Hey y'all...I'm back with another Works for Me Wednesday post today. It's all about storing the important documents for your family.
For many years, we have used a fireproof box to store our important documents. We had a real wake-up call about how important it is to have everything in one protected place when we evacuated during Hurricane Harvey. I'll never forget Michael packing our firebox in a big duffle bag to carry out with us through the water. Did we need all those papers? Not really. But we didn't want to leave these documents or any other valuables in the house. We recently updated our important papers box, and today's post is about this purchase, as well as what to keep in your box.
This was our original box. It is very sturdy, as well as fireproof and waterproof. With it being so sturdy, it is also bulky and heavy. It is a good product with over 7000 near 5-star ratings.
Here is a list of items we have in our important documents bag:
- Passports
- Old passports
- Old driver's licenses
- Social security cards
- Birth certificates
- Marriage certificate
- Wills
- Savings bonds
- Car titles
- Cash
- Account numbers/recent statement for:
- Auto insurance
- Home insurance
- Flood insurance
- Life insurance
- Banks
- Investments
- Retirement accounts
- Utilities
Do you have a firebox or other place you keep these important things? Are there any important documents I have forgotten about? Let me know in the comments and have a wonderful Wednesday!
It's good to think about this kind of thing. We have a giant file cabinet that we keep our important papers in, but it's organized in folders. It would be easy to grab the folders, if we ever had to leave in a hurry. We keep all of those things in there, as well as their shot records.
ReplyDeleteThat's probably a good idea! Ours are just in a file cabinet!
ReplyDeleteI really like the look of the bag but the link takes me to the same item as the box you have pictured first. Would you please update the link?
ReplyDeleteI think it is correct now - sorry about that!
DeleteThanks for this! I know where our important items are, but they are divided between a small floor safe, file cabinet and my desk. While we live in an area that doesn’t see hurricanes, floods, etc, we are in our 70’s and it would be better to have everything together like this for any life event that comes along.
ReplyDeleteWe really need to invest in one of these! Our important papers are just in a normal file cabinet. Not the smartest on our part!
ReplyDeleteI have my father’s DD214 in my fireproof box even though he has died. I have my university diploma in my fireproof box since I have needed to show that for previous jobs. I have my hard drives with family photos in a backpack near the fireproof box so they are easy to grab together when evacuating.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great idea to have the family photos ready to go too!
DeleteOh wow, I've never seen a box like this, but it's so smart! We have all of our important papers in a big binder and we keep the binder in a fireproof safe, but we'll definitely not be able to bring the whole safe with us if we have an emergency because it's heavy! We'll just have to grab the binder from inside!
ReplyDeleteThis is really smart! I need to add this project to my winter to do list. It would take me a minute to gather all the important things in the different locations they're currently in at my house.
ReplyDeleteOur box/container isn't fireproof at this stage of life (still consolidating so much of it after many moves) but I always have a "go box". It came in handy in Colorado during fire evacuations.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea Tanya for important documents. Thanks for sharing this.
ReplyDeleteWe have a fireproof/waterproof box like your first one and you just gave me a good idea of a few more things to add to it!
ReplyDelete