Happy Planner Caregiver Notebook Setup

Have you recently become a caregiver for a friend or relative? Or are you currently a caregiver? If so, this post is for you. You’ll be inspired with ideas for setting up a caregiver planner or caregiver notebook using Happy Planner and customizing with Cricut!

Earlier this week I posted over in the Creative Planning Expressions Group about how I setup a caregiver notebook using the Happy Planner Caregiver extension pack. This is the second time I’ve become a caregiver. The first time was for my mother and I wished I had thought of this planner setup when she was in nursing care.

This time around I’m now my father’s caregiver. It doesn’t matter if the person you are caring for is in a nursing home or not; there is still a lot of information that is given to you and questions will come up. It’s best to keep all that organized nicely in one place.

While I would hope you wouldn’t need to setup a notebook like this, should you need to, I hope this inspires you to get organized for who ever you are taking care of. Most importantly, during this caregiver time don’t forget to take care of yourself. Remember, you can’t help others if you are falling apart, physically or mentally.

To get started I went through my Happy Planner supplies to pull out covers, discs, filler paper and more. The cover I decided to use came in a pack of three and I chose the one that read “It’s your year”, but I flipped it around. I then chose some medium-toned blue mini discs as well as some matching Cricut vinyl.

Caregiver Notebook Supplies

• Happy Planner Classic Cover
• Happy Planner Classic 9-Hole Paper Punch
• Happy Planner Caregiver Dashboard Extension Pack
• Happy Planner Stickers Caregiver
• Variety of Classic discbound filler paper
• Cricut Removeable Matte Blue Sage

Happy Planner Caregiver Notebook Setup

I did do a bit of rearranging of the Happy Planner Caregiver Extension Pack to create a notebook that worked for me and my needs. You can use the extension pack as it comes which gives you 4-undated months plus all the extra pages or customize it like I did.

My goal with this setup was to make it so I could easily grab this caregiver notebook when I run out the door to visit my father or if I receive a phone call about him. So let’s dive into the details of my caregiver notebook setup.

Tabs Organization

Since I already have a full planner setup, I did not intend to use the monthly planner pages from the pack. But, I did pull out the five tabs, the caregiver self check-in dashboards for each month and some of the guts for each tab.

For every tab I used double-side sticky tape to adhere one of the caregiver self check-in dashboards to the backside of the month tab. Then I used the smallest box sticker to cover the monthly tab designations and I made sure to color-code it as best as possible to the tab look.

Inside Cover

To make sure I’m always prepared I used the inside cover to hold a variety of post-it notes; they range in size from page flags to the 3″ x 5″ size. I also debated about whether or not I want to put a sticky pocket on the inside cover to hold paper notes too.

01. Contacts Tab

When you are a caregiver you face having to communicate with a lot of different agencies. For that reason I wanted the first planner page under the contacts tab to be an easy to read, and locate, important contacts listing.

When I think of “easy to read” I think about boxes. They are perfect for creating structure and they easily organize information. To create this page I used Happy Planner Stickers from the Caregiver value pack. The agency labeled boxes are to list contact phone numbers, fax numbers and email addresses.

The agency boxes are labeled:

• Nursing Home
• Legal
• Accounts
• Life Insurance

The middle row has two extra blank boxes flanking a quote which reads:

Be determined to handle any challenge in a way that will make you grow.

les brown

The final row of boxes were color coordinated to the agency box and serves as a place to jot down any questions I may have for that agency.

Also in this section I kept the more detailed pre-formatted papers that came in the caregiver extension pack that included:

• Insurance Information
• Banking Information
• This Month’s Income | Net Worth | Expenses
• Personal Contacts

Each tab has a great caregiver quote that I love. The quote on this first caregiver contacts tab reads, “with compassion you can therefore be brave” (Lao Tzu).

02. Notes Tab

For this section and the next two there aren’t any pictures to share because these sections hold Happy Planner filler paper that will be used as the need arises. But, I will go through each section with details of what I plan to keep in each tab.

The quote on this notes tab reads:

Compassion brings us to a stop, and for a moment we rise above ourselves.

mason cooley

This section holds a handful of different types of Happy Planner filler paper and is structured like this:

• A summary of upcoming care plan meetings, any meetings and/or appointments for my father and recent notes.
• A summary of the last care meeting, who was in attendance and what was discussed.
• The last sheet is a log of any and all falls my father has had since being in the nursing home. It’s a good reference for understanding any patterns.

At the back of this tab there are some extra sheets of filler paper for brain dumps or any additional information I feel is necessary to track.

03. Lists & To-Do Tab

The very first sheet in this section is my “listers gonna list” Happy Planner filler paper. The reason I needed this type of list paper is because when my father went into a nursing home, there was a lot of paperwork to complete and calls to make. It was quite overwhelming, but this list paper kept me organized and on track!

I also added a separate list sheet for any requests my father has; for example, each resident can get their beauty needs met by scheduling an appointment.

I love the quote on this third tab because it is very true for the caregiver. The quote reads:

Some days there won’t be a song in your heart. Sing anyway.

emory austin

While this is not a very exciting section, I do like to infuse as much creativity as I can on this plain style filler paper. That might include hand-lettered headings, decorative stickers and even the use of colorful pens.

04. Nursing Home Info Tab

For this section, I decided to customize it to be just for all information related to the nursing home. I do have a variety of Happy Planner filler paper in this section that includes, lined, dot grid and graph to jot down just about anything I need to related to the nursing home.

How beautiful is the quote on this tab?! It reads:

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

les buscaglia

Also in this section are any documents I’ve received from the nursing home. I simply used the Happy Planner paper punch to disc-punch them and slide them right into the section.

05. Self-Care Tab

As a caregiver this is the most important section (for ourselves) and usually the most ignored. Too often as a caregiver we rush through our days and tasks not even giving self-care a thought. So to help I added to this section the 25 Self Care Ideas to Practice planner printable.

The quote on this tab reads:

the simple act of caring is heroic.

edward albert

The very last thing in this caregiver notebook is a Happy Planner folder. Personally, I feel one can never have too many of these! There is always something that you need a folder for and to keep safe, so my suggestion is to have at least one in each of your planners.

Directly after this folder are all the extra papers that came in the caregiver extension pack.

Cricut Customization

The final step to this Happy Planner Caregiver Notebook was to add a little customization to the cover using Cricut removable vinyl.

I haven’t touched my Cricut machine since January when I created my mother’s DIY Keepsake Funeral Memory Board. So it was definitely a little weird using it once again for caregiving…this time for my father.

But we press on, right?! I was thrilled to have found a Cricut vinyl color that almost matched the color of the discs. I cut the word “caregiver” out of the vinyl, used transfer tape to add it to the cover and it was done!

Should I ever change my mind on covers at some point, I can easily remove the vinyl title and make a new one for the new cover.That’s the beauty of using removable vinyl.

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