New Year's Resolution Tutorial: Binder Organization

This is part of a series of popular New Year's resolutions for 2016 and crafts you can do to help your reach your resolutions.

New Year's Resolution: Get Organized

Want to get organized in the new year? It is great to be organized online, but sometimes it is just as important to be organized offline too. One way I like to keep organized is using three ring binders. Binders are good for keeping organized for a variety of things including business, home life and saving articles and printables you find.

Supplies:

• Blank White Binders: I got mine off eBay to buy them in bulk. You can find binders at many office supply stores. Look for binders that allow you to insert items in the cover. Also, be aware of the size of the binder. You can choose a side depending on how much stuff you want to store in your binder. For bigger
• Magazines ... images: Similar to with the vision board, you want to find images that inspire you to achieve your goals. If you are doing a Cooking binder, for example, you can find images of cooking and recipes you want to try. For a Finances binder, try looking for images of things you want to buy with your money to stay motivated.
• Paper: You need paper to put in your binder. You can use blank paper or lined sheets depending on what you need your binder for.
• Printer and Ink: You will need a printer and ink to print out things such as recipes or printables. If you don't want to use a printer, you can always handwrite things. There are a lot of printables you can find online to help keep you organized though. (where to find printables) I recommend looking on **sy, Pinterest and blogs such as Heartmade Blog for printables.
• Three Ring Hole Puncher: A three ring hole puncher is perfect for adding holes to items you need to put in your binder that don't already have holes.
• Scissors or Paper Cutter: Use scissors or a paper cut to cut items.

Instructions:

1. Start with blank white binders. You may want 2 inch or 3 inch t hold more files.

2. First decide on what you want to use your binder for. Here are some ideas for binders you can keep:
Home Organization
Business
Blog
Recipes
Crafts

3. Now start adding images to the front of your binder. You don't have to glue these in because they will just stick inside the binder cover. Find images you want to use and cut them out. You can start with a background image and then add your images.

4. You want to know what the binder is about when you look at it on the side. Add a label to the side of the binder. Sometimes, binders will come with labels. If you don't have one, just type the name of the binder in big, bold text on a word document. Print it out and use scissors or a paper cut to cut it in a square shape. Then stick it inside the binder.

5. Now it's time to add dividers to keep your binder organized. If you have a recipes binder, you might want dividers for different topics such as side dishes, main dishes and desserts.


6. When you add papers to your binder, make sure to hole punch them. If there are files you want to keep that you can not hole punch, use a transparent clear sheet and add items inside the sheet such as receipts or papers. You can also put clear sheets in pages you want to keep protected. For example, if you keep a recipe binder, clean sheets can keep them from getting dirty.

Keeping binders is a great way to stay organized with papers offline. How do you like to stay organized?