The Home Document Folder Taxonomy (Home Systems)

The Home Document Folder Taxonomy

A reusable folder structure for the home document vault. Copy this directly into your cloud storage under Home — [Address] on move-in day. The structure is designed so documents are findable under pressure (an insurance adjuster is on the phone; a resale subject-removal deadline is in 24 hours).

The taxonomy

Home — [Address]/
│
├── 01 Purchase & Title/
│   ├── Title transfer / property transfer document
│   ├── Closing disclosure / settlement statement
│   ├── Property condition disclosure statement
│   ├── Purchase contract
│   ├── Title insurance policy
│   └── Home inspection report
│
├── 02 Strata Documents/
│   ├── Form B — [date obtained]
│   ├── Form F — [date obtained]
│   ├── Bylaws — [version / date]
│   ├── Rules — [version / date]
│   ├── Depreciation Report — [year]
│   ├── AGM Packages/
│   │   └── [Year] AGM Package
│   ├── Strata Council Minutes/
│   │   └── [Year]/
│   ├── Strata Insurance Certificate — [year]
│   └── Special Levy Notices/
│
├── 03 Permits & Inspections/
│   ├── [Year] [Description] — Permit [#]/
│   │   ├── Permit — [job description]
│   │   ├── Inspection Passed Certificate
│   │   ├── Contractor Invoice
│   │   └── Contractor Warranty
│   └── (one subfolder per permitted job)
│
├── 04 Insurance/
│   ├── Active Policy — [insurer] — [policy #]
│   ├── Written Chargeback Coverage Confirmation — [date]
│   ├── Claim History/
│   │   └── [Year] Claim — [description]/
│   └── (see [[insurance-warranties (Home Systems)]] for the full insurance procedure)
│
├── 05 Appliances & Systems/
│   ├── Water Heater — [brand model year]/
│   │   ├── Model-Serial Label Photo
│   │   ├── Purchase Receipt
│   │   ├── Manual
│   │   ├── Warranty
│   │   └── Service History
│   ├── HVAC — [brand model year]/
│   ├── Washer/
│   ├── Dryer/
│   ├── Dishwasher/
│   ├── Refrigerator/
│   ├── Stove-Range/
│   └── (one subfolder per appliance or major system)
│
├── 06 Renovations & Maintenance/
│   ├── [Year] [Description]/
│   │   ├── Invoice(s)
│   │   ├── Before Photos
│   │   ├── After Photos
│   │   ├── Paint Specs (if paint involved)
│   │   └── Contractor Warranty
│   └── (one subfolder per project)
│
├── 07 Paint & Finish Specs/
│   ├── [Room] — [Brand] [Product] [Colour Code] [Sheen] [Date]
│   └── (one file per room or surface)
│
└── 08 Tax Records/
    ├── Purchase Closing Statement
    ├── Capital Improvement Receipts/
    │   └── (copies of relevant invoices from 03 and 06 above)
    └── Sale Closing Statement — [year sold]

Design rationale

• Numbers prefix forces order: 01–08 means folders sort in logical sequence rather than alphabetically, so Purchase & Title (the foundation) is always first.
• Permits get their own top-level folder (03) not buried under renovations: because permit retrieval under pressure happens independently of the renovation folder — an insurer or buyer’s realtor wants the permit, not the whole project folder.
• Appliances get model/serial in the folder name: so you can see at a glance Water Heater — Rheem 40gal 2022 without opening the folder.
• Paint specs are a top-level folder (07) not buried under renovations: because paint matching is a recurring need, separate from the renovation project context.
• Tax Records (08) holds copies, not originals: the capital improvement receipts live in 03 and 06; 08 is a curated subset of copies organized for CRA purposes, so you are not hunting across folders during an audit.

Scope

This taxonomy is a starting template — adapt it. If you own a detached home, 02 Strata Documents becomes irrelevant or can be repurposed for HOA/strata-like documents. If you are a landlord, add 09 Tenancy for lease agreements, condition inspection reports, and correspondence.

Idea Compass

North: Where this comes from

• records-documents (Home Systems) — the parent component this taxonomy implements
• HomeLight home records organization guide — the categories that informed the folder structure
• What Home Records to Keep Forever vs Discard After Selling (Home Systems) — the retention rules that determine what lives in each folder

East: Tensions / failure

• a flat folder of scanned PDFs with no structure — the “I have everything digitally” version that is still unusable under pressure
• too many subfolders — a taxonomy deeper than 2 levels becomes maintenance overhead; this structure is intentionally flat at the second level

South: Where this leads

• the filled vendor roster in vendor-roster (Home Systems) — contractor and trade contacts that become entries in 03 Permits & Inspections
• the filled insurance cards in insurance-warranties (Home Systems) — the insurer and policy details that populate 04 Insurance

West: What’s similar

• Paper-Digital-Both — The Home Document Redundancy Rule (Home Systems) — the backup strategy that makes this folder structure disaster-resilient
• vault structure in this Obsidian vault — the same principle of flat-with-categories, named for searchability, linked for discoverability