• Organize Your Warranty Information – What You Should Keep
• File Drawer Storage for Warranty Information
• Envelope Storage for Warranty Information

Now I’m going to tell you the WORST idea for organizing warranties. It can work I suppose, but it never worked for me.

The folder system. 

Grab all that warranty info you need to save, and separate each into one thick page protector in a three ring notebook. I used this method for a while actually. It was years ago, and I had all these extra notebooks. However, for me it was a disaster method.

Pros:

• Easy and inexpensive – a folder costs less than a file cabinet.
• It’s highly mobile. I like that.

Cons:

• DO NOT accidentally drop your folder – information spews out the top of your page protectors and you then have a nice big mess to sort.
• You need a million notebooks. I don’t even buy that much stuff – really, and I had three fat notebooks, that could have been five probably. The reason – many instruction manuals are chunky.
• Speaking of instruction manuals, they slip and slide their way out of your plastic page protectors, even when you don’t drop the notebook.
• The notebooks do not store well. They bulk up so much that one side is of course extra fat and good luck fitting them nicely on a shelf.
• You have to buy special dividers. If you want to divide up your folder into sections, i.e. appliances, kitchen, what have you, you’ll have to find special extra wide tabbed dividers. These cost more and can be tough to find. Real dividers (even counting the tabs) are less wide than page protectors. If you’re dead set on this method I suggest buying these tabs instead, and tabbing the top.
• The pages are hard to turn because of the full to the brim page protectors.

I’m a big believer in three ring notebooks. I like them for many things, and think they’re a super duper organizing tool. That said, I count my warranty notebooks among one of my worst organizing ideas ever. It was not user friendly, and I don’t recommend it. I’d try something else first.

Post from: Blisstree

My WORST Idea for Organizing Warranties

Six things to note – no matter if you’re using a video camera, camera, or pad and pencil. Note, if you’re using a paper list and a media list, you only need all of this info on the paper list.

1. Item type: “kitchen microwave”
2. Item name brand: “GE Profile Spacemaker II Microwave Oven”
3. Item description: “White on black, counter top model, etc”
4. Item purchase date
5. Item serial and model number
6. Cost when purchased

This is one reason keeping warranty info organized is such a great plan; it helps with home inventories.

Post from: Blisstree

Six Issues to Cover In Your Home Inventory

First follow the steps I discussed in the previous warranty post:

“To get started you should have all your collected warranty info gathered together. Some people suggest stapling all the info together , which works well; it helps you to not lose anything. However, often a manual may come in a fold out poster style, or be too thick for staples. That said, I like clipping items together with Bulldog Clips better.”

You can still use small bulldog clips, even though we’re using envelopes, or you can staple.

Grab an empty drawer – preferably a large one OR a box like the one I mention in the current box post will work if it’s wide enough.

Decide how you want to organize. You’ll be putting your warranty info into envelopes, so in order to know how many envelopes you’ll need, you have some choices.

You can file warranty info by…

• Separately: Each item’s warranty info can be stored in one envelope – I don’t recommend this, becuase that’s a whole lot of envelopes. But, you can do it.
  
• Room: kitchen appliances all together, and so fourth.
• Type category: computer equipment, food related appliances, toys, electronic, and so on.
• Date: Date warranty expires.

After choosing your system, decide how many envelopes this warrants. Then pick up some 8 1/2 inch by 11 inch envelopes – but make sure they’re strong. If you want to store whole rooms together or whole categories together, one good choice, would be some 8 ½-inch x 11-inch Craft Keepers. They expand by an inch, so they’ll hold a lot. You may need say three for the kitchen, but in my opinion, that’s better than 15 separate envelopes.

8 ½-inch x 11-inch Craft Keepers

Two other nice envelope choices from Paper Direct include:

Multi-Colored Expandable Velcro Envelopes – hold up to 150 sheets of paper each.

Expandable Velcro Envelopes – hold up to 200 sheets of paper each.

You can also go with plain old 8×11 paper or manilla envelopes, but they won’t hold up as long. Then simply insert your warranties and store them all together in your drawer or box. Easy. I used to store mine like this until I got my new (and much beloved) file cabinet.

Also read:

• Organize Your Warranty Information – What You Should Keep
• File Drawer Storage for Warranty Information

Post from: Blisstree

Envelope Storage for Warranty Information

Of course the most obvious solution, or at least the one I’ve seen people use most is, the good old basic file cabinet. I’ve used a file cabinet drawer before for warranties, but I currently use something else. Back to file cabinets though.

To get started you should have all the items we discussed keeping in the last post gathered together. Some people suggest stapling all the info together , which works well; it helps you to not lose anything. However, often a manual may come in a fold out poster style, or be too thick for staples. That said, I like clipping items together with Bulldog Clips better.

Creating a basic warranty drawer is as easy as placing your filing folders in your filing cabinet, and making sure the tabs are labeled correctly. The only big choice is how to organize the files. I’ve seen people do this all sorts of ways.

You can file warranty info by…

• Room: kitchen appliances all together, and so fourth.
• Type: computer equipment, food related appliances, toys, electronic, and so on.
• Date: Date warranty expires.
• Alphabetically: blender first, video games last…

I like using type best. I don’t like using rooms, because items change spaces, and I don’t like alphabetically, because I might forget the exact brand name of an item. I’ve seen people use date, but think it’s a silly filing method, because you’ll still likely keep info on a product, like the manual, even if the warranty expires.

This method is great if your household has a lot of warranties and you don’t mind filing. It’s also an inexpensive storage solution, especially if you already have a file cabinet.

[Bulldog clips image via Did You Remember the Milk]

Post from: Blisstree

File Drawer Storage for Warranty Information