Emergency Preparedness: Organizing Your Important Documents

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emergency preparedness organizing your important documents

 

For the past few weeks, our news has been filled with weather related emergencies, family’s homes being devastated, and natural disasters.  On any given day, we could be faced with the unexpected in a significant way.  In case of emergency, we want to have access to the very important papers we need to assist those we love. To be prepared, here is a list of documents and storage options for security and access.

Personal records such as birth certificates, adoption papers, citizenship records, marriage certificates, divorce documents, military service records, passports and social security cards should be stored in a safe or safe deposit box. If you will need to refer to these items, make a copy and store them in your filing cabinet, listing the specific name of the item on a file folder in your “Personal” file drawer.

Tax returns are required by law to be retained permanently. The supporting tax information must be retained for 7 years. (Although the IRS can only audit returns for the previous three years, many exceptions can extend the deadline.) Keep tax returns separately from your supporting documents.  These can be kept in an attic or the bottom drawer of your file cabinet.

For life insurance policies, you must retain the initial policy as well as any addendums. Keep these originals together, each in a file labeled with the name of the insurance company on the file folder, in a safe in your home. Keep a list of the policy numbers and insurance companies in a file in your “Financial” file drawer, labeling the file “Insurance – Life”.  Any payments for these policies can also be kept in the “Financial” drawer.

Legal documents, such as power of attorney and wills, should be kept in a safe in your home and at your attorneys. Give a copy of the document to the executor and family members. Do not keep these in a safe deposit box, as this may be sealed when the box owner dies.

Property information for your home and auto, such as the deed to your home, mortgage, or car title, should be kept in a safe or safe deposit box. For home repair and maintenance bills, keep these in a filing cabinet labeled “Home Repair” in the “Home/Auto” file drawer. For auto repair and maintenance, label these “Auto-(name of car)”, and also keep these in the “Home/Auto” file drawer.

A household inventory is important in the event of a home catastrophe. Your insurance provider will need proof of loss in the event of a fire, flood, or robbery. Videotape or photograph your possessions. Place the photos in a notebook with receipts and appraisals for expensive items. In the video or notebook, categorize the items in your home by room. Keep the video or notebook in a safe or safe deposit box.

If your wallet is lost or stolen, it is important to keep a copy of the contents. Using a copy machine, photocopy the front and back of your credit cards, driver’s license, insurance cards and all else in your wallet. Store the copies in a file folder labeled “Wallet- (your name)” in your “Personal” file drawer.

September is National Preparedness Month.  By organizing your documents in case of a family emergency, you will feel peace of mind and security. Your family will appreciate your efforts on their behalf!

TEAMwork for your Family

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family teamwork

 

The start of a new school year means everyone working together for their best year yet!  Each family member helping makes all the difference. Remember, Together We Achieve More!  Family teamwork brings everyone together, helping and sharing responsibilities.

  • Start homework time at the same time for all your kids.  This way all the distractions of television, texting and more are all stopped simultaneously.
  • Host your family meeting and create a community chart for your family.  Across the top are the days of the week, down the side are the family member’s names.  In the grid are the daily responsibilities of each person.  Post the chart in the kitchen where everyone can see it.
  • Create partnerships to complete family responsibilities. Partner with unusual pairs, such as dad/daughter, mom/son and mix it up! That way everyone shares the job and the joy of kitchen cleaning, toilets and laundry.
  • Have a “Power Hour” once a week for cleaning the whole house. Discuss what needs to be cleaned and what the finished job looks like. Then set the timer and go!
  • Develop your core in your family team. Set aside times for family members to have one on one times for fun, such as date night for mom and dad or a special trip for a parent and child to share.
  • Post a list of family fun for everyone including movies to rent, places to go eat, or family activities. These incentives help everyone do their best on their responsibilities.

What team activities work at your home?

Cell Phones for Soldiers Drive during June and July 2011

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Cell Phones for Soldiers Drive Hosted by PostNet Kingwood and Professional-Organizer.com

Your old cell phone can help a soldier stay in touch with family. Cell Phones for Soldiers wants to turn your old cell phones into more than 12 million minutes of prepaid calling cards for U.S. troops stationed overseas. To do so, Cell Phones for Soldiers wants to collect 50,000 cell phones each month through a network of more than 3,000 collection sites across the country.  PostNet Kingwood and Professional-Organizer.com are partnering to host a drop off site in Kingwood from June 1 – July 31.  PostNet Kingwood is located at 4321 Kingwood Drive in the HEB Shopping Center in Kingwood.  Drop off your used cell phones and make a difference!

