While you're renovating, it feels like everything. Of course you'll remember that paint colour. You spent three weekends choosing it. You know exactly which flooring you bought, who installed the cabinets and where you ordered those handles.
Give it five years. That's when you're standing in the hardware store looking at 40 nearly identical shades of white and realizing you haven't got a clue which one is on your kitchen walls. You don't need to keep everything from a renovation. But there are a few things you'll probably be very happy you saved.
Take Pictures Before the Walls Close
Everyone takes pictures when the renovation is finished. Take some while it looks terrible too. If you've got a wall open, get your phone out. Take a few pictures of the plumbing, wiring, framing or anything else that's about to disappear. Don't just get close-ups. Take one from farther back so you'll actually know which part of the room you're looking at later.
You may never need those pictures. But if you decide to drill into that wall six years from now, knowing what's behind it could suddenly be very useful. Then go ahead and take the nice after photos too.
Keep Enough Information to Find Things Again
You don't need every receipt from every trip to the hardware store. Keep the ones that matter. If you've bought something with a warranty, hang onto the receipt and product information. If you've installed something you might someday need to repair or replace, save enough information that you'll know what it is.
Paint is an easy one to forget. Take a picture of the label on the can before it gets covered in paint and shoved onto a basement shelf. Make sure you can read the colour, code and finish. The same thinking works for flooring. If you've got the manufacturer and product name somewhere, you've at least got a fighting chance of finding a replacement later.
Some Things Won't Be on a Receipt
A lot of useful renovation information never makes it into a document. Maybe the contractor explained why something had to be done differently than you'd originally planned. You found the cabinet hardware on some little website you'll never remember. There's a shutoff somewhere that isn't obvious. Write that stuff down.
You don't need to document the renovation like you're preparing evidence for court. Just think about the things you'd have trouble figuring out again if you forgot them. If something took you an hour to find out the first time, it's probably worth spending 30 seconds saving it.
Give the Renovation Its Own Place
For a small job, a folder on your computer is probably plenty. Once you're into a bigger renovation, though, you've usually got information coming from all over the place. That's when giving the renovation its own project starts to make sense.
It's also a good use for Homescreen. You could have a Kitchen Renovation project on an external drive with your photos and documents stored inside it. Then the information that doesn't really need its own file can stay with the project too. Your paint colour can be a note. Save the link to the cabinet hardware you bought. Keep the contractor's information there. If there's something weird about the plumbing that you know you're going to forget, write it down. You're not trying to turn renovating your kitchen into a corporate project. You're just giving all that information somewhere to go.
Clean It Up When You're Done
By the time the renovation's finished, you'll have accumulated some junk. That's normal. You probably don't need the screenshots of every sink you considered buying. Once you've picked one and it's installed, the other 14 aren't particularly useful anymore. Go through everything once while the renovation's still fresh. Keep what actually relates to the finished job. Delete the obvious leftovers. Rename any pictures or documents that won't make sense later. Then you're done. You don't need to keep maintaining the project. It's become a record of the renovation.
If you're using Homescreen, you can save a copy of the individual files elsewhere, or save the full project so the notes, links and other information you've added can be restored along with it.
You'll Probably Thank Yourself Later
Hopefully, most of this stuff will sit untouched for years. That's fine. The whole point is that when the faucet starts leaking, you won't have to figure out anything from scratch. When you need to touch up the wall, you'll know the paint colour. And if you're about to put a screw through the drywall, you might even have a picture showing you exactly what's waiting on the other side.
You don't need a perfect record of your renovation. Just keep enough that future you isn't starting from zero.
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