Manuals, Organized

Owner's manuals can become overwhelming.

We keep them until the item is

either given away or discarded.

We tend to use things until they can't be repaired anymore.

Seems it's harder to find things that last these days.

Here's one way to keep track of all those

handy devices that make our modern lives so much easier.

Spread out your booklets out and sort by room.

We've got kitchen appliances, bathroom appliances,

office equipment and general stuff

(like ceiling fans, vacuums).

I had found these transparent dividers

at a thrift shop a while back

and just purchased a binder from an office supply store.

You could use color dividers to separate even further

by rooms or areas of the house.

Like items go together.

Here's the manual for my camera

and the memory card package.

That way I know which one to buy next time I need one.

When a purchase is made,

we write the date of purchase and the vendor

right on the manual for future reference.

This helps us know how long things last,

if the warranty is still good

and where to return it, if need be.

Smaller manuals for the same room are placed together.

A pretty piece of scrapbook paper for the front...

and a label for the spine

keeps everything in place for referencing.

Another way we were considering

to keep our manuals organized

was by scanning them and storing them

on a flashdrive.

It didn't seem doable at this time,

but it's something we will consider with our next house.

Now that our manuals are organized,

maybe we can give away our ugly file cabinet.

One more step toward less clutter.

Ahhhh...