When I was organizing my office the other week, I came across the binder I made when we bought the farm. This thing was my bible. I thought it might be helpful to share how I stayed organized during our relatively complicated house closing.

1. Come up with a system capture the paper work and information that comes with selling and buying a house.

You want to have all of your information in one place that’s easily accessible. For me, this system was a binder that I carried everywhere for about three months. For you a file folder might work. You might even be able to set up an electronic file on your computer, tablet or phone. In my experience, buying a house comes with a lot of paperwork, so having a paper-based system worked for me.

2. Once you capture all of the information, keep it organized.

I used dividers to categorize information in my binder.

You’ll have your own categories that work for you, but the ones that I used were mortgage broker, mortgage provider, mortgage quote, life insurance, house insurance, lawyer, storage, eco-energy audit, geothermal, insulation, water, internet, home inspection, property taxes, finances, offer, move-in and “fun & plans” (more on this one later). Sections were a mix of information we needed to complete the purchase of the farm and the sale of our first house, along with the fixes we planned to tackle first.

3. Keep track of everything

Make note of every conversation, every contact, every transaction, every flyer. You never know what you’ll need some day. I found it was particularly important to have a photocopy of our official offer and all of our financial information that I could quickly refer to.

Here’s the first page in my “lawyer” section. I have everything from appointment times, notes on title insurance and land transfer tax, even the scrap of paper where my dad first wrote down the lawyer’s contact information (which I’ve blurred out) stapled onto the page.

Other sections have written quotes from insulation contractors, flyers for rural internet providers and business cards from other contacts. Our water section had the reports from all of our initial well inspections, but then it grew to include research that I gathered on different water treatment and pumping systems, estimates from contractors and other notes as we went through the process of installing our new system.

4. Keep a calendar

There are lots of things to remember when buying and selling a house. A calendar or schedule is essential to keep things on track. I made a customized calendar that showed the two months from when we purchased the farm to after we moved in all on one page. The front cover of my binder had a plastic sleeve, so I slipped the calendar in there, where I could always see it at a glance.

5. Make sure your system is flexible.

In order to work throughout your whole house purchase, your system will have to grow and adapt and travel with you. Part way through the closing, I bought a second package of dividers and doubled the sections in the binder. As new information came in, I could write it down or print it out, punch holes in it and slot it into the appropriate section. Wherever I was, I could whip out the binder to access information or jot down a note.

6. Make room for some fun.

Buying a house can be stressful. Often, it can seem that you’re spending all of your time with depressing inspection reports that show everything that’s wrong with your house, exorbitant contractor quotes that show you’re never going to be able to fix your house, or complicated legal and financial forms that make you question if you’re ever going to be able to actually buy your house. Occasionally, you’re going to need some help to look on the bright side.

The final section of my binder was called fun & plans.

This wasn’t a huge section, and I confess it didn’t get a ton of attention, but it was a spot where I could do things like this.

Or this (pre-Pinterest).

Our two-month closing process was a little complicated because we were dealing with a country property and a fixer-upper, but I think a binder like this would be helpful no matter what kind of house you’re buying. It can be scaled and customized for whatever you need. And its usefulness continues after the sale closes. It’s been two years since we moved to the farm, and I still pull out this binder occasionally to find a contact or double check some information.

Now it’s your turn. Anyone have any tips on how to stay organized when buying a house? Are you a paper or computer person?