Hey there, Friends! Sarah here, from the Archer & Olive Ambassador team, and SHEdesignsKC over on Instagram. I just started a new journal and I’m equal parts “Wow! I’m so thrilled to have come up with this idea!”, and “How have I not had this journal going for years already?!”. I’m calling it my Home Management Journal, and it’s the holder of ALLLLL the information about my home. I love a go-to spot for housing (haha) everything I need regarding a topic. If you’d like to see what I included in my setup, let’s chat supplies and then get into it! 

SUPPLIES

I gave a lot of thought to what journal from my unused journal collection (if you know, you know) I wanted to use for this project. I finally decided to use the A5 that I received with my Archer & Olive Self Care box. Organization is truly self care to me, so it’s perfect! I’m also using:

• Archer & Olive notepad
• Archer & Olive Calliograph pens
• Archer & Olive dot grid stencil
• Adhesive roller
• Scissors
• Pencil and Eraser

As you do your Archer & Olive shopping in the future, I’d sure love it if you’d consider using my affiliate discount code - SHEDESIGNSKC10! You’ll save 10% on your purchases, and I’ll get a small commission too! Always much appreciated! 

QUOTE PAGE

As a big fan of hand lettering, I had to kick off my new journal with a quote page! I picked a quote by Laura Ingalls Wilder, “Home is the nicest word there is”. I’m a total homebody, and I couldn’t agree more! I used my Calliographs to do the lettering and decorate this page. Would you like a cute little home quote page of your own? I made a digital version that is available as a free download you can print off and color for yourself!

 

NEIGHBORHOOD CONTACTS SPREAD

Do you live in a place where you have lots of neighbors? We live in a pretty great community and are frequently visiting with neighbors as we see each other outside. I decided to include a page with our neighborhood contacts so I have everyone’s contact information handy in one place. I’ll fill this in with phone numbers and children’s names, etc. I thought this could also be very useful if we ever have house sitters or baby sitters who need to contact a neighbor for some reason. Also, I’m not always great at remembering names, so I can have a little cheat sheet if I need it! Haha! I also included the HOA contact information.

PAINT COLORS SPREAD

I haven’t lived in many different houses as an adult - only two - but one thing I’ve done in each home is paint the rooms. In my current home I’ve painted all the rooms except two! I wanted to have a place in my journal to list out what paint colors, brands, and finishes I used in each room. Have I mentioned I have a 5 and 3 year old at home? We need to touch up paint from time to time. Haha! I love this spread! I was getting very weary of trying to keep all my home improvement store paint sample cards together, and I was also not super successful at it, as you can see! I couldn’t find all the sample cards, so I just wrote in the information for the ones I was missing.

EXPENSE TRACKER SPREAD

An expense tracker is something I’ve been wanting for a while. I will use this spread to track any recurring home related expenses. Some of the things I’ll track here include pest control, HOA dues, and utilities. I especially like the idea of being able to see how much money is being spent on utilities and to compare at a glance with previous months (or even years). I decided to leave several blank pages following this one, so I can fill in more trackers in years to come.

HOUSEHOLD TASKS SPREAD 

Some household tasks come up just once a year or maybe not even that often, so this spread will help me keep track of when certain smaller projects were completed. For my purposes, I decided just to track things here that we take care of ourselves. Some examples are changing the air filters, new batteries for the smoke detectors, washing the windows, sealing the deck, cleaning the dryer vent, etc. I left plenty of blank space in case I come up with more things to add later. Like, did you know you’re supposed to wash off your air conditioning unit?! I’ve literally never done that, but when we were having a bit of trouble with ours recently, the technician who came out told us to be sure to hose it down each year. So, adding that to my list! 

PROJECTS SPREAD

This spread is going to be used for any projects or work we have done at our home, that we do not take care of ourselves. That may include exterior painting, tree trimming, chimney inspections, plumbing, electrician work, etc. One thing I struggle with is remembering not only when we had certain work done, but the company that did the work, their contact information, how much it was, and when it was. This is going to come in very handy for looking back when we need to call a plumber and we remember that we were really happy with the last company we last used, so we want to use them again. I’ll also track any warranty information here if that’s applicable.

WISHLIST SPREAD

My dreaming spread! I watch too much HGTV to not have at least a few home improvement projects I’d love to get around to one day! Can you relate? This is where I will list out ideas I have of projects I would like to complete in the future. It’s nice to have them all listed out so when we find ourselves with a little extra cash to use on a project (does that even happen?!), we can look at all our ideas and pick which one we want to do. Once we get started on one, it will move over to the projects spread and get crossed off this list! 

CREATING TABS

I decided the finishing touch would be to add tabs so I can easily find the sections I’m looking for when I use this journal. I left multiple blank pages between several of these spreads so I could continue to fill in more pages in the future, so tabs will make navigation a lot simpler. I used some paper from my A&O notepad to cut out 4 small squares, which I folded in half. I used a corner rounder to give them a more finished look, and then used my adhesive roller to adhere them so they sandwiched the page that started that specific section in my journal. I had never done tabs before, and I was really pleased with the final look and functionality! I will note though, I wanted my tabs on the top of my notebook because I didn’t want them to get bent up or damaged when I have the notebook on a shelf. One thing I failed to think about though, was that the placement of the tabs on the top will keep me from being able to use the elastic band to close my notebook. I’m okay with that, but something worth noting if you decide to create tabs too! 

I’m so happy to have this extra level of organization for my home and everything about it! Thanks so much for joining me with this setup! If you’d like to watch my setup process, check out the YouTube video here!

Could you use a home management journal? Which spread do you think you would use most? Do you have another spread idea? We’d love to hear it! Be sure to tag @archerandolive, and myself @SHEdesignsKC, if you create any of these spreads or your own home management journal! If you want more on home improvement and journaling, check out this blog post! I’ll talk to y’all soon!