Home Improvement Planning

Take your home's inventory.

No matter if you are just moving into your home or you have been there for a while and are thinking how it could be better. You should make a full inventory list of all your appliances, various vents and filters. Many people keep a list of other items such as window measurements and square footages by room.

This type of a home inventory is the launching point for any home improvement or remodel work. Making your home as comfortable and giving it that look that you want is a matter of planning and setting priorities. Use your home inventory to not only help you identify areas that need work but to also take the measurements and other information you will need to buy materials for that project.

We used a journal to keep track of our home's inventory and notes for proposed remodel projects. We separated our journal into three sections marked with paperclips. We always kept our notes in pencil and filled out journal with many bits of information and small drawings to help keep us on track.

Our first home journal section was to keep track of things like what size filters we use in our heater, vacuum cleaner bag numbers and many other items. We made note of all model number and brands of our appliances and other things like our lawn mower with all its filters and replacement parts. Any time we had to fix something like a broken pipe we put all the measurements we needed in our journal.

Our second area for our home inventory and journal is where we put our projects. Some of the things we put here are the sizes of all our windows, square footage of our rooms and drawings of our rooms and home. We kept a couple pages for each room in our home for these notes and wrote down what specific projects we wanted for each room.

Our project notes in the second section included details about how the project could be completed. We kept notes on what materials we would want to use, alternate materials, article clippings with specific inspirations and instructions. Before long we had stuffed our journal with pictures and scribbled notes that wouldn't fit in well so we got a three ring binder and transferred it all over.

Even though we should of started with the three ring binder, hindsight is always much clearer, it was worth the effort to transfer our work over. We purchased special inserts for that had pockets we could put our clippings, additional notes and pictures in. We kept a large insert for pencils, scissor and a tape measure.

The third and section of our notebook was to be notes on completed projects and was to include information about what we did well and where we could improve on our projects. We kept information on finding better places to buy products and notes of recommendations from people we know. Well this became our fourth section with the third section described below.

We decided to keep a separate section for our property. We had almost a full acre with a large shed, a larger workshop and many trees. We had a large area established for a garden. We saw many areas of opportunity in our yard and outbuildings so kept track of it all. We wanted an herb garden, less lawn to maintain and more privacy in parts of our backyard.

You may think that taking all these measurements and notes is a lot of work, it is. All this work does pay off. We often go to "yard sales" and 2nd hand stores to find deals on items we need for our projects and have saved a lot of money. Have you ever priced a brand new toilet? Have you seen toilets for under $25.00 at a yard sale or thrift shop?

Well there you have it. How we came to build our home journal and inventory. The implications of having all the measurements and various details for your home improvement projects should be obvious. It does not cost a lot and when money is tight it is a good time to plan your next project. We make entire weekends out of pursuing "deals" on things we want for our home and its fun.