There was a great anecdote (or perhaps an urban legend). Back when Mir space station was still operational, one of its crews lost something. What it was exactly doesn't matter, but they looked everywhere. Twice, and then some. Out of utter desperation and puzzled beyond belief they started peeling off parts of the cabin walls and looking underneath. And what do you know - under one panel there was a folded piece of paper that said "It is not here. We already looked." Signed by another crew from a year ago. Apparently they also lost something, but were thoughtful enough to leave a note.

So, yeah, notes are great... even if not terribly useful :)

Nice post.

I do the same for "accessories" - for e.g if I buy a desk and assemble it - I then take a zip-lock bag, put in the wrenches, extra screws, fasteners, what-have-you, and tape it to the desk where you can't see it (usually on the back, or bottom if possible).

I do this for almost everything I own - I even tape the instruction manuals to the back of appliances.

This way, I don't have random items floating around the apartment, and I know if I need to fix, replace, or dissemble anything, I know I don't have to hunt around.

I guess this is an extension of jgrahamc's idea - take pictures as you assemble, fix, dismantle stuff, and put them in the zip-lock bag. Saved me endless head-scratching in the past.

Heh, I do the exact same thing. Especially with Ikea furniture - I would tape the wrenches, manuals, etc somewhere not easily noticeable.

Another thing I do is behind my TV, or in the back of my computer, I create little paper tags that I tape onto the power cables. So, in case I need to unplug something from the wall, I don't need to trace the connection to know if I'm going to unplug the TV and lose all my presets, or just the floor lamp.

This seems like a brilliant use case for augmented reality. If I could look at something and have my HUD display "turn this valve to disable all water flow to the upstairs" from the previous owner of my house (or from the contractor who plumbed the house, though who am I kidding?), that would be really cool.

It has been explored. One example: http://www.spatialrobots.com/2009/08/augmented-reality-instr...

I seem to remember another car manufacturer planning to make a mobile owner's manual where you hold up your phone in front of the offending car part (e.g. the gear shifter) and it pulls up information about it.

We can't even get people to leave a copy of the appliance manuals when they move.

/waiting for new fridge to be delivered, no thanks to previous owner.

Good practice to leave the manual on top of the appliance, e.g. fridge, water heater, furnace, etc. Or put them all in one drawer.

When I read the title I was expecting an article on augmented reality

Just do it for everything - I have a tiddlywiki [1] full of notes about how to fix/install/setup/tune etc. things on my computers.

This started after I spent hours figuring out how to fix a network problem the the Nth time last year :) Now all I have to do is search the Wiki.

1. http://www.tiddlywiki.com/

Unfortunately I tend to use a number of different devices to connect to work with.

So no tiddlywiki for me :(

Dropbox it for cross-machine access :) (& I also tag entries if it relates to a specific device)

This is why I added a note-taking feature & full-text search to my del.icio.us clone :)

Wiki and it's hyperlinking is too complex for me. I just write README files in main dirs and a big install_notes in ~.

A basic (true-to-original) wiki will hyperlink every CamelCase word. That is too complex?

If you do this, and you should, then please do it with a permanent marker as opposed to pencil or biro. In 10 years it will not fade away leaving a tantalising tag with no information.

I refer you to my home fuse box :(

I've done this (read: had to do this to save my sanity) for years now. Learnings: Most inks (like inkjet printers, pen inks, and even pencils) fade (esp if in light for extended time) and laser toner will stick to other surfaces in heat, so like another poster mentioned, sharpie perm marker is usually the best option. Yellow sticky notes do not stick after years, sadly. Duct tape is great, electrical tape often gets gummy and peels (at least, the cheap kind I buy).

I'm a fountain pen fanatic, mostly because they are awesome to write with and improve your handwriting. One of the perks is that you can use archival grade ink.

My favorite are Noodler's Inks (http://noodlersink.com/). Forgive their 1995-esque website, they make fantastic fountain pen ink. Their Bulletproof line is not only archival quality, but also nigh-impossible to remove from paper.

And their Heart of Darkness black ink is like peering into the very abyss itself.

Very true. Conversely, the water-based "won't stain your clothing" ink fades very quickly, which is pretty bad for archiving. Perhaps you can guess which one I used when I "commented" things around my house a few years ago.

> Duct tape is great

Almost all duct tape is great. I've managed to buy some stuff that turned brittle and let go after a year or so of exposure to mild sun.

My washing machine has a water filter?

Glad I am not the only one with that reaction. Now I must find out and clean it if necessary.

The oil change people do that when they put the little see through sticky on the top of your windshield.