If you own a summer or vacation home, you know that there’s a LOT more to do there than just relax! You’ve probably spent plenty of time dealing with repairs, miscellaneous projects, and just getting everything organized. A vacation home is still a house, and houses always need work. Let me tell you how I use Evernote to organize my summer home.
For the past 30 years, my family has been enjoying our summer home in the lovely seaside town of Rockport, MA. The house was built in the early 1900s and my father grew up there. While it’s a lovely place with lots of room for family, kids and dogs, there are always dozens of projects that need doing.
My two sisters and I own the house jointly, but we all live in different places during the rest of the year. We have found that Evernote is one of the best ways to coordinate the many large projects as well as the everyday to-dos that invariably come up. We have created and shared several Evernote notebooks to help us keep track of everything we need to remember, including what needs to be done, what we’ve already done, and how current projects are progressing.
Manage renovations
For example, a couple of years ago we successfully renovated our 1980’s kitchen. It was a breeze using Evernote. My youngest sister is brilliant at home design. She managed the entire renovation concept using an Evernote notebook that we created specifically for the kitchen renovation. She put her ideas into notes, added photos, shared web links and invited each of us to comment and review her suggestions. Since the entire project was shared online, we didn’t have to be in the same location. Choosing flooring, cabinets, counter tops and more was made so much easier. By taking before/after photos, we used Evernote to chart our progress. Planning the cabinet configuration was made easier because we used our Evernote notebook. We create an annotated note of the kitchen floor plan showing where everything in the cabinet would be stored. This way we were ensured that we had enough space for everything.
Track everyday tasks
We also have a shared Evernote notebook called Home To Dos. This includes checklists for tasks that need to be done to open the house for the summer, as well as for closing it down when we leave at the end of the season. We also have lists of ongoing repair needs and yearly maintenance tasks. At the end of each summer, we create a note about the things we have accomplished over the summer so that we have a record for the future.
Don’t lose that number
Another very useful Evernote item has been a Contacts notebook. This is where we store scanned business card information and notes on all the various businesses we deal with in Rockport. This includes everyone from our landscaper, electrician, and house cleaner, to our favorite places to buy fresh seafood.
Have fun
Since we also want to relax and have fun while we’re on vacation, we’ve created a notebook called Rockport/Gloucester Fun Things to Do. Whenever we see an online notice for an event or activity that looks like it might be something everyone would enjoy, we use Evernote Web Clipper to put it into the notebook. We have slowly but surely been going through the list (in between projects, of course) and enjoyed all these events and activities immensely.
Overall, Evernote helps my family organize our housekeeping tasks and keep abreast of all the fun summer opportunities Rockport has to offer.
If you’d like to sign up for an Evernote account, click here, or if you’d like to learn how how Evernote can help you get your home or any other part of your life organized, click here.
