On Thu, 29 Mar 2012, Bill Gill wrote:

On 3/28/2012 3:21 PM, Michael Black wrote:
On Wed, 28 Mar 2012, Jim Thompson wrote:

Whatzit Called?

Clear plastic envelope that you can _stick_ (adhesive-backed) on the
back of appliances to stash installation and operation manuals?

(18 YO house, just had to replace my office ceiling fan, and water
softener... A/C units next :-(

It's called a "scanner".

As soon as you open something, read the manual. Then scan it into
digital form, along with any peripheral reading material in the box, and
the bill.
Then file it under a name unique to that piece of equipment, and put
that in a folder titled "manuals" or something that you will clearly
remember.

Sometimes you no longer even have to scan the manual, you may be able to
find it in electronic form at the manufacturer's website, or indeed, the
item may not have a real paper manual, expecting you to get it in
digital form at the companie's website, or they put it on a CD (less and
less likely these days) which they put in the box.

Since you've put things in a central place, you know where they are. You
can even back up this directory with a USB flash drive, making the
manuals handy and portable.

You can put reviews in with this material, if you want that sort of
thing. Or bits about repair of the item, as you need it or in
anticipation of
a problem. Any maintenance you or the company does can be recorded in
this directory too. Or if it has some consumable, you can keep track of
when you buy and how much, so you can watch for sales, or anticipate
needing a refill.

And then while you're at it, use a permanent marker (one of those silver
Sharpies look good on black) or one of those label makers, and label any
accessories so you know which item they go with. Especially useful for
the ac adapters, indeed it's probably worth recording any information on
those in your file for the device, since if it gets separate, the
information about the voltage and polarity may not be on the main device
(and if polarity isn't listed, measure it now). I've even gone to buying
"Tupperware" like plastic boxes for any piece of equipment I get that
has enough accessories, so I have one for my digital camera, making it
really easy to find the cable to connect it to the tv set. Sometimes one
box is too much, so organize it along groups, "accessories for MP3
players" or "plug in memory" for the USB flash drives and CompactFlash
and SD cards.

Michael

And when you are gone where will your survivors find them? I think
keeping them with the equipment is probably the best idea. This
of course doesn't work with small items like cameras.

Bill

You store copies on the computers of other family members. Off-site
backup without the cloud.

The fact that it doesn't work for small things is the point. Once you
have to collect them in one place, then keep them all in one place.

We have an answering machine, and the manual is missing. So nobody knows
how to set the clock.

But that came in before I got the scanner. After that, it really is a
great thing. No more searching for where I might have filed that manual,
I can go to one directory on my computer and find it. So when the
electric kettle broke, "surely it's not passed warranty", the bill and the
warranty were so easily found. You can always use a marker on the big
stuff to say where the manual is kept.


You can do other things. Photograph items (insurance apparently likes
that sort of thing) to show their state, or existence, Or if you want to
remember the proper pressure for the furnace into the radiators, then take
a picture of the readout.

Once I started doing it, then I even keep notes. Why did I pick this, or
how much did I pay for it at a garage sale, and when I got it. Simple
things that often weren't recorded in the old days. Not that you
couldn't, but somehow nobody ever did, likely because the manual couldn't
be found, or couldn't be found easily when needed.

Michael