How to organize your most important documents at home in case of an emergency
I hope this finds you well, and you are adapting to our current situation. For me, the extra time at home has allowed me to get caught up on a pile I’ve been neglecting way too long. I keep hoping to find a hidden gem in that pile, but I just keep finding more things I should have already taken care of.
I wanted to take a few minutes to get out to you just to check in and let you know I’m thinking of you. While looking at my looming pile, I had to stop and change my thought process to a place where I was thankful.
While you’re spending extra time in front of your computer, I thought it might be the perfect month to share a really cool project I got to work on a few days ago. I organize my most important documents at home in case of an emergency. Hurricane season is at it’s peak, and this is a project you can tackle in a couple of hours. We know how stressful the hurricane season can be. For me having my most important documents organized and ready to go, brings me peace of mind I’ll share with you what I did. This is what I had before:
First, I gather all my important documentation in one place, sort and purge all the paperwork in different categories like:
Categories that I used:
General information
Birth certificate
Social SN, voter’s cards,
Passports and Citizenship
Marriage certificate
Car title
House deed, house warranties,
Closing paperwork
Home and flood insurance
Life Insurance and accidental insurance
Will
Financial: checkbooks, credit cards that we use only for emergency, envelope with money
Last tax return.
Trust
Appraisals: owner certificates
Government: military documentation, security clearance, police report
Legal: power of attorney, custody agreements, final settlements
Second, scan your important documents and save on the cloud or on a pen drive, create the files for the categories you need, and place your important documents in their respective files. Don’t forget to label accordingly!
Below you can see my after:
You have to be aware that to better “safeguard” these documents, they have to be inside a safe deposit box at your home. What I do is that I have my accordion file inside my safe deposit box ready, and just in case of emergency, I put them inside my bag. I purchase my bag through Amazon and I love it, because it is lightweight, it can hold legal documents, and most importantly is water and fireproof resistance.
Hopefully you find this information useful. Remember we’re all in this together and I understand these are challenging times, and I am here to help. Do you have your vital documentation ready? If not, What are you waiting for?
This is the link of the bag I used: inspired by: (Professional Organizer Alejandra Costello)
