A book for the house.

Every house runs on a list that lives in one person’s head. Which key opens the shed, whether the car is paid off, the login for the electric bill, the name of the plumber who does not overcharge. Nobody writes it down, because writing it down means thinking about the day somebody else would need it.

What is sold to fix this is mostly one of two things. A folder of printable pages for a few dollars, with no position on anything and no thought for the person who would open it. Or a subscription to a website that keeps your life for you, behind a login your family does not have, for as long as the payments keep going. Neither is a book you can hand somebody.

So we made a book. Twelve sections, two editions of the same pages, and the First Week at the front for whoever opens it. It costs $34 once, and nothing you write in it ever comes back to us.

It is written as a book, not assembled as a template. Each section opens with a short paragraph for the person who will read it later, so a page makes sense to somebody who did not fill it in. The fields come in the order that person would need them, and the whole thing is laid out for us letter paper, in a screen edition you type into and a print edition you write in.

It is checked against how things actually work in the United States: Social Security, retirement accounts, Medicare, county recorders, the DMV. Where something differs by state, the page says to check yours rather than guessing for you. And it says, in plain words, where a book stops and a lawyer begins. The six positions are printed inside it.

Geokits Limited is registered in England. The book is written for the United States, priced in dollars, and delivered the moment you pay, so nothing is shipped from anywhere. A person reads the email at hello@householdbook.com and a person replies, usually within a working day.

The Household Book is a trading name of Geokits Limited, a company registered in England and Wales, number 16306007. Registered office: Office 9650, 321-323 High Road, Chadwell Heath, Romford, Essex, England, RM6 6AX.