Hasta La Ideas

Reader Jean wrote to us with this question:

How do you keep track of your vendor information? If you are a home owner, it is necessary to keep track of who you bought products and services from. It is important to keep information about the performance of the vendor and service contractors. What is the best way to keep this information?

That’s a great question. It’s always a good idea to keep track of who you do business with and not only if you’re a home owner. Renters may need to have their own appliances serviced and they may wish to report to the owners detailed information about the quality of the work provided by repair persons. You certainly want to continue hiring good contractors and purchasing from the best vendors. There are several ways to keep track of this information. I’ll provide a few examples below.

Paper based methods

Some people may think paper-based methods are old fashioned but they are effective. If you already have your user manuals and bills of sales filed in your filing cabinet, you can store your service contracts in the same files. For example, if the documentation for your large appliances is stored in one file folder, store any bills for repairs or servicing there as well. You can note the quality of service on the back of the bill or on another paper stapled to the bill or service contract. This method is great because when you phone for repairs, you’ll also have the make, model, and serial number of your appliance in the same file.

You could also create a binder with all of the information. Copy useful information (make, model, serial number, etc.) of each item onto a sheet of paper to keep in the binder. Note where you store the instruction/guarantee booklet so it is easy to find if you need it (then you don’t have to store the bulky booklets in the binder itself). If you wish, attach bills of sale to 3-hole paper and add them to the binder too. It gives you space to write details about the quality of the store/salesperson where you bought the item. Add repair bills or service contracts to the binder as they occur. You can also staple business cards of sales/service personnel to the pages so their contact information is at your fingertips.

Electronic Methods

Electronic methods work better for some people — especially if much of the information to be stored is already in digital format. A basic spreadsheet can list contact information, dates items were purchased or work was done, as well as the quality of the vendor or service provider. Spreadsheets are nice because you can sort the information by date, appliance name, or by vendor service quality. If your user manuals are in digital format, you can link to them directly. If not, you can note the place where they are stored (e.g. filing cabinet).

You can also track this information in home inventory software. This is a type of database that will allow you to store information such as make, model, serial number, purchase price, etc. You can also store a picture of the item as well as receipts and other documents. You can even keep this information in the cloud so that should you ever need to make an insurance claim, you can access it from anywhere. The Balance has a great summary of home inventory software that is available for both Mac and Windows.

Thanks again for your great question Jean. We hope this post gives you the answers you were looking for. Our fellow unclutterers are also a great source of ideas so keep checking the comments for more tips.

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Post written by Jacki Hollywood Brown