How Prepared Are You?

My whole theme this year is organization. Decluttering, throwing things out that aren't necessary, organizing and just making sure everything has it's own place...and of course, looks pretty too. We started with our most cluttered room which was the dining room. It was seldom used and easily became the room we put things in that didn't have a place. I hated it. It drove me nuts to look at it. Now, it's pretty much an empty room with toys everywhere...and it still drives me nuts. We're getting there though. It's much better than it was and I actually feel a little lighter because of it.

I've been researching 'organization' for a few weeks now and probably one of the most important finds I've come across is the 'household binder.' What is it, you ask? Well, it's basically a binder with everything that is important to you, nestled into one complete binder, centrally located where everyone can access it. Everyone's is different and you can personalize it to what works best for your family. Some of the tabs that will be going into ours are: emergency information, calendars (school, birthday, and the main calendar to work off of), individual information (including medical), menu planning (grocery lists and dinners) and financial information. It will be kept in our kitchen so that we can access it when needed.

In the process of all of this, I've made two separate binders; one with Connor and Andrew's medical information and one that will go in our fire safe with all of our sensitive information...things like log ins and passwords and account numbers. I've been working on this one for a few weeks now and I must say, I am very overwhelmed. You don't realize how many account numbers and passwords and log ins you have until you try to write them all down!

I think what keeps me going with all of this is knowing that should anything happen to myself or Keith, there will be one central place with all of our information. We never know what tomorrow brings but we can always make it easier on our loved ones should something unexpected happen.

I mean, it IS pretty important for Keith to know that I have an account with Macy's...

Oops...! Sorry honey!

So hopefully I've jogged a few "Mmmm, I need to do that's" with this post. As usual, I've gone to the extreme with word documents, binders, three hole punches and pretty paper, but you really just need to jot down your financial information and throw it in a fire safe. Just in case...