need 5 sets...the price of $3.03 a set beat the other ones I found for around $9 a set!
If you are adding a calender section to one of your binders you might want to get a set of these for $5.13.
Item #5: Accessories!
These next two I'm super excited about! Since I'm putting in a section for our budget and we use the cash system I'm getting these. There are 20 pages for $5.33!! I doubt I will need that many pages but I think these will be vital! From the reviews I read a lot of couponers use these for their large, printed coupons. You could add some to your coupon section, try to sell your excess to an avid couponer, or just split them with a friend!
I think this next item will also make a huge difference! They are pocket tabs that you can add to one of your category dividers. I plan on using one for my coupon section so when I get back from grocery shopping and I have a few extra coupons I can slip them in here until I have more time to sit down and file them away. The best thing is that the pocket closes so nothing falls out!! Right now I just have a regular brad folder with the side pockets. I will slide any extra coupons in a side pocket and they will always fall out!
I will probably also use these to hold our passports/shot records. I am also adding a Birthday/Special Events section to one of my binders, I think under the Calender section. My mom used to have book specifically for holding cards for each month's events. These will be great for holding cards and hopefully I can get back to sending them out on time!! These are definitely on the pricey side at $8.15 for a pack of 5. (I need 3 sets! Ouch!)
If you don't already have a coupon book, but want to add a section you can use the ones listed above or buy some of these. They are made to hold baseball cards, but work great for coupons! You can normally find them in Walmart up in the front by the baseball cards!
Hopefully some of these items will help you decide what you need in your binder! You might want to make a trip to Staples/Office Depot/Wal-mart just to see what's offered before you settle on buying anything. (I say this bu I, myself, avoid errands as much as possible!) My shopping trip was through Amazon on two different nights. I probably spent a total of about an hour and a-half, maybe two hours, on trying to find the right products for this project. Hopefully the above links will save you some time!
Let me finish by saying that you can make this as simple, or as detailed, as you want. I am obviously going with the more detailed version! If you want to keep it simple, all you need is a binder, sheet protectors, and a printer. If you wanted, you could make your own dividers with any extra cardstock you might have laying around your house. Then you could just buy the pack of tabs that you can attach to a sheet protector. There are tons of ways you can go about this, I've just shown you what I have found and will be using.
Happy shopping and let me know if you find something worth looking into!!
{All pictures courtesy of Amazon.com}
***Since getting my supplies....I think I overestimated the size of the 3" Binders! Although I could probably fit everything I need in one---it is not something that I want to have open on my table everyday. God put two 1 1/2 inch binders at $0.50 a piece at the Thrift Store this week just for me!!! The size is much better!
One thing I'm quite disappointed with are the dividers..all of them for the most part. I definitely love the sturdiness of the plastic ones and I love that all of tabs can be re-writable...but I can't see any of them!!! After I put my pages in sheet protectors and then in the binders, the tabs are hidden by the sheet protectors and I can't see where anything is!! Two solutions....my friend found some Xtra Wide Tabs Sheets that will stick out further than the protectors. Look for these!! Option #2 You can get the tabs that stick right to your sheet protector. I don't think either of these are the re-writable ones, but will probably be looking for something different for the long haul.
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