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Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Storing Personal Documents

A big part of emergency preparedness is preserving important personal documents in case of an emergency.

It's crucial to have documents stored in a safe and accessible place.  We even recommend keeping copies of some important documents in your 72-hour kits.  These documents include: insurance information (phone numbers, policy numbers, etc), copies of birth certificates and ss cards, mortgage information, bank information, etc.

For the documents not in your 72-hour kits, it is ideal to have a fireproof, waterproof safe to keep these in.  However, those can be pretty pricey.  Several months ago, we received a great tip from Scott, a fire prevention officer and Emergency Response Coordinator in his District in Canada.  Scott says,

A suggestion to protect your personal documents:  Seal the documents in two zip lock bags and store in the bottom of your freezer. Unless it's a major catastrophic fire they should survive the fire. You can also put a desiccant pouch (moisture absorber) in with them to help keep them dry.

Great idea, thanks Scott!

What emergency preparedness tips do you have??  Please share!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you! That is a great idea!!

Mary said...

Amen to that! We have been trying to come up with the money for a fire proof/water proof safe for year. With four kids it just never seems to happen. Thanks for the affordable idea! I love your blog!