I am a few weeks in to being the very proud new owner of my first home, and along with that has come a task list a mile long. Since I am prone to keeping it all running in my head and then getting overwhelmed, I am to really trying to do things a little differently than usual.
I am head over heels with my 1919 Craftsman home but she needs a little love and updating to bring her up to speed and be able to make it through another century. With all that I have on my hands and in my mind for the next few months I have to find a way to keep sane and organized throughout the process. Luckily I have a friend who is incredibly organized and has helped me out tremendously towards setting me on the right path. Here are some of her suggestions:
Keeping It Together: Keep a binder sectioned out by contractor. This has been great for keeping track of notes and estimates. Having the warranties and all the contracted work done in one place will be invaluable for myself and future owners.
List It Out: She has made me a list for each room broken down into categories of cleaning, repair, demo, contract and purchase. I'm going to add to this and create a sheet to jot down design ideas per room.
Break It Down: Once everything is listed out I can then put it all in order or importance and get to work.
Mobile Lists: I am going to keep a list on my phone of the things I need to purchase with quantity and dimension so if I am strolling through a thrift shop I don't have to sit there and try to recall it all on the spot.
One Day At A Time: I am so used to doing everything at once and not stopping till it's done, but with a project this large I have no choice but to surrender to the process. So I will diligently try to take my master list and move a reasonable amount of tasks over per day to accomplish.
This home is going to teach me patience and to accept imperfection, and although I might fight her at times I am excited for the new life lessons she will teach me. She is definitely worth it.
(Images: Alysha Findley)
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I would suggest starting Pinterest boards of things you would like or design ideas for each room. It really helps you narrow down your purchasing and shows what your real style is!!!
Do you happen to know where that binder is from? I could certainly use it (new home owner too, first week!).
Thanks.
These binders are really helpful. I made one too which has all the estimates, contracts, bills, receipts, warranty information and manuals all in one place. Ok, the manuals are actually in a file folder stored in the same place. I also keep paint chips with notes on where each paint was used. And I printed out before and after pics for some rooms. It's like a scrapbook for my home that will also be helpful to a future owner, and it's proof of the maintenance the house has received.
It's important to keep the receipts because when you sell the house, all the 'improvements' can be deducted from your profit on your taxes.
We moved into our new home in February. Don't forget about unexpected expenses. We've already had the plumber (clogged sink), electrician (dishwasher was not grounded and charged), and garage door repairman come for a visit. We are trying to slowly fill up the space, but the house is literally three times larger than our old apartment. It is hard not to rush in.
@Wchh: great suggestion. I'm using pinterest as well as houzz for concept boards.
@Sizzle: the binder is from Staples and congrats to you on your new home!
@Parnassus: thanx for the tips about the receipts, great to know.
This is a great idea even for someone living in an apartment. I am going to implement this binder idea in electronic format using a digital notebook. I use Evernote since it is on my computer, iPhone and iPad. I will have easy access to it wherever I go.
For those of you familiar with Evernote, you could create a notebook stack for your home, have a notebook for each room then have individual pages for Cleaning, Repair, Demo, Contract, Purchase and Design Ideas. I can also scan any important documents into the digital notebook in case I lose the original. This could also work in Microsoft's OneNote.
Agenda is always the most important thing for me when the day starts!!
Another high-tech resource is BrightNest. It's less for helping eith the initial work & moving, but more for maintaining your house, and it's probably easiest to set up when you move in. They're a free website that lets you keep track of everything, from contact info for contractors ad household services, to paint colors, to all the appliance model numbers. They'll store appliance manuals for you, and the best part is that they will create to-do list items for household maintenance tasks. A little intense to input everything in to start with, but it seems well worth it, especially if you've never owned a house before!
https://brightnest.com/
Excel is your friend, for listing & organizing tasks, site links, tabulating & comparing costs & effort.
An accordian folder I also find indespensible for the tear outs of cool things.
Great post! Very timely - I closed about 3 weeks ago! :) Congrats on your new house and thanks for sharing this list of tips! I'm excited but feeling a bit overwhelmed as mine is a bit of a fixer-upper as well and I struggle with that same "i want everything to look perfect today" feeling. I'll be starting my own binder tonight!
For my appliances and other large purchases like furniture, I keep a binder of the manuals, receipts, repair work, etc. It's really handy when I need to look up something or just to answer a question like what year the repair was done.
I'm a fairly new homeowner, too, and do something similar--but I actually have two binders. One is designed to stay with the home if I ever sell it--this binder contains stuff like appliance warranties, info on the foundation repair, etc. The other binder is for me only--paint chips, receipts for furniture, to-do lists, decorating ideas, business cards for contractors. If I'd tried to put all that info together, it never would've fit. Plus, this way I can do research on the house's history (it's a 100-year-old bungalow in an historic preservation district) and scrapbook it, knowing it'll get passed on to whomever lives here next.
@EnglishDaffodil - please put your paint chip information into both binders (at least the current colors when you move). I'm so glad that I was able to match the ceiling color after a repair, but having the actual paint type and number would have been even better.