Happy New Year!! Around this time of year, I am always thinking of ways to be more organized. Since there are probably a lot of people thinking the same thing, I thought I would share some tips on how I organize my user manuals.
The materials I used to organize my user manuals include:
- File Folders
- Colorful Pens
- Hanging File Boxes With Lids (I got mine from the Container Store)
Some people probably throw away user manuals since most things can be found online these days. However, I like to keep all of mine for reference. It’s nice knowing that they are all in one place and that I never have to search for what I need.
First, I gathered ALL of our user manuals. We had piles of them in our office, some in random boxes throughout the house, and others in the basement. I put them all in a big pile on the floor in the middle of the room.
Then I had a big mess. There were papers everywhere! That was OK though because it had to get worse before it could get better. I decided to spread the user manuals out all over the floor so I could see them all. I looked at each user manual one at a time, put a post-it note on it if it didn’t have an obvious picture or title of what it was for, and then made rows and rows of user manuals. This made it easier to decide on categories because I could see everything.
Next, I started rearranging them by putting similar items near each other. For example, I put the user manuals for my coffee maker and toaster next to each other since those would likely end up in a kitchen type category together.
I wanted to avoid making the categories too general right away because I figured it would be more work to separate them later if the categories got too big to fit in a single file folder. Therefore, I made a bunch of small categories until I had gone through every single one.
After completing this step, I still had a LOT of categories and needed to combine some. Since I had just gone through all of the user manuals, I had a better idea of the types of categories I wanted.
Time for the next round! I went through all of the existing categories and combined them into more general categories. When that was done, I ended up with 14 categories.
Next, I put each category in a file folder and labeled it. The categories I ended up with include:
- Furniture
- Outdoor
- Kitchen
- Small
- Baby
- Kitchen Appliances
- HVAC
- Plumbing
- Security
- Fixtures
- Radio
- Computer Games
- TV
- Computer
They ended up fitting into three hanging file boxes, which I also labeled. I decided on House #1, House #2, and Electronics. Everything would have fit in a house category, but the electronics filled an entire box, so I decided to go with two house boxes and an electronics box.
The House #1 box includes the categories I reference most often. It works pretty well. When I am looking for any non-electronic information, I always start with the House #1 box and usually end up finding what I am looking for.
This system is also very easy to maintain. When I get a new household item (mostly baby items right now), I put the information in the appropriate file folder right away. Later when we decide to get rid of an item, it is very easy to find the user manual for it to give to the new owner.
Here is a picture of the file boxes on our shelf.
Anyway, these are the categories that work for our family. Most families will have the same basic categories, but every household is different. How do you organize your user manuals? I would love to hear your thoughts!
Have a great day!
♥Jena♥