The Organised You

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House inspiration binder

We have been planning our home renovation for a while now, and I cannot WAIT to get started sometime in the very near future! I have 100s of ideas in my head, both from Pinterest and magazines, but now that we're in the planning stage, I've been getting idea overload. So, I decided to add to my binder collection (read about our family household and finance binder) and make a 'house inspiration' binder. 

My vision for this inspiration binder was to be like a Pinterest book, a place to hold all our awesome ideas for our future house renovation. I actually prefer to have the hard-copy in front of me that I can flip through and look at in more detail, rather than scrolling through photos on my phone. The idea hit me when, a few weeks ago, as I was re-organising the kids' toy baskets that sit on the living room bookshelves, I noticed how big my collection of 'Home Beautiful' magazines was getting. I like having them on display, but this many looked a bit cluttered.

I grabbed a huge stack of magazines (they weren't in any particular order), leaving a small pile on the bookshelf for display.  From now on, it will be one in one out when a new edition arrives! Luckily, a good friend of mine was asking for spare magazines for her art collage classes, so I was able to give all the old magazines to her.

After going through each magazine, and carefully tearing out the images I loved most, there was a pretty large collection! If you feel like this would be an overwhelming step with a huge stack of magazines, just tackle 3-4 each night until they're complete. Easy enough to do while watching TV in the evening!

I gave the pages a quick trim...

And pasted them on some white A4 paper so it would all sit neatly inside the folder.

I then gave each page a quick hole punch, and put them into their specific category behind the page divider - kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, laundry, exterior, living, and interior decorating.

Here are a few examples of the pages:

At the front of the binder, I popped a plastic pocket with any important numbers we get in the mail that may be useful down the track. I also added a post-it note with our house paint colours recorded, in case we need to do touch-ups or changes.

On the side of the folder, I stuck an adhesive bookplate label by Martha Stewart. These are one of my favourite labels because they stick so securely onto anything. I have used them all over the house, from boxes to folders to baskets.

This folder now sits with the other 2 binders, for quick and easy access, in our command center. I will be showing you this space tomorrow on The Organised You TV, so I hope you can pop back in!

The collection of magazines is looking a lot more tamed now too.

>> Want to learn the step-by-step process for creating easy reference systems for your own household, including family, finance and easy reference binders? Discover how in part 3 of my online program 'Making Your Paper Work'. 
Find out more here >>

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