I was doing some sorting and filing and thought I'd share how I organise our product instruction manuals.
Firstly, I don't keep them all. I tossed our waffle maker instruction booklet because really, all it said was pretty much: "turn it on, it will get hot (be careful!), pour batter in, remove waffles when it beeps, blah blah". It's not brain surgery, making waffles, and my waffle iron doesn't do anything special. I don't need to keep the instructions.
Secondly, most manuals are available as PDF downloads so if you wanted to you could download your manuals and then toss the physical ones. But my computer storage space is precious (have you seen how many photos I take?) so I find it easier to just keep the ones that come with the products.
I store them all in a lever-arch file (binder). Most can simply have holes punched in them and then slotted in. But some are too thick:
But wait, look at the table of contents:
I really don't need to keep every language as I only need the English instructions. Look at how few the English pages are compared to the entire booklet:
So much easier to punch and file.
But some booklets are too thick to punch but you need to keep the entire booklet. See, this one wouldn't fit into my punch:
I just open these types up and punch and file them that way:
Like this:
And the ones that are really, really too thick? I put them into a plastic sleeve.
Voila, the binder full of manuals, all in one place.
