A household manual is a collection of information to run your home. It can include any number of things, from cleaning schedules to bill records to medical records. Originally I got this idea from the Flylady, but I am tweeking it to fit our needs.
I had one of these long ago and let it fall by the wayside and when I went to send out my Christmas cards this year I realized I had lost my address book, and if only I had kept up with my manual I would have had the information there to use. I was kicking myself for having to call my in laws to get their address, so here goes a new attempt to get one of these going.
For me the sections will be
1 Cleaning schedules and checklists
2 Family calendar, including all family activities, appointments and birthdays
3 Addresses and contact info for family, doctors, contractors etc
4 Bill payment schedule,budget and a place to hold current bills
5 Menu plan, or rotating list of dishes
6 Price book for local grocery stores
7 Useful extraneous info like what goes on sale at what time of the year
Do you use a household manual? What sections do you have? What did you originally include that you now realize was not useful, or what do you wish you had included from the start?
Mine is mostly cleaning routines like Spring and fall cleaning and a schedule to follow to make sure every part of the house gets taken care of. But mostly it is full of my most important recipes like bread and cornbread. I've never thought of using it for bills. I might have to try that too!
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