How We Organize Papers Specifically Related To Our House

I recently read an article that mentioned how a lawnmower gets a lot of use but not a lot of love - so it's a good idea to send it out for an annual tuneup. I would say that we use ours on a weekly basis for a good eight months out of the year, so I'm planning to schedule a tuneup this week!

Anyway, I added "schedule a lawnmower tune up" to our April to do list, and that got me thinking about annual maintenance for the major appliances in our house. I got out our "House" binder to go through the user manuals for these appliances, and I thought I would share how we organize papers specifically related to our house. 

(I'm planning to do a longer post soon about how we organize all of our papers, but this is a closer look at this one specific area.)

This binder is divided into three sections:

1. The Property

We have a copy of our lot survey and a copy of our floorpan in this section. We also save paint colors here.

2. Receipts
This section includes receipts for any work we've had done to the house (plumbers, electricians, etc.). It also includes receipts for any repairs/maintenance we've had done to the appliances that are "part of the house." (More on this below!)

3. Manuals, Warranties, Etc.

When deciding what would go in this binder, I asked myself: What appliances are part of the house? (Or another way of looking at it is: If we were ever to sell the house, what papers would be useful to pass on to the new owners?) This question really helped me determine what manuals, warranties, etc. to file here. (We have all other manuals saved in a separate place.) Included are the papers for our hot water heater, air conditioner, stove, oven, gas fireplace, etc. We had plantation shutters installed on some of the windows, so the warranty information for those are in this section. Also the papers that came with new light fixtures we installed are here...and so on.

That's our House binder! I know there are a million different ways to organize papers, and this is just the way that works well for us.

Having a system for papers really simplifies so much - you know what to do with them as they come in and where to find them later on. 

So I highly recommend finding a system for papers that works for you. And maybe think about giving your lawnmower some love this spring. 🙃

xoxo

Erin