Home Office
The desk, the paper on it, and the tools that earn their space.
Writing by hand does not compete with a laptop on quality. It competes on friction, and friction is a physical property of the desk — what is already out, what has to be retrieved, which way the light falls.
The same goes for what you write on. The question people ask about paper is almost always the wrong one, and the right one has a simple answer that saves money rather than costing it.
- House and Pet Sitter Instructions: What to Write Down So Nobody Has to Call
A handover a house or pet sitter can use without phoning you: the one page they read first, each pet, the house, what to do when something goes wrong, and the check before you leave.
- Questions to Ask a Nanny, and What the Answers Tell You
The interview questions that show how a nanny actually works, how to check references properly, and what to agree in writing before the first day.
- What to Put in an "If I Die" Binder, and What Belongs With a Lawyer
An "if I die" binder is an index, not an archive. Who to tell, where things are, what you would like, and the few things that must go through a professional instead.
- An Estate Accounting Example, Worked Through in Figures
What an estate accounting includes, shown with one fictional estate from the date of death to what each beneficiary is still owed, and the one check that tells you the figures are right.
- Keeping a Moving Box Inventory: Number the Box, Not the Contents
The four columns a moving box inventory needs, why a number beats a description on the box, and how the list tells you which box did not arrive.
- How to Split Household Chores With a Partner Without Keeping Score
Most chore arguments are not about who does more. They are about what "done" means and who notices the job needs doing. Two questions settle both.
- A Home Inventory for Insurance: Start With One Room
What a home inventory needs to record, why one finished room beats an unfinished house, and where the copy must live so it survives what it is for.
- A Christmas Gift List That Survives December
The five columns a Christmas gift list needs, why the idea column should hold what the person said, and how to stop a bought gift being mistaken for a delivered one.
- What Goes on an In-Case-of-Emergency Contact Sheet
Four columns, about eight rows, and the two mistakes that make one useless. Plus a free sheet already ruled for it.
- What to Put in a Family Records Binder, and What to Keep Out
Not an archive of every document you own. An index somebody else could read, on the day you are not there to be asked.
- What Paper to Use With a Fountain Pen
Everyone asks about gsm. It is the wrong number — and it explains why 80gsm paper can outperform 120gsm.
- Choosing Fountain Pen Ink
Colour is the least important property. Five others decide whether an ink behaves, and most "bad ink" is really a paper mismatch.
- A Desk That Makes You Write by Hand
Handwriting does not compete with the laptop on quality. It competes on friction, and friction is a physical property of the desk.