The House Book

 

 In my never-ending quest for organization and efficiency, I decided to create this "House Book". I've seen and read about the general idea of it from various sources and I sort of combined a few versions into one. It's a good idea for people who own a home - when you resell the house later you know what you put into it and can price accordingly. And a scaled down version is even good for those who are renting - you can keep things like manuals in one place. You can also put your lease and any maintenance requests or complaints, or letters from your landlord(s) in it.

For my house book I started out by making a fill-in-the-blank page in Word and printing out a few copies.

 

It includes the category for the page (Major Appliances, Paint and Decor, Major Renovations), what item, the brand & model number (or the equivalent), the date installed, where it was purchased, the purchase price, and notes. For example, I put the paint colors for our room as the "model".

 

After those pages I have a few clear page holders to hold paint chips, so that we can remember or take them back with us if we need more paint.

Ever wonder what to do with all the manuals that come with ev-ery-thi-ng? (Seriously, I think they would send manuals with food if they could). I used to just toss ours in the file drawer in our closet and then would get frustrated by having to dig through them all whenever I need one. So I decided to stick them in the book as well, since they go with the house and the things we have. Vacuums, toaster, food processor, cribs, etc.

 

I have a clear page holder for each manual/item. It also allows me to stick in a page of notes if we ever have to get something serviced or get extra parts.

I will also create a main page for the house info like address, purchase price, loan price, loan bank, date sold, etc. so that if/when we sell the house it's all in one place. 

It makes my OCD brain happy. ;)