Following My Own Organizing Advice - Getting My House in Order

  
Yesterday, my husband and I spent the holiday organizing our tax information. It was not too taxing (haha), as my husband had kept up with the filing of receipts. Aren’t I blessed?
 
It was a logical time to sort through our fire-proof safe and condense our important papers, too, as we usually keep our current year’s tax info in the safe. We also have a file for each of us which holds our birth certificates, degrees, Social Security cards, passports, and other information we would not want to lose.

We have a file of important documents for each of our children and for each set of parents. Another file holds our will and marriage license. And I have a file for important documents relating to my business – trademarks, licenses, certificates, etc.

We also copied pertinent credit cards, insurance cards, driver’s licenses, and other cards in our wallets. We each lined our cards on our copier and copied front and back, and placed those copies in each of our files. So now, if our wallets get lost or stolen, we have a copy of each card. A good time to declutter that wallet, too, and get rid of outdated cards.

Even though we had organized our important documents before, we found some items that could be removed, and some that had been removed, used, and needed to be returned. It was helpful just to look over what we had and know where it was.

So if we need to evacuate quickly, we can scoop up those files and know we have the most important information in our hands. We’ve also given our children the code to our safe in the event they need to get to our important data.

Next on my list: putting my password list in my file.

Can your family members find your important information easily? Would you be able to evacuate quickly if necessary? If not, take a little time to consolidate your important documents. It gives such peace of mind!

More on important documents:
Getting Your Affairs in Order
National Preparedness Month – Emergency Kit #8 – Emergency Documents
Get Your House in Order – A Great Wintertime Project