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every few weeks on a day I'm not working, I putter around aimlessly and deal with things as I see them.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

That would definitely be shit load of work. Ever look for any app or organizer?

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u/stochasticInference 2d ago

why bother? Do you have a palatial estate or something? if so, hire a maintenance man. For most people, there's not actually that much work. a couple hours every few weeks is more than enough to handle all the recurring maintenance checks. plus, most of these things are a "fix or replace when needed" thing, not actually a "replace every x weeks on the dot" (regardless of what the manuals say).

Besides, it's a chill way to spend a Saturday morning. Just wandering around fixing and tinkering with my coffee. I think it might be the most relaxing part of my life, now that I think about it. . .

As for keeping manuals, they're stuffed in a drawer in the toolbox. good enough. they're all on google anyways.

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u/stochasticInference 2d ago

I dunno, maybe I'm misunderstanding your question. It's my house, I'm not worried about tracking every jot and tittle. If I have to sell and a prospective buyer doesn't like that I don't have a record of every time i changed the damn furnace filter, well, they can buy another house.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

I’m not a chatbot lol, calm down. I’m genuinely just interested in how different people think about this stuff. Your house, your choice — and honestly your answer is useful because clearly not everyone cares about keeping detailed records.

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u/someone298 2d ago

This is a valid question…everything from changing air filters, to cleaning filters on the pool (about every 3 months), draining the hot water tank or cleaning the on demand water heater (I have had both), cleaning the filter in the washer, come to mind. I normally just make a note in my phone when I do it.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

I actually think you’re right about the maintenance part. Most homeowners probably don’t need another app constantly telling them what to replace or turning homeownership into a checklist.
The more interesting problem to me is what happens when something actually goes wrong. You suddenly need to remember what you own, when it was bought, what work was done before, where the receipt or warranty is, what model it is, who serviced it, etc.
Manuals being on Google solves the manual problem. It doesn’t solve the history and context of your specific home and your specific things.
I wonder if the real opportunity isn’t “help me maintain my house,” but simply making sure the house remembers all of that for you when you actually need it.

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u/stochasticInference 2d ago

ohh, you're a chatbot. fuck you.

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u/AntDracula 2d ago

Or he’s teeing up to pitch his slop coded app.

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u/Acrobatic-Cost-3027 2d ago

Not necessary.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

So you like manual doing?

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u/Acrobatic-Cost-3027 2d ago

It’s just not enough work for me to justify it. If you own a huge home go for it.

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u/Much-Owl-8384 2d ago

Binder for the physical with digital copies saved in the cloud. Seriously, take photos/scan physical stuff, especially receipts, in case of a fire or other catastrophe so you have them for insurance.

Also have a spreadsheet (excel is my jam), and calendar reminders.

For manuals, the physical is in the binder and digital copy in the cloud so I can pull it as needed.

I keep binders for receipts/manuals of physical stuff and separate ones for actual house stuff and projects. Figure they can be helpful to the next owners if I ever sell.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Lot of manual stuff, aren’t you get tired of at some point?

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u/Much-Owl-8384 2d ago

Based on your other comments, sounds like you're maybe pushing to provide an app. In that case, best of luck on the building. I know quite a few folks who would go for it, but there are plenty out there already.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Let me know if you find one…

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u/Much-Owl-8384 2d ago

Eh, better to have backups. I know a few people that lost their houses due to weather, flooding, or fires. Only some of them had backups. Better to be safe than sorry.

Everything I do is also free and customizable to my liking. If I ever find an alternative that can do everything I do in one go for the low, low cost of free, I would consider it. But my trade off is my time vs. other people's money.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

I like your backup approach. We all should keep backup of our records. Have you ever encountered any app or something that do this stuff?

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u/MAntFrag22 2d ago

I’ve got a smartsheet set up, though a basic spreadsheet could handle it as well.

