Households that reuse well are not the ones with the most saved material. They are the ones who know what they actually have, where it came from, and which project is worth an afternoon. Without a record, reuse quietly becomes storage, and storage becomes clutter with a good story attached.

This worksheet does two jobs: it records items whose ownership and status are already resolved, and it ranks repair projects honestly. It is deliberately a planning instrument, not an approval. Nothing here declares a repair safe, and the ranking is designed to surface the projects you should not start.

Use it only for material you own or were explicitly given. The ownership and permission assessment decides that first, and the disaster-debris warning is unambiguous that discarded-looking material is not free to take.

A close view of an aging painted door hinge with peeling paint and worn wood, marking a repair candidate.
The worksheet starts with honest looking: a worn hinge, a note, and a decision about whether it is worth the fix.

Part 1: the inventory

Record each item once, when it enters the household. The columns exist because each one is a separate gate that people collapse into “it looks fine.”

Field Why it is separate
Item and exact model Identity is what makes recall and parts lookup possible at all
Where it came from Owned, given by a named person, repair cafe, exchange — with the date
Permission record Who said yes, when, in writing where it matters
Known history Age, prior use, and whether it was ever exposed to flood, fire, sewage, or chemicals
Recall status checked Date checked against CPSC recalls by exact model
Condition observed What you can see, not what you assume
Intended use The specific job, decided before storing it
Stop conditions What would make this item scrap rather than a project
Review date When you decide to use it or let it go

Two fields carry most of the value.

Known history is the one that cannot be recovered later. An item exposed to flood, fire, sewage, or chemicals does not become clean because it looks clean; cleaning does not repair unknown exposure. Write the history down while the person who knows it is still in front of you.

Intended use prevents the failure mode of reuse. An item stored for “something someday” is not reuse — it is deferred disposal. If you cannot name the job now, let the item go now.

Part 2: rank the projects honestly

Score each candidate project. The point is not a total; it is to make the weak dimension visible.

Dimension Ask
Household impact If this worked, would anything measurably improve? Or does it just feel productive?
Evidence of the fault Do you know what is wrong, or are you guessing from a symptom?
Skill honestly stated Have you done this exact task, or something adjacent you are rounding up?
Parts and compatibility Do the correct parts exist and fit this exact model?
Real cost Parts, tools, time, and the cost of a failed attempt
Consequence of failure Inconvenience, or fire, shock, flood, injury, or a structural problem?
Reversibility If it does not work, are you back where you started, or worse?

The consequence column outranks every other score. A cheap, easy, high-impact repair on something whose failure could start a fire is not a good project. It is a disposal decision wearing a project’s clothes.

A project with a strong score and a weak evidence column is not ready. Diagnose or drop it — do not open something to “have a look” when the something is energized, pressurized, sealed, or holding a load.

Part 3: the stop list

Some projects do not get scored. Write these at the top of the worksheet so the ranking never reaches them:

  • Anything electrical beyond a manufacturer-documented user task. Panels, wiring, appliances, and cords belong with the electrical safety boundaries. USFA is direct that damaged appliances and cords are removed from service, not taped.
  • Gas, pressurized, or fuel-carrying anything.
  • Structural or load-bearing material whose grade, history, or capacity is unverified.
  • Anything a person’s safety depends on — ladders, restraints, protective equipment, smoke and CO alarms, medical devices.
  • Food or medical containers, and anything that held an unknown substance.
  • Items with unresolved recall status, until checked by exact model.
  • Items whose exposure history is unknown, where the failure would be biological or chemical rather than mechanical.

The stop list is not a limit on your competence. It is a limit on what a worksheet can responsibly rank.

Part 4: decide, then act

For each item, force one of four outcomes and write the date:

  • Use — the job is named, the item suits it, nothing on the stop list applies.
  • Repair — the project scored well, evidence is real, consequence of failure is low, and skill is honestly stated. The repair cafe and tool library guide covers doing it with help and within the same scope.
  • Pass on — useful, but not to you. The neighborhood exchange checklist covers handing it over cleanly, including telling the next person the history you recorded.
  • Dispose — correctly, per local waste rules. This is a legitimate and common outcome, not a failure.

The review date is what keeps the system honest. An item with no decision by its review date has answered the question: it was storage.

A worked example, and why it lands on “dispose”

A neighbour gives you a working-looking space heater during a move. It is free, you have a cold room, and repairing a loose switch looks like an afternoon.

Run the columns:

  • Household impact: real. The room is genuinely cold.
  • Evidence of the fault: weak. “The switch feels loose” is a symptom, not a diagnosis. The fault could be the switch, the cord, the thermostat, or the internal wiring.
  • Skill: you have replaced a lamp cord. That is adjacent, not the same.
  • Parts: the model number is worn off. Correct parts cannot be confirmed.
  • Recall status: cannot be checked without the exact model.
  • Consequence of failure: fire, in a room where people sleep.

Four columns are green and the project still fails, because the consequence column outranks them and the identity column blocks the recall check. The correct outcome is dispose — and it takes thirty seconds to reach once the columns are written down, versus an afternoon of rationalising.

This is the worksheet working. Its value is not the projects it approves; it is the ones it stops before you start.

Keep the batch small

A common failure is inventorying everything and deciding nothing. Two habits prevent it:

  • Record at the door, not later. The history and permission fields are accurate only while the person who gave you the item is still there. A week later, “I think it was in a basement once” is the best you will get.
  • Cap the open projects. Two or three at a time. A worksheet with fifteen open repairs is a list of things you are not doing, and it makes the honest “dispose” harder to write because the pile already feels like an investment.

The review date does the rest. If an item reaches it undecided, that is the decision.

What a good record prevents

  • Repeating a diagnosis you already made and forgot.
  • Passing on an item without its history, which transfers your uncertainty to someone else.
  • Buying a part for a model you misidentified.
  • Starting the project that feels satisfying instead of the one that matters.
  • Keeping material for years because deciding is harder than storing.

Keep the record private. It describes what you own and where things are; that is household information, not something to publish.

The honest limit

This worksheet ranks intentions. It cannot inspect anything, cannot verify a claim someone made about an item’s history, and cannot make a repair safe. Its most useful output is often a “dispose” line — because the project you correctly declined is worth more than the one you started at the edge of your competence.

Return to the salvage and reuse hub when the source, ownership, item identity, intended use, or condition changes, and treat qualified professionals as the answer whenever the stop list applies.

Sources reviewed

ReadyLience reviewed CPSC recall resources and resale/thrift-store safety information, EPA reducing-and-reusing basics, New York State DEC reuse guidance, and U.S. Fire Administration appliance and electrical fire-safety guidance. This worksheet is a planning instrument only: it approves no repair, verifies no item, and states no method for judging an item’s safety, exposure history, or structural capacity. Recall status must be checked by exact model against current CPSC resources. Electrical, gas, plumbing, structural, pressurized, and energized work belongs to qualified licensed professionals, and local waste rules control disposal. The page remains in expert review.