DIY Old School Password Vault

Do you ever get overwhelmed with passwords…on everything from email to swimming lesson registration? Everyone knows that we’re not supposed to use the same password for everything…and different password interfaces have their own requirements with password length and special characters. Then, upon getting locked out of an account set up years ago…you might be faced with replacing passwords with new ones…let alone new email addresses and added email addresses for the kids. Where do they all go? Check out our Old School Password Vault.

I’m sure there are apps for that (but where do you record the password for that app? =)

I do have some hidden documents on my ipad where I keep passwords when I’m traveling, but I decided to go old school and record them in this cute little book.

Here are my tips for creating your own Old School Password Vault

establish some categories for your different passwords so that you don’t have to flip through the whole book. I chose Blog, Email, Commerce, Social Media, Software, Family Accounts and Ipad (Apps). As the kids get older and have more accounts of their own, each of them might have their own tab for your easy reference. I found this nifty little pad of sticky note tabs at the dollar store. I used clear packing tape over the tabs once I saw how doggy-eared they were getting.
I record in pencil: the name and address of the website, the email I use to access the site (I made a symbol for my primary email address so that I don’t have to keep writing it out),my username, password and date it was set (or today’s date if I checked it and it worked)
I record the passwords I have already recorded elsewhere…only after I check the login and make sure that the password still works. When I get tired of recording so many passwords… I record the less-frequently-used passwords only as I use them again and confirm that they work

Easy, super cute and portable: I don’t need a password and there is no wait for an app to open.

Obviously, you want to be kind of careful with this book. You don’t want to lose it, especially if you have any banking or other sensitive accounts listed.

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