I’d like to share a bit of information with you regarding our family’s Control Journal.

What’s a Control Journal, you ask? Well, for those of you who haven’t yet taken a few “flying lessons”, a control journal is simply a home management system that fits into a binder which is always kept in the same place and contains information pertinent to the management of your home. Our Control Journal contains a wealth of important information, readily available for all family members and will be the first thing I grab as I go out the door, in the event of an emergency. Even if you’ve not considered using the FlyLady‘s suggestions for household management, the Control Journal is an outstanding idea for keeping important information at our fingertips.

Some of the information contained within our journal includes typical FlyLady suggestions : morning, afternoon and evening routines, zone cleaning suggestions, etc. In other words, lists. Lists that help in the effective management of our home. Most of these lists are rather short and are placed in sheet protectors so that we can mark through them throughout the day (with a dry erase marker, of course!). As important as it is to manage our daily chores, there are other areas and information that we don’t often consider on a day to day basis. For example: what to do in the event of an emergency. The Control Journal is a valuable tool, and you determine what information would best serve the needs of your family.

Here’s a brief highlight of the content of our family’s Control Journal:

Zipper bag: contains a dry erase marker, a sharpie, a pair of scissors, a pencil sharpener, a pencil, a super-glue pen and a couple of molly-clips. These are things I usually need, and can never find. Everyone knows that they are not be used by anyone but mom.

Pocket Folder: contains emergency evacuation checklist, CDs containing the following information: document files, photos, copies of birth certificates, social security cards, exemption from mandatory public school attendance letter, insurance information, car titles, tax returns…all on disk. I’d never be able to gather all this information from separate files quickly!

Contact Information: for every member of the family. Cell phone numbers, work addresses, church address, our priest’s phone number (as well as a notation in the folder that this is a Catholic family and a priest should be called in the event of a medical emergency) and poison control.

A google map to our home. Should anyone need to give accurate directions to emergency personnel or maybe just a friend…

Grocery checklist: found a really great one here. I keep several copies in my folder and check things off as soon as I realize we need them.

A calendar: one that I can write on.

Address book pages: yes, I have an address book. But I don’t keep it on the kitchen counter. I only record the most important addresses and phone numbers on these pages.

Menu planner: I haven’t implemented these yet…I used to plan my menus out, but unfortunately got out of the habit. It is a terrific time saver and also helps with budgeting the weekly grocery expenditures.

An emergency checklist: a few instructions for whomever happens to be home in the event of an emergency.

Those are just a few things, but now I have peace of mind in knowing that in the event of an emergency, all of this information is in one place.

Additionally, the Control Journal also serves as a “base.” Family members can place anything that needs immediate attention in the Journal, and it will receive prompt attention.

My only problem now? I’ve nearly outgrown my 1.5 inch binder. I knew I should have gotten the 3 inch!