Sharing the HOUSE BINDER today and what documents are stored in it. We had a house binder for the Florida house which I left for the new homeowner. That info was specific to that house and when we moved I began a new binder with information that is specific to this house. The binder includes information to care for the home and information for any structural modifications. Basically things done to or to care for that specific property.
WHY
I think it’s important to store information directly related to the house in a central location. I know the size of our AC filters, how many bags of salt to buy for the softener and the rotation of our bug guy. I know what color touch up paint to use in any given room and when the fridge filter was last changed. But do the rest of my people know?
Again the idea of keeping the binder makes it fast and efficient for me but is a back up plan others could rely on or access if you could not provide the info.
HOW TO GET STARTED Grab a 1″ binder and toss a handful of page protectors inside. Label the binder. The easy part is done!
Now the hard part. I’ll share what I keep in mine and you can be thinking what should go in yours. Once you determine the categories grab a sharpie and write the title on a tab divider. Stick it to a page protector and search for your documents or create them to place in the binder.
SUGGESTED CONTENTS
-a house maintenance list divided into monthly, bi-monthly, quarterly and seasonal. I keep this on my phone and edit dates. Here’s what’s in mine and you can adapt to your home needs (see below)
-paint colors room by room for touch ups. Take a moment to do your paint can inventory and list what rooms you used it in. Print and file!
-bug exterminator contact, invoice, quarterly rotation information
-home warranty contract number, coverage details
-garage door information (we had to replace a garage opener) or copies of any repairs or structural additions
-gas fire place insert information, receipt
-physical fence receipt, point of contact etc in case a repair is needed
-invisible fence receipt, point of contact etc
-alarm system contract, directions and points of contact
Basically I’ll add to it as we live here. Any additions, construction, repairs made will go in the house binder.
Hope this has motivated you to create your own house binder~
Kristen