 To learn more about Cell Phones for Soldiers visit

www.cellphonesforsoldiers.com

To learn more about PostNet Kingwood, including store hours, visit

http://www.postnet.com/kingwood-tx194/  or call (713) 589-2151

Sync or Swim: 201 Organizing Tips You Need to Survive the Currents of Change

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Sync or Swim: 201 Organizing Tips You Need to Survive the Currents of Change are the next-generation organizing tips for getting things done and controlling clutter without falling into a sea of complexity. Seventy organizing and productivity specialists share 201 of their best tips and 100 most valuable resources in home management, information organization, and organizing every basic area of life. It is a 93-page ebook written by award-winning professional organizer, Judith Kolberg, and certified professional organizer, Allison Carter.  I am one of the contributors!

Featuring:

“New Organizing Tasks”: 20 years ago we didn’t have to deal with syncing calendars, avoiding spam, scanning, defragging, or managing the overload of information that comes our way every day. Our tips help you to survive the day to day chores of this generation.

“Tech Lite” Resources: This ebook contains 140 unique resources for syncing, reminding, tracking, reducing, organizing, scheduling, balancing, and so much more! But it’s not scary high tech. It’s easy to access organizingtools you can use today.

“New School” Tips: New ways to do old tasks: Filing, cleaning up, setting reminders, viewing photos, even changing the oil.

Purchase your copy at

http://www.squallpress.net/index.php?target=banners&bid=70&sl=EN&aff_id=78

Effective, Efficient, Productive Home Office

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Organizing your home office, whether it is for personal or business reasons, makes all the difference!  Getting down to business at your desk is a chore if it is piled with papers! Establishing a comfortable area for paper work and other office activities is important for productivity. Use these tips to create a space dedicated to effectiveness, efficiency and organization.

Create a Work Zone
As you begin, determine what tasks you are doing in your office and the tools needed for these tasks. By making these decisions at the outset, you are preparing your space for accomplishment. Create areas specifically designated for most frequent activities. As for room arrangement, place your desk in a position that allows maximum use of natural light. Position the desk in a direction that allows for direct viewing of all who enter without you having to turn.  Add an L shape or credenza behind for easy access storage for your command center or project files. 

Desk drawers should have only what you use at the desk in them. Store your additional office supplies in another area. Keep specific categories of items individually stored in different drawers. One drawer should contain checks and bill paying items, one drawer stationary and note pads, one drawer with a pencil tray holding pencils, pens, tape, stapler and scissors. Again, keep just enough to use and not over stuff the drawers. Place books on book shelves, magazines or reading material in a basket to grab and go. Be sure that your telephone, computer and other essentials are placed easily in reach.

A Personalized Paper Plan
A “paper plan” is most important in this work zone. Create an area for “Action” files. This is a temporary home where papers live until either filed away or thrown away. Papers used frequently or that are a “hot topic” need a basket, vertical file, or other space on your desk. Label them according to what actions or terms fit best with your needs. These files can be call, file, mail, or pay. Or these can be named by client name, project name, or other key word that comes to mind quickly. Clearly label your files so you will always know what is in them, and just as importantly, the labels will remind you what not to put in them.

Arrange for the placement of frequently used files to be placed in the desk’s file drawer. Less frequently accessed files can be placed in a separate filing cabinet. As for filing cabinets, use a low-lying, two-drawer cabinet that can be placed next to or near your desk for the added use of its top for other items that you often need. Filing system should be simple easy and manageable. Create categories in your files for the different major work/home areas. For work it may be clients, administrative, financial. For home it may be home/auto, personal, and financial. Use general key words that come to mind quickly, and sub categorize as needed. An example would be Car – insurance, Car – maintenance, or Insurance – Car, Insurance – Home. Think about how YOU think about the paper to find it. Color-coding your files makes it faster to find information. Use one color hanging file to easily slip information into a file. Label the file with a tab using a label maker!

Oversizing and Rightsizing

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In a world where we are always “super sizing” our life,  I like to reflect about our stuff.  What is “enough”  in our world of consumption, media saturation, and bigger is better.  Here is a story to add awareness about upsizing and over buying.

A friend recently renovated her kitchen. She moved the old (meaning 4 years old) refrigerator to her office, which is a renovated 1950’s bungalow.  Once at the location, the refrigerator would not fit through the door!  In order to take it in, the doors were removed.  The refrigerator is very out of proportion with the rest of the kitchen.  What does this say about our homes now and then?

