Today’s Homemaker

Now before we jump in to the good stuff, we need to get our materials together. Luckily, none of this is complicated. In fact, I’m sure you have everything you need lying around the house. If not, improvise. You will need:

• Small notebook - I’m sure you’ve got several of these stashed around the house, and now’s the perfect time to use one of them. Keep in mind that this little baby is going to be your workhorse. If you’re going to be afraid of messing it up, get a different one. I’m all for trendy, cute stuff, but you’ve got to be able to get up close and personal with this thing: chicken scratch and all.
• 3 ring binder - I got some seriously cute ones at Wal-Mart for cheap, cheap, cheap. I didn’t buy them for this purpose, though. They were already laying around the house. Use what you have.
• Loose notebook paper - College-ruled is my favorite, but any kind will do. You can even get the cute colored stuff if you feel especially girlie.
• Scrap paper - My favorite thing to use is 3×5 cards cut in half. That’s about the size you’ll need. This is a great way to re-use some of that junk mail that pours in your mailbox every day. Just cut the paper to relatively the same size, and use the back. You will need a good batch of these, so don’t be shy.
• Box - Any medium-sized box will do. You’ll be tossing your little pieces of scrap paper in it, so it doesn’t need to be large. I have a treasure box that someone painted for me when I was a kid, and I use that.
• Wall calendar - You probably already have one, and if you don’t, then you can get one right now for about 20 cents at Michaels if they haven’t run out. You do not need a pocket calendar or a PDA with this system. Your CAN use one of those in place of the notebook I mentioned earlier, but I don’t recommend it (I’ll get more into that later.)
• Dividers (optional, but recommended) - These are for the three-ring binder. I would get at least five.
• Sheet protectors (optional) - If you’re the kind of person that likes to have things “just so,” then sheet protectors are probably going to make you very happy.

That’s it! Now gather your supplies, and tomorrow I’ll start giving you the big picture. Oooh…I can’t wait! See, I told you I was a dork. This stuff gets me majorly excited.

Day one: Understanding psychic RAM >>