Using Obsidian as a family hub

Starting with Obsidian to build a family hub is a great idea: it’s flexible, it’s private, it helps organizing shared knowledge. Here’s a set of best practices to help you kick things off smoothly, especially if you're setting this up for people who might not be tech-savvy.

Do I use it? Not yet. My wife prefers everything on paper and my kids are still too young to have mobile devices with them. But the kids are learning some good stuff on note-taking with me and there’s hope they’ll use it in the future — or something similar to it.

Keep the Structure Simple at First

Don’t over-engineer the system from day one. Start with a few notes and core folders, like:

Home: A welcome note or dashboard.
People: A folder with notes for each family member.
Events: Notes and planning for birthdays, anniversaries, reunions, trips, weekend activities, etc.
Recipes, Photos, Stories: Folders for whatever categories matter most to you and your family.

I keep my folders up to three levels deep with an extra attachments folder: Obsidian thrives on links, not deep hierarchies. Have broad categories and think about contexts instead of classification. Here’s what I do to my own particular notes: My Obsidian.

Use Plain Language and Clear Titles

Avoid jargon or overly clever naming. If your family is going to use this, make sure note titles are obvious and easy to understand. Creating complex rules, such as timestamps, unique IDs, etc. won’t help them getting on board. Some examples:

• “Grandma’s Tamales Recipe”
• “Dad’s 60th Birthday Photos” (still a bit far, but I’ll get there eventually…)
• “Emergency Contacts”

Clarity beats cleverness every time.

I prefer keeping everything in ASCII, i.e., no , accents, emojis, etc. Just letters and numbers, some punctuation and special characters from a standard English keyboard. It helps with compatibility. We’re all on the same platforms, subject to the same restrictions, but once they get to buy their own gadgets we might enter some gray zone and these rules help making it future proof.

Create a Simple Home Note

This acts like a landing page. Include links to the most important notes, like:

• “Meet the Family”
• “Upcoming Events”
• “How to Use This Hub”

Think of it like a friendly front door. Depending on how tech-savvy they are, use this entry point as the navigational reference to get to the most important parts of your vault.

Use Templates for Consistency

Even if you’re the only one adding content at first, templates help keep things tidy. For example:

• A “Person” template with fields like name, birthday, favorite memories
• An “Event” template with date, location, attendees, photos

You can use Obsidian’s core Templates plugin or something like Templater if you want more automation later.

Some people use the “@” character for people, others for location and there's nothing preventing you from using it for both. (I use “@" for location and "+” for people.)

Add Photos and Media Thoughtfully

Obsidian supports images and audio, but don’t exaggerate it. Keep file sizes reasonable and organize media in a Media folder. Use descriptive filenames so they’re easy to find. Check that you have photos with an adequate resolution: it probably won’t be the single copy of it, so you can sacrifice a little bit to just convey the message, keeping a high res version in your photo storage solutions.

My suggestion here is: if the file isn't linked from a note in your vault, then remove it from there. Always have a note linking to each file with keywords, some quick reference text, etc. This will make it easier to search for things from within Obsidian itself.

Use Tags for Quick Filtering

Tags like #recipe, #event, #story can help people find things fast. Keep your tag list short and consistent. You have to remember that you can connect your notes using folders and tags, for grouping, and link to connect them with some explanation on the context.

I like tags for status, but sometimes I have them to group things as well. Tags group things, they do not create connections.

Make It Easy to Navigate

Use internal links generously. If you mention someone in a story, link to their note. If a recipe was served at an event, link to that event. This builds a web of connections that makes the hub feel alive.

It will also help providing context and identifying which people attended which events and what they have in common.

Keep a “How-To” Note

Even if it’s just for you at first, document how to add a new person, upload a photo, or create a new event. If others join in later, they’ll appreciate the guidance.

Sync Carefully

If you want others to access the hub, consider Obsidian Sync or a shared folder via Dropbox or OneDrive. Just make sure everyone knows how to avoid overwriting each other’s changes.

What I use here? Onedrive for my single vault / repository. What I’d use with my family? Possibly a private Git repository and one of the git plugins, as it is better to work with conflicts.

Iterate Slowly

Don’t worry about getting it perfect. Start small, get feedback from your family, and adjust as you go. The goal is to make something useful and meaningful, not a museum of perfection. They must have fun using this, perceive some value. Or they won’t use it at all.

See also: Understanding metadata and properties