Editorial Policy
How tooolbox publishes home field guides
tooolbox is built around one narrow promise: practical household records for renters, homeowners, and shared homes in the United States. The site avoids broad topic chasing, unsupported professional advice, and product-driven pages.
Writing standard
- Every guide is written for a specific household task, not for keyword coverage alone.
- We avoid hidden repairs, electrical work, gas work, structural diagnosis, and health claims.
- We favor checklists, records, and escalation notes over product recommendations.
- Ads are not placed in a way that imitates navigation, resources, downloads, or editorial links.
Review method
Guides are checked for plain-language usefulness, visible-only scope, US audience fit, and clear escalation notes before publication.
- Each guide must name the reader, the household moment, and the record the reader will have afterward.
- Each guide must include visible-only steps, a short checklist, and a sample record row.
- Each guide must tell readers when to use a landlord, property manager, official channel, or qualified professional.
- Pages show published and reviewed dates instead of hiding updates behind one sitewide timestamp.
Independence
The site does not publish sponsored product rankings, paid repair recommendations, or disguised ad links.
Advertising, when shown, is separated from navigation, downloads, source links, and editorial recommendations. The site does not sell placement inside guides.
Pre-approval indexing policy
During AdSense approval hardening, guides closest to health, food, electrical, alarm, fire, or utility safety boundaries are temporarily excluded from search indexing and the public sitemap. They remain reviewable as conservative records, but they are not submitted as the site's primary search inventory.
Corrections
Corrections, unclear wording, broken links, and practical content requests can be sent to lostlastlove@gmail.com.Correction requests are reviewed against the page, the cited public source when relevant, and the visible-only household scope before updates are published.
Sources
Guides are written from a practical household-record perspective. When a page touches safety boundaries, moisture, alarms, energy systems, or emergency planning, official resources are used to keep the language conservative.
The full current source library is available on the sources and review notes page.
- EPA mold and moisture basics - Used for moisture-control boundaries and escalation language.
- ENERGY STAR HVAC maintenance checklist - Used for filter and seasonal airflow reminders.
- Ready.gov emergency planning - Used for household emergency record structure.
- CPSC carbon monoxide alarm guidance - Used for alarm-check boundaries and monthly test reminders.
- U.S. Fire Administration appliance and electrical fire safety - Used for appliance, cord, breaker, dryer, and electrical safety boundaries.
- NAIC home inventory guidance - Used for photo records, inventories, receipts, and move-condition documentation.