Author of Be Ready for Anything and Bloom Where You’re Planted online course
You can buy prepping books, stockpile food, and learn first aid, but unless you have organized your personal information and documents, the aftermath of an ordinary disaster is going to be much more difficult. Mind you, I’m not talking about an apocalyptic situation that changes the world as we know it, but something like a house fire, a flood, or a tornado. That’s why every prepper needs a personal emergency preparedness binder.
The good thing about such a binder is that it is very inexpensive to put together. You only need a 3 ring binder, some inserts with pockets, and paper to either print or handwrite the personal information. Oh – and you may need to go to Staples and make some photocopies, too.
What goes into a personal emergency preparedness binder?
In your binder, you want to have all the pertinent information to deal with medical issues, contact friends and family members, and handle insurance companies should a disaster strike that wipes out all your records.
So things like:
Personal information
- Medical histories
- Prescriptions
- Insurance policies
- Bank account information
- Savings and investment account information
- Insurance policies
- Home inventories
- Photographs
- Important receipts
- Local contacts
- Contact information for friends and family members
- Serial numbers
- Registrations and licenses
You get the idea. All the stuff we need to function in this modern world and replace the things that have been lost.
I’ve made this really easy for my subscribers. I have put together a Personal Emergency Preparedness Binder template that has all the forms and checklists you need to customize your own binder. (Subscribers, check your email today!) If you aren’t a subscriber, you can sign up HERE to get your own PDF absolutely free.
How do you put together a binder?
You can print off the pages of my PDF template as needed, or, if you don’t have access to a printer, you can use them as a guide to hand-write your own preparedness binder.
- Then, simply fill out the pertinent information for each family member. (Don’t forget your pets, too!)
- Make photocopies of the front and back of important documents, policies, and identification cards.
- Take photographs of the things in your house you would want insurance to replace after a disaster.
- Get copies of medical records for each member of your family.
- Write down prescriptions, pharmacy, and dosages of all medications
- Names and phone numbers of contacts
- Phone numbers for local officials, insurance companies, banks, etc.
It’s pretty simple but oh-so-important!
I have a three-ring binder I took after my daughter replaced her old school one with a new one. I use a three-hole punch to get pages ready to go in. I went to Walmart during a back-to-school sale and picked up binder inserts with pockets for important documents and photographs.
Where should you keep it?
Of course, this is the tricky part. Someone unsavory could easily take all the information from this binder to steal your identity, and as we all know, identity theft is a disaster of epic proportions.
I recommend 2 copies of your binder. Store the first one in a fire-and-water resistant safe at your home. Store the second one in a bank safety deposit box or at the home of an extremely trusted friend or family member. Then, if a disaster strikes when you aren’t at home, then you have a backup stored elsewhere.
You can also store the information on a thumb drive, which can be encrypted, or, if you feel safe doing so, in the cloud where it can be accessed from any place with internet.
Get this done ASAP!
The last few years have shown us how quickly disasters can strike and wipe out everything you own. This is a project that doesn’t cost more than a few dollars. In a disaster situation during which everything is breathtakingly hard, having your personal information and documents organized in a binder will make things a whole lot easier.
Again, to get your FREE template, sign up here.
Daisy you are The Best! I have written you that I am leaving my beloved California for maybe COlorado. I struggle with organizing my things and it takes me so long to do so! Your template is perfect! PERFECT! It gives me a hands-on reminder of what I can fill in! Yes, a trusted person or safe-deposit -box is necessary…Oh, a lawyer may help with these things, yes!
Thank You so much, I will focus on completing this template for my departure in two weeks from California! Blessings to you and your Family! Jeff
We rented a safety dep. box at the credit union for important papers, the duplicates are kept in a home safe. We do not live in a flood or fire prone area. Hurricanes and wind damage have happened in my area where many roofs (other wind damage) were redone several years back. Main reason we rented one.
Thanks for the free download Daisy! An excellent start to keeping family info in one place. I will put it in my fire safe with other personal documents.
Hi Daisy,
This is a great idea, and as an insurance broker something that I review and suggest to my clients all the time. A few other considerations that you and your subscribers might consider: Never lock the only copy of Trusts or Life Insurance in anything. Store them on a bookshelf in plain sight. (Burglars can’t sell them for anything, but if they are locked up the Estate will go through probate before anything is unlocked, and the Trust would likely eliminate probate altogether. Also the Life Insurance will be exponentially more difficult to collect if the beneficiary has no access to the policy.) When traveling, make a copy of all passports and both sides of everything you carry in your wallet and keep the copy in a money belt. If anything is lost or stolen you can call the numbers on the back of the cards for simple replacement.
Thanks for everything that you do for your readers … my family is better off for knowing you.
I learned this about 20 years ago. I needed a place to store important papers, ammo, powder, etc. My refrigerator died, bought a new one, was going to have the city haul it away. Then I got a idea, I put hasps and locks on the doors, put it in the garage. Ever notice when a house burns down, the only things left standing is the water heater and refrigerator
That’s a fantastic idea! Thank you for sharing it.
During fire or flood, if you want to protect something that you can’t take with you, put it in the refrigerator or dishwasher. They are water and air tight, and will offer better protection than virtually anywhere else in the home.
I keep a paper copy of only the most important things in a small binder that I keep in my gun safe in my bedroom. I keep everything else in digital form. I save electronic documents of all sorts as they come, onto my computer hard drive. I scan any important paper documents as pdf files and store those in my laptop computer as well as a hard copy in my binder. I encrypt all digital data with VeraCrypt AES encryption. Those encrypted digital containers are then copied to external USB hard drives. I leave one with a friend out of state and rotate that periodically. I keep one in my safe with my binder that I update weekly. I keep two more in each of my get home bags that I keep in each vehicle. You don’t have to actually trust whomever you leave your drive with as it is encrypted, and I have copies of everything from the latest utility bill to my last will and testament all in one very portable and secure place. I can go from sweet dreams in my birthday suit to out in the yard or driving away in less than one minute if I have to; with all my data, some cash and firearms.
there is no link to template?
Thank you for the catch, Joe! We are correcting that now.
You can go here to sign up – the template will come to your email. https://www.theorganicprepper.com/sign-daily-newsletter/
would like the link to the pdf template
thank you
We have updated the article with the link. Thank you for calling it to our attention.
link not showing up
please send to e-mail address
thank you
joe
I am having trouble downloading your binder. It is not user friendly. Is there any other options to download the prepper binder
Hi Brenda – all you need to do is put your email address in this form and the binder template will be emailed to you. Here’s the link: https://www.theorganicprepper.com/sign-daily-newsletter/
I hope that helps.