Write your home user manual (with free download)

Whether you’re a first time home buyer, or a seasoned home ownership pro, a home user manual is a great resource. A home user manual tracks all kinds of useful information about your home in one easy-to-reference place. 

If you’re a new homeowner thinking ‘I just bought a house, now what??’, writing a home user manual is a great way to get acquainted with all the quirks of your new dwelling. There’s a lot to keep track of when you’re a new homeowner. A home user manual can make it easy to document details about your new house you’ll need in the future. Plus, if you sell your house, you can pass this document on to the buyers (who will find it invaluable).

Download the home user manual template, or save to Google Drive

Aa home user manual is a great place to keep track of which service businesses, even if you didn’t buy your house recently. You can keep a list of plumbers, electricians, etc you prefer to work with, when maintenance was done on various house systems, and information like square footage and year built that you might otherwise lose track of.

Setting up your user manual

Now that you know why you’d want this document, let’s look at what a good home user manual includes: 

General information about the home

Include when the house was built, square footage, number of baths, type of home (salt box, colonial, etc).

List of service providers and last service date

Include a list of service providers so you can easily find the companies you’ve worked with in the past. My list includes snow removal, pest control, landscaping/lawn care, HVAC specialists, plumbers, and well technicians. You can tailor yours to the systems your house will need maintained.

List of the house’s systems

List out the different systems running in your house. For most homes, you can include these sections:

• Heating
• Water (especially if you have a well)
• Sewage (especially if you have a septic tank)
• Electric
• Appliances
• Internet
• Miscellaneous 

You might also include these systems if you have them:

• Radon mitigation system
• Cooling
• Propane

And of course you can add or remove any section you want!

System descriptions

This is the bulk of your user manual. Write down how things work and make a note of any quirks of your particular home.

Under each section, write down the systems that contribute to that area of your home. You might find some systems fall under two categories (like a water heater in a house with baseboard heating). You can include it in both, or make a note in one section to see the details in another.

Write down what each system is for, how it is powered, how to turn it on and off if needed, and any notes on how to maintain it. As an example, you might write:

The HVAC system heats and cools the upstairs of the house. The system is powered with propane from the tanks by the shed. The vents you see in the ceiling upstairs are for the HVAC system. All the tubes and stuff for the system are housed in the attic – they are the large silver tubes and such – as well as at the back of the house.

The HVAC system is controlled by the small control panel on the wall in the upstairs hallway.

Every 6 months, replace the filter in the vent in the upstairs hallway. You can find the filters at Home Depot/Lowes/home improvement stores.

Write down these details for each system, and be sure to consider if you have any that are not on this list. I put notes about little quirks of each system, such as that both my mini splits need to be set to the same mode (heat or cool) in order for either to work. I documented it in my home user manual since it is not noted anywhere in the mini split user manual but is a true fact.

Record of home improvement 

It is helpful to make a note of any improvements you’ve made to your house, including buying new appliances. I keep this list in a separate spreadsheet with a link in my home user manual, but you could keep all this information in one document as well.

Any time you make a repair or improvement to the house, make a quick note about what you did and a rough cost. Refer back to this when deciding on future repairs and see what work was done when. It’s also very useful when home appraisals need to be done.

I also keep a list of things that need repair around the house, such as sinking deck steps, or replacing the lattice on the porch. 

You can be as granular as you like with your home improvement record, or just make notes of big repairs and improvements.

In Conclusion

With all of this information documented, you can now simply reference your home user manual whenever you need to schedule maintenance or remember a weird little fact that you figured out last year but have since forgotten.

Ready to make your own home user manual? Download or save the template

Thanks for reading!