The last ten minutes of your visit: a handover checklist
You did four hours of useful work and then left, and by Thursday nobody can remember whether the pharmacy was called or whether that was the week before. The fix is a page, written in the last ten minutes, in the same place every time, so that the next person walks in already knowing where things stand.
How to use this checklist
Set an alarm on your phone for ten minutes before you plan to leave. That alarm is the handover, and it is the reason the sheet gets written instead of remembered.
One page per visit. Date, arrival time, departure time, your name at the top. Keep them in date order in the front of the binder, and keep the binder in one place that never changes — by the kettle, on the fridge, on the hall table.
Write it in front of your parent and read it out. It is their house and their week, and it is often the moment you find out about something that did not come up all afternoon.
Write facts. What you did, what you did not get to, what you saw, what was said, and the date. Not what you think it means.
Photograph the page before you leave and send it to whoever is next. That single photograph is what stops the same job being done twice and the important job being done by nobody.
The end-of-visit handover checklist
Twenty-six items in four blocks: what goes on the sheet, what to check before you close the door, what the next person needs, and the two minutes you spend in the car.
Nobody does twenty-six things in ten minutes. The sheet block is the one that happens every time. The rest is a standing list you glance down, so that the fourth item gets remembered as reliably as the first.
Keep blank pages in the same folder as the finished ones, so a visit is never written on the back of an envelope.
If two people visit in the same week, both write a page. Two short pages in date order are worth more than one long page written by whoever remembers the most.
- On the sheet — the date, the time you arrived, the time you left, and your name
- On the sheet — what you did, in short lines: shopping, laundry, bills, calls, repairs
- On the sheet — what you did not get to, and why
- On the sheet — every call you made on their behalf: who, when, what was agreed, and the reference number
- On the sheet — what mail arrived and exactly where you put it
- On the sheet — any money spent, from whose account, with the receipt attached to the page
- On the sheet — anything that broke, leaked or stopped working, and whether it has been reported
- On the sheet — what is running low: food, supplies, batteries, stamps, cash in the house
- On the sheet — any appointment booked, moved or cancelled, with the confirmation written out
- On the sheet — anything you were asked to pass on, and by whom
- On the sheet — anything you observed, as a fact with a date, and nothing more than that
- Before you leave — check the fridge and the dates on what is open
- Before you leave — take the trash out and check the collection day
- Before you leave — check the doors, the windows, the stove and the heating
- Before you leave — put the phone, the remote, the glasses and the keys back where they belong
- Before you leave — leave the emergency sheet visible and up to date
- Before you leave — write the next visit on the kitchen calendar in large letters
- Before you leave — plug the phone in and leave the charger within reach
- Before you leave — leave a written note of who comes next: name, day, time
- For the next person — tell them the one thing they need to know before they walk in
- For the next person — say where the handover sheet is and where the binder lives
- For the next person — say what you have already asked for, so nobody asks twice
- For the next person — confirm who is covering the weekend and who is the backup
- For the next person — photograph the sheet and send it before you drive off
- In the car — write the three things you have to do this week, with days beside them
- In the car — send your siblings the same two lines you always send: what happened, what is next
Print one blank handover page and leave it on the kitchen table before your next visit, with the date already written at the top. Ten minutes before you go, fill in three lines: what you did, what is outstanding, who comes next. Photograph it and send it. That is the whole system, and it works from the first page.
Questions
Who is the handover sheet actually for?
Anyone who walks in after you: a sibling, a paid helper, a neighbour, or you in three weeks when you cannot remember which Thursday you called the pharmacy. Write it for someone who was not there and knows nothing about the afternoon.
Is it rude to write notes in my parent's house?
Not if you do it openly and read it back. Most people prefer it to being discussed by phone afterwards. It is their sheet, in their house, and they can correct anything on it.
What if the next person is a paid carer with their own paperwork?
Keep your sheet anyway and ask where theirs is kept. Two records that both stay in the house are workable; a record that leaves in someone's bag is not. Ask how you can see theirs, and give them a copy of yours.