Welcome!

Thanks for visiting my blog. Hope you find some helpful hints for organizing your time and space. My passions are to help you make home a refuge instead of a crisis center, and to help you function in peace rather than chaos - at home or at work. I have switched my main blog to 1-2-3 ... Get Organized on WordPress, so please visit me there.



Monday, August 29, 2011

How Quickly Could You Evacuate?


It's been a crazy week, saying good-bye to one foster daughter who is going to college, welcoming another into our home, and dealing with enrollment issues with a third. Translation: we're down to two girls now, and hopefully they will both be in school tomorrow.
We've watched Irene with rapt interest, enjoying gorgeous weather while empathizing with those in her path. I'm sure you've asked yourself, as I have, how easily you could evacuate your home.

In light of Irene and National Preparedness Month in September, here's a quick list of what you would need should you ever need to evacuate:

check book
money 
drivers license or ID
credit cards
health insurance cards
meds/prescriptions disc or flashdrive backups of computer documents
picture or video documentation of what is in your house
 
laptop and charger 
cell phone and charger (I leave my cell phone car charger in the car) 
safe deposit key
birth, death and marriage certificates
will, power of attorney
Social Security cards and records
military records
medical records 

insurance policies
tax returns

retirement account records 
recent pay stubs
warranties and receipts
passport
car titles and registrations
mortgage deeds and records

rental agreements
keepsakes


Keep the documents in your fireproof safe or safe deposit box. I keep all my picture negatives in my safe deposit box, too. 

If your important documents are in one place, you can easily lift them out and place them in a briefcase or box to take with you. 

Print and keep this list with your checkbook, so you can easily pull together the other items on the list without forgetting anything.

Make sure you have an emergency plan (see below). And gather the above together in order to be prepared should a disaster force you to evacuate - a fire, a tornado, a hurricane, a flood. This will give you peace of mind before a crisis and a level head in the midst of one. 


More on preparedness:

National Preparedness Month - Making a Plan

National Preparedness Month - Evacuation Plan

National Preparedness Month – Evacuation from Work, School, Daycare, and Neighborhood Communities