You Should Keep a House Diary

If you’ve ever struggled to match a paint color, buy the right lightbulb for your refrigerator, or remember where you buried a drip line outside, you need a house diary. It’s a simple compendium of all the things you don’t really consider important enough to save in your jumbled file of “house stuff” (admit it, you have one, too), but that you’re much more likely to actually need than the instruction manual for your washer.

An added bonus: This sort of record provides infinite value for the next homeowner, much the way a record of car services does. Even as a renter, if you stay someplace longer than a year, your diary will make your life easier while providing your landlord evidence you’re taking care of business. Most importantly, it can save your ass if you ever need to make a claim on your renters or homeowners insurance, because you can use it to keep a record of what’s in your rooms. (I keep mine in a small binder.)

Start with the basics

Compile a one-sheet filled with facts about the house: how many square feet, how many bathrooms, bedrooms, and other rooms, and their square footage. (Pro-tip: measure windows and doorway openings too.) Having this info easily at hand can help you make office claims on your taxes, or calculate how much flooring you need, or figure out whether a new couch will fit in the room or through the doorway.

One of the best ways to find replacement parts for your appliances is by knowing the model number. Not having to hunt for those numbers every time you need them—even better. When you buy an appliance, take a moment to add the model number to a list in your diary. It will also be there if you ever need to make a warranty claim.

Personally, I keep a page for each room in the house, and make notes on anything quirky I need to remember or that I want to pass on to the next owner or renter: “The window sticks but if you lean into it, it’ll jiggle free”. “This room flooded on these dates,” etc. I make notes of the paint colors I used, what I have stored in the closets, and which sheets and towels are used in the room, so I can easily find a replacement if I ever need to.

Record the decor

I have a few sheets of cardstock in the binder that I use to keep a record of paint colors. I paint a square on one of them, and list everything on the paint can: the formula, color name, sheen and brand.

In the record of each room, you should reference your paint color cards so you’ll always be able to recreate them without having to pry off a baseboard and srape off a bit for the store to match.

Keep a page for flooring too—list the brand and name of whatever type of wood flooring or tile you have in there. Make a note of where you got any rugs, should you need to match or replace them. Do the same for window treatments- making a note of where you got curtains or the fabric, and wall treatments like wallpaper.

Keep a maintenance calendar

One essential section in your diary: a calendar of everything you need to do over the course of the year. When to replace air filters, when you got the HVAC checked (attach the receipt!), when you got the backflow certified, etc. Any servicing that has/needs to happen should be noted here—it helps remind you and lays out how to take care of the space for the next person.

Don’t forget the exterior

If you ever install sprinklers or drip, keeping a schematic, even a hand drawn one, of where those lines are will be a lifesaver if you ever need to dig.

Your house diary is also an excellent place to create a simple map of the plantings in your yard. People often buy plants, stick them in the ground, lose the tag, and forget what they are. This will help remind you, so if you decide to research how to care for that specific plant (or want to plant it again next year), you can. You can add things like your pruning or fertilizing schedule too. And just imagine being able to hand off a map of the yard to a future homeowner, ensuring your hard work will be taken care of properly.

There’s a lot of the diary you can digitize, and there’s a good argument for doing so—the ability to pull it up on the phone while at the hardware store being a big one. But even if you do, make sure you keep a physical version—including those paint chips and other receipts and samples—somewhere in your house too.