When you buy a car, you receive a maintenance and general instruction manual with it. Wouldn’t it be nice if your home had come with an instruction manual? It would be such a handy reference source for everything in your home.
Well, you can make one yourself. A home maintenance manual is a one-stop place for all of your housekeeping needs, including important phone numbers, cleaning instructions, home organizing tips, a home inventory, and anything else that would be helpful in running a home. It’s a great project to put together during January’s short wintry days.
How would you like to create and organize your home maintenance manual? There are many ways you can do it. One of the easiest methods is to use a regular 3-ring binder with divider tabs. You can easily insert or remove pages, and the dividers make it simple to find the information you’ve added. Another way to organize home maintenance information is in an accordion file, which each section neatly labeled.
Home Inventory
What is a home inventory and why would you want to include it in your maintenance manual? A home inventory is simply a list of your belongings in your house. It is most commonly categorized by the different rooms. Each room includes the items in your home, including your furniture, lamps, some area rugs, curtains, wall art, electronics, and smaller possessions like books and collectibles. A home inventory can be useful for insurance purposes, but it’s also a handy tool for keeping track of what you own. You can also include notes for each item, such as where you purchased it, its measurements, and other helpful information.
Cleaning Instructions
One of the most helpful parts of a home maintenance manual is the section on cleaning instructions. It’s difficult to remember specific cleaning methods for wool, silk, cotton, or blends. So, to have all of this information in one location gives you a wonderful go-to place for all of your cleaning ideas. You can organize your cleaning instructions by room or by category; i.e. rug cleaning, curtain cleaning, and furniture cleaning. For your furnace, which requires a yearly cleaning, you can include the model and serial numbers as well.
In addition to cleaning instructions, create a yearly cleaning calendar for larger projects. You will want to launder your curtains, clean your rugs, wax your floors, and have your furnace serviced each year. A maintenance calendar keeps you on top of these annual tasks.
Organizing and Storage
What home wouldn’t benefit from a better and more organized system? Extra space is always at a premium. So, to get the most from your storage areas, keep organizing tips and tricks in your home maintenance manual. You could clip magazine articles or print out Internet articles for reference materials and keep them stored in your manual for future use. One great idea is to keep an organization wishlist for each room in your house. You may want more shelving in the bathroom, extra hooks for the bedroom, or baskets and bins for the kitchen. An organization list also pairs well with the home inventory section.
Important Contacts
What was the name of that great plumber your neighbor recommended? Which store had the best price on the paint you bought two years ago? A contact section of your home maintenance manual stores important information like this in one handy place. You can keep the names and phone numbers of service people your home requires, like the HVAC company, the plumber, and the house painter. A list of stores that carry home improvement and decoration items is also useful. That way, you’ll never forget the name of the talented landscaper your brother uses.
So, set aside a wintry afternoon and create your own home maintenance manual. You’ll have fun putting it together, and it will keep you organized and up-to-date in the new year.
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