(Re)Organized Household Notebook

About 6 years ago,
I revamped our household notebook.
You can read about that here.

 

In case you don't know what a household notebook is,

it's a centrally located binder 

that contains lots of information about your household.

It's a place to keep appliance manuals and receipts,

contact information for neighbors, doctors and service people,

as well as family schedules and calendars.

I guess a lot of folks keep this kind of information now on their phones

or other tech devices,

but I'm not too keen on that idea.

I don't own a Smartphone (don't want one),

and it kind of feels better to me to be able to get my hands on these things,

should I need them.

Besides, I always wonder, 

what do people do if something happens to their device?

All that information could be lost forever.

Call me old-school, but I don't happen to think 

that there's anything wrong 

with using pen and paper and writing things down.

 

Our notebook needed a bit of streamlining.

After the initial moving in to the new house,

we've been tweaking our spaces

and making them as efficient as possible.

This house is smaller than our last,

and so a few things needed reorganizing.

I took a few hours and purged what wasn't needed anymore

and made labels for the new (and improved) version of our binder.

 

I was able to slim it down quite a bit
because I kept only what was absolutely necessary in here.

 

I made a separate binder for our household manuals.

I had done this for the new owners of our last house in Florida

and left it with them.

This binder contains all of the manuals for our smaller appliances,

outdoor equipment, and personal things (like cameras and phones).

 

We usually write the date of purchase on the front of the manual,
as well as the price and where the item was purchased. 
It's important because it's sometimes difficult to remember where things came from.
As you can see, we have quite a few manuals to keep track of.

 

Sections were created for the individual manuals.

The kitchen, miscellaneous indoor machines

and outdoor equipment all have their own portion of the binder.

The kitchen has its own designated section

because there are so many little appliances and tools there.

Everything from blenders to waffle irons have a manual
and it's a good idea to keep them handy.
You never know when you might need to look something up
regarding the warranty information or what to do if the item stops working.
If you should ever want to sell the item in the future,
it's always a good idea to sell it with the manual
for the next owner.

 

A separate binder was created for the larger appliances

like the stove, washer and dryer, A/C unit, etc.

 

In the past, we have referenced these manuals,

as Big K is the best handyman on the planet,

and often fixes things himself,

saving us megabucks.

I know this stuff can probably be found online,

but it's nice to have it right in front of you in black and white.

Besides, what if the internet is down for some reason?

You can't always count on looking things up when it's needed.

This reorganized system has been working well.
I like that each binder is specific and helps us easily and quickly find what we need.

Another organizing project down!

Other Organizing Posts:
Finally File Storage
Size Matters 
Linens, Organized 
Feed Sacks, Organized 
Kitchen Organizing Ideas