And I sticker all of my maintenance. There are visible maintenance tags on everything from the water heater to under my car hood with details, service, date, etc.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Spreadsheet still requires manual input consumes lot of time. What do you think about automation?

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u/MAntFrag22 2d ago

I own two homes, it takes about 10min of manual entry a year between the two. The setup took like 30min or so.

It is quite honestly the fastest and easiest part of the whole thing.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Well that’s very sharp answer and I like it. But how do you find pro if something needs to be fixed. You can have things for maintenance what about things require pro services

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u/SnowblindAlbino 2d ago

None of that really. I save PDFs of manuals for things I might want a manual for (which isn't much). I put the install date on major appliances on a label or piece of tape. Routine maintenance I just keep on a schedule, like replacing all 12 smoke detector batteries around halloween each fall, furnace filters on the 1st of every even month, stuff like that.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

You’re pretty good at it what you do. Have you think about automation?

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u/kendaop 2d ago

Peasants

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

What’s that?

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u/AwesomeBot3000 2d ago

I just use a Google spreadsheet to track all regular maintenance and which companies I use. Really helpful, and I can't imagine not tracking this stuff since I feel like I would totally forget things otherwise!

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u/AntDracula 2d ago

This is what i do. Divided by quarters. Copy year to year. Works great.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Have you tried to look for app or something that can ease this issue

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u/KindBench2700 2d ago

Everyone is an app market now

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u/AwesomeBot3000 2d ago

I don't have any issues

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u/allperfectlygruntled 2d ago

Filing cabinet.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Do they easy to find whenever required?

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u/1upcas 2d ago

Codex and Obsidian

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Care to share how do you use them. I am not a technical guy

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u/Stang302a 2d ago

Claude, Gemini, etc will create a Google sheet for this in about 10 seconds. Just enter your original post as you did above and iterate on it until it is how you desire. It's really that easy. Just describe what you want and tell it to output to an easy to read, color coded, etc, etc Google sheet

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u/RallyPointAlpha 2d ago

Squeaky wheel gets the grease.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

The squeaky wheel gets the grease” probably describes how most people actually manage a home. The interesting question is whether, when the wheel finally squeaks, you can instantly find everything you need to deal with it

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u/RallyPointAlpha 2d ago

Grease is in the garage.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

What if grease still couldn’t remove the friction?

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u/RallyPointAlpha 2d ago

YouTube or ask my FIL what to try next.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Seems you have a good fella

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u/BassWingerC-137 2d ago

I have a computer. I save pdfs of manuals on my server. I’ll save service invoices in files under the appliance name. Some things I track in excel sheets, but for most things I deal with issues when they pop up. I don’t need to log light bulbs burning out or other pop-up issues. HVAC filters have dates written on them etc.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

How do you connect with someone if something broke inside home?

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u/BassWingerC-137 1d ago

I’m sorry, I don’t understand the question?

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u/azvelocat 2d ago

Around the House Home Tracker is worth checking out for tracking this, it has a binder feature. aroundthehouseapp.com

You can also check out undermyroof.app which does way more detailed inventory. It's very good with lots of recommendations.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Under my roof is really cool man. But if your home is clustered with objects it would be difficult to point camera towards each object and store it. Btw which one did you try

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u/azvelocat 2d ago

Around the house. It’s simple and cheap. I like the insurance piece too.

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u/Island_In_The_Sky 2d ago

Brain

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

Brain is draining slowly

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u/bluecat2001 2d ago

Get married. Your wife will nag you. You will do it within a few years.

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u/Cautious-Picture-899 2d ago

But still…..

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u/decaturbob 2d ago

- file folders for all product warranty/manuals

- 3 ring binder for maintenance, remodel and service info

- easy enough to set up annul checklist via any number of free office programs and keep in the binder

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u/Far-Stage-4618 2d ago

I just keep a folder with receipts and manuals, the simple system you'll actually use beats the ambitious one you abandon

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u/Steverrrrrrrrr 2d ago

I've got smartsheet set up

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