Get Organized: Household Warranty Binder

Let's be honest with ourselves.....

I'm sure everyone has had a problem with a household device/item at one point and thought to themselves.....

I'm pretty sure that is still under warranty....

 

Insert second thought:

now... where on earth did I put that thing?

 

Or another one of my personal favorites.... after you pack everything up and move somewhere new and you're trying to put that side table together again that you took apart "for space" on the moving truck and you can't for the life of you remember how you did it the first time.....

 

I've got a solution for that!!!

 

 

 

 

Since we just recently got married, with weddings comes all sorts of new shiny toys and appliances.  And while I must confess that most of our beautiful gifts are boxed up being saved for when we move to our next destination (location: unknown) summer of 2014.... We did combine his/hers and open some of our beautiful gifts that we wanted to put to use immediately.

 

 

Since this stage in life requires compiling a bunch of mix-matched furniture and new appliances together, it is easy to lose important documentation.  So we created the "Home Warranty Binder".

 

Which, although only some of our things are in there- it has already been saving us tons of time and money when we think something may be broken and we realized "hey we can get that replaced for free" or my personal favorite "oh... I wasn't working that properly...oh yeah, it works now."

 

 

Supplies:

1. Large 1.5-2inch binder of your choice. 

 (I bought mine from Target- and I stocked up because I know at some point this will end up being a dual volume)

2. A-Z tab dividers

(I bought the more expensive "tougher" version because I wanted this to withstand many years of use)

 

3. Heavy Duty Page protectors

(again, I tried the store brand to be frugal, but they were too floppy and I knew it would end up disastrous)

 

4. Colorful Pens- I use Staedtler pens for everything . I started off with the smaller pack, and have since migrated to the large one.  They come in so many colors, are fine print, and have an awesome case that actually allows them to stand up when you place them on the desk!)

(you can buy them here on amazon)

 

5. extra white paper

 

 

Now I'm a little neurotic OCD about alphabetizing, so I chose to write the names of each item by letter on plain white paper until this binder is more complete (ie when we move)...so that way I don't have Cuisinart listed out of order when I have 4 appliances by them.  When I am more complete, I plan on printing a typed version of this list that I can update as needed and simply re-print :)

 

 

Let's get organizing!

First, start collecting your user manuals, instructions, assembly packets, and warranties.  Grab a basket or a file folder and for the next month or so, every time you go into that junk drawer and find another one, throw it in the file folder.  Or, if you're like us and newlyweds opening gifts, Pull out the manuals when you open gifts and immediately put them in a safe place (rather than leaving them in the box and accidentally throwing them out).

 

When you have enough to get started, Start making your lists based on starting letter.

 

I decided to organize ours by brand name rather than name of the actual item for multiple reasons.

1. "end table"-- which end table am I referring to?  Oh the World Market one...that makes more sense now

2. I won't have to remember what I filed it under... ie : did I file this under pan or frying pan ? oh wait...was it under skillet?

3. When my binder gets too full, I can easily divide it in two OR (this next thing is what I'm really planning on doing) organize it based on room. 

example: KITCHEN Warranties in a kitchen binder.  Household furniture under furniture binder .

 

 

Gather your supplies and set aside an hour or two.





 

Write down the item (or brand, like I did) on a white piece of paper under the appropriate letter.  Place all materials in a page protector, and file under the appropriate tab divider. 

 

If you have bulky manuals (like KitchenAid Mixers, for example), secure a SMALL piece of tape on top of the tap divider, or use a butterfly clip to close the top.  This way, you can still access your materials when you need them, but you don't have to worry about them sloshing around and falling out :)

 

 

(place all booklets in the same divider, with one of them clearly displaying the item name and/or picture)

on a side note....this is the most phenomenal coffee maker of all time... but i'll save that for later

 

 

 

And there you have it!  An organized location for all of your important documents!!!

 

Other Examples of similar versions:

1. Wedding Planning Binder.

- look for an upcoming post on the wedding planning binder I created that ended up being such a nice tool to bring with me throughout all of planning and day-of coordination! 

- I bought a pre-made one from the store (with one of those kits) and it just wasn't fitting my needs so I created one with the relevant information that I needed. 

- This post will be coming soon within the next week!

 

 

2. Building a House Binder

-Similar to the life event of getting married, when you build a house and/or do renovations to your own house (or apartment)- you end up with new things that you may not know how to work.

- Keep all those papers from the light fixtures you installed, contact information on who installed them, and warranties in the same place!

 

3. Life Organization Binder

- Yes, I made one of these as well. I'll do a post on it in the near future.

- This is where you have a tab for every individual (and pet) in your home.  You keep important information about each person and copies of important documents in here.

- We have one that hosts our passports, birth certificates, copies of our social security card, and health insurance information.  We also keep important employer information here and copies of certifications, keep a list of our physicians contact information, allergies, etc.  This way if a crisis were to hit and we were overwhelmed, emotionally, we can grab the binder on the way to the hospital and it has everything  that they may need all in one place ( I mean, who remembers when they're panicking that they happen to be allergic to Iodine?)

- For the pet portion, we keep copies of adoption papers, veterinary information, shot records, and rabies tags.

 

4. Tax Season Binder

- Everyone's favorite time of year..... (sarcasm).  You need this because you know that when you get to that deductions screen you can answer "yes" to quite a few of them and then think..... well darn, I have no proof..... and this will be the one time I get audited.  So you don't claim the deductions that you should-- this can prevent that.

- We keep important receipts that are tax-deductions, copies of the slips from donation centers like Goodwill and the National Kidney Foundation all in one place (organized both by type of deduction, and then by date- keeping them in chronological order within their designated category makes it a breeze when filling out those forms (or if you use a professional, hey just drop off your entire binder)

- I'll do a post about this when it gets closer to tax season-- since it's best to start these at the very beginning of a new tax year.

 

 

Got something you need a plan to organize that isn't listed above?  let me know about it! I'll work on creating a binder/organization system that can work for you and then get a post back out there on how to create it!

 

Happy Organizing,