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Every time you buy a kitchen gadget, appliance, lawnmower, power tool etc., you have a manual that comes along with it. You also need to keep handy the receipts showing proof of purchase and warranty information for those major purchases as well as for other items such as furniture or bedding.
Over the years, all of this paper piles up.
One day the washer starts leaking and you need to find the manual. In our house that meant one of two places: the junk drawer in the kitchen or a file in the office. The piles of paper get pulled out and you start rummaging through. It starts getting slightly annoying.
There has to be a better way.
My parents have been using a much simpler (and more organized) system for years! We just recently went through our manuals and converted to the same method. It’s easy and painless.
Supplies:
- 3 Ring Binders
- Tabbed Divider Pages
- Top-Load Clear Plastic Sheet Protectors
- Stapler
- Small zipped baggies
Lug out your stack of manuals and all the paperwork that goes along with them.
Label your binders however best meets your needs. My parents have three:
- Outside: lawn, patio, and garage
- Major Appliances
- All other
Use your tabbed dividers to break into more categories: kitchen, electronics etc.
Then, use the following method as you go through all your papers (being sure to throw away the manuals for products you no longer have):
- Make a copy of the receipt (because the original will fade over time) and staple to the inside cover page of the manual.
- Place inside of a plastic sheet protector.
- If there are small extra parts place them into a zipped baggie and add to the same sheet protector
- Insert into the appropriate tabbed section of the correct binder.
That’s it! See how easy it was? Every manual you have is with its receipt and divided by category so you can find the manual for the washer in a matter of seconds.
(Just be sure to remove manuals from the binder when you get rid of the product. You might want to take a few minutes every year or two to flip through them and make sure they are up to date.)
What’s the best way you’ve found to organize your owner’s manuals?
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Oh my goodness! I was just going through one of my closets the other day and came across all my user manuals for different appliances. I didn’t know what to do with them at the time so I stuffed the big mess back in. With your handy tips I’ll be organizing my own manuals very shortly. Thank you!
Yay!!! So glad that it helped you. Messes like that are so annoying, I tend to shove them back where I found them too. 🙂 Hopefully this will work well for you! My mom is pretty smart. 😉
We have two accordion files of manuals. I don’t even know what’s in them, nor do I think I’ve ever gone looking for one. Ha! This is a great organizational tool–better than the one I’ve got in place 🙂 thanks for sharing!
Ha ha. Those these to seem to pile up. When we went through ours we found a few manuals for (large) appliances no longer in our house. This way makes it easy to sort through them and you and your spouse both can find manuals easily.
This is amazing!
I have my manuals in a box under my desk and looking through them is SUCH a pain! This would make it so much easier and they wouldn’t take up nearly as much room. Thank you! I am definitely pinning this! 😀
I agree. Ours were in a big file and a kitchen drawer and this is sooo much easer. Grab the correct binder and then you are good to go. Thanks for stopping by and for pinning!
I *NEED* to do this!!! I have manuals ALL over the place and receipts, who knows where! By being organized I would save myself A LOT of time & money!!! Maybe I will just put these supplies on my “to do” list!!! Thanks for sharing in the Pin It Party!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting! It’s such a great and easy way to keep organized once you do the initial work. I love easy to maintain organization.
I like this idea! I’ve been throwing mine away recently because they’re all online but I like having the actual book.
It is nice to have the physical copy. Plus this way you can keep the manual, receipt, warranty or whatever other info together and if the internet isn’t working you can still find what you need. Thanks for stopping by.
Simply genius! We have many of ours currently in a file folder, but I DESPISE loose paper so the notebook idea is fantastic! Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for stopping by and commenting! It really is a great idea. So easy to find what you need and everyone in your house will know how to find it if they need to. Have a great weekend.
What a great idea. I used to put them in a file in the file cabinet. Then, they started getting tossed in the kitchen drawer. I need to clean that kitchen drawer now 😉
What is it with kitchen drawers! We had a small stack in there as well. Thankfully they are now all in one place and so easy to find. Thanks for stopping by and for commenting.
What a fantastic idea! Thanks for sharing! I just have all my owners manuals stuffed into a file folder.. this method will make them much easier to find.
Pinned for later and now following via twitter and pinterest 🙂
It is a great idea and so simple to use! That’s what my mom said – her and my dad can find things equally easily and now my husband and I will be able to as well. Thanks for following and for pinning!
I have binders in the garage with manuals for items I no longer own – lol I need to purge them, so thanks for sharing. Thank you for linking up with us at #WWDParty – I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
lol. When we went through ours I found a couple of ancient ones to toss. It always feels nice to get rid of stuff. You have a wonderful weekend too!
This is such a great tip! I love easy organizing ideas like these, esp since I am such a poor organizer! LOL!
Thanks for sharing over at the Weekend Wind-Down Party! And thanks for linking back!! 🙂
Thanks! The credit is all my mom’s. It really is a great idea. Our manuals are now all organized and in a system that’s easy to keep on top of. You are so welcome! Thanks for commenting and hosting!
That is an awesome tip about the receipt, never would have thought of make a copy and keeping it with it! Stopping in from the weekend re-treat linky party! Have a great weekend!
Thanks! Those pesky receipts on the thermal paper fade so easily it’s ridiculous! Thanks for stopping by, enjoy the rest of your weekend too!
Perfect timing, I just found a pile of manuals shoved in the back of a closet. This makes my OCD tendencies very happy.
Thanks for joining the Mixer this week.
Yay! Glad the timing was perfect. Those manuals are good at being shoved in dark places. It really is an awesome system! Make sure your binders are good. It’s annoying if the rings don’t close all the way and the pages keep trying to come out. Don’t ask me how I know. 🙂
This has just encouraged me to get this done!! Thanks for breaking it down for us!! Overwhelming sometimes!
Yay! Hope you can get all your manuals and papers organized. It felt good to get it done and to now have everything contained to a couple 3 ring binders. Thanks for stopping by!
Great tips here!
Thanks for sharing at Essential Fridays.
Blessings
Mel from Essential Thing Devotions
Thanks to my mom for her ideas. 🙂 It’s made our organizing system much simpler. Thanks for being a great host!
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I HAVE SO MANY! Can’t wait to do this. Thanks for linking up to Good Tips Tuesday!
Those manuals have a way of piling up! Hope you like the system. Thanks for hosting!
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This is great! I have all our manuals stuffed in a cardboard magazine holder and whenever I have to find on I have to go through them all!
Thanks so much for sharing this at the Babies & Beyond Link-Up! I’m featuring your post this week!
Aww, thanks for featuring this post, Sarah! I appreciate it. It really is a great system. Felt good to go through them all and have them organized.
This is so useful. We also keep ours this way. Another good benefit is that we are selling our house, and we have all the manuals and such in a binder for the new owner. This is great:-)
That’s a good thought about being able to pass it along to the new owners! Love that you do it this way too – it’s great. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!