My friend said,  “The very moment they were taking off the hinges to the refrigerator door, I thought this is bigger than what the family used here 50 years ago and now I have two refrigerators at my house and a freezer. What’s wrong with this picture?”

 As we think through our choices in homes and lifestyle, are we aware that we have added “more” to everything in our lives? This not only includes appliances! Homes on the average are double the size now as in the 1950’s.  During the last 30 years, the self-storage industry has been the fastest growing sector of the U.S. commercial real estate industry, based upon the number of new companies, new facilities and amount of total square footage added.  Our stuff is outgrowing our oversized homes too.

This year I have chosen to purchase only items when needed, not when wanted.  It is really not hard, but I must be mindful of the choice.  I avoid places that make for easy over consumption or items that are not necessities.  I can already see the difference in my budget. 

So with this cautionary tale, start an awareness of less is more.  Begin your uncluttered journey in saying no to more stuff.   A client recently told me, “I used to think that having more stuff made me a better person.”  Your stuff is not who you are, it really is just stuff.   How will you know when is “enough” for you?

Want more information about our oversized homes?   Read The Ever Expanding Dream House    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5525283

5 Organizing Projects You Can Complete in 5 Minutes

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Don’t have hours to get organized? Here are 5 things you can do for 5 minutes to get your home in order.


1.  Recycle junk mail.  Stand over your recycle bin or a paper sack and toss old newspapers, extra catalogs or clippings you no longer need.

2.  Sort through a kitchen drawer. Set a timer for 5 minutes, grab a shopping bag, open the drawer, pick through anything no longer needed and donate it. 

3. Make a clothing donation bag. Go through your clothes closet and choose 5 articles of clothing you never wear. Put them in a donation bag to be given to your favorite charity.  Stop at Goodwill on the way to get these out the door. 

4. Five minute toy pick up.  Enlist your kids to help.  Put on energizing music and have a pick up party.

5. Delete email.  Take 5 minutes to delete email from your sent box, especially if it is older than a month.

Feel accomplished?  Organizing is not about finding the perfect time or creating the perfect system.  It is about the baby steps to create a level of order in your world that works!  Share with me your 5 minute organizing project!

Clutter Support Groups Fall 2010

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This fall I am excited to host 2 clutter support groups to help people define, establish and maintain an uncluttered life

 The Clutter Support Group supports members in

  • Clarifying their organizing and lifestyle goals
  • Transition their space and paper from disorganized to more organized
  • Discussing systems that will facilitate organization for them
  • Discussing routines that will facilitate organization for them

 Strategy

  • Group setting facilitated by certified professional organizer
  • Set your organizing goals and learn your organizing strengths
  • Put your strengths into practice by working on one space in your home during the 6 week time frame
  • Read along with Peter Walsh’s book Its All Too Much and discuss organizing challenges you face. 

Meeting structure

  • Beginning Tuesday evening September 21 or Wednesday morning September 22
  • Six weeks, Sessions of 1 ½ hours, at Kingwood Pine Hospital private room
  • Fee based membership of $120 for all sessions.  Pre-registration required.
  • Limited enrollment

Garage Organizing

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garage organizing

 

In Houston, we are notorious for keeping our cars in the driveway and lawn equipment, unopened boxes and more in our garage! October is a great month to organize your a garage and even have a garage sale too!  It is a big project to tackle so be sure to include your family team in the process.

Plan Your Work
With all organizing projects, we need a plan for organizing success! Begin by setting aside 2 consecutive days for organizing your garage. You will need to take everything out of the area, boxes, bikes, recreational equipment or whatever! Enlist your family to assist with this endeavor for them to have ownership of the project and help in the decision making! If a clean space and a way to find toys is not reward enough, remember to find an incentive for your children in this family project.  Plan for the biggest parts of what is to be removed from the garage.  When is the heavy trash day? You can put items at the curb and have someone else taken them away.  Contact Salvation Army to pick up from your home the day after organizing so you won’t have to bring the donations to them.   What other large items will be sold and can be listed on www.craigslist.com?  Get your plan in action with the big stuff first.

Toss and Categorize
Keep in mind when you might use items again! “Just in case” is not a sufficient reason to keep all the items in your garage. Be decisive about how frequently you will use belongings and whether to keep them. Decluttering is just as important in this space as any other in your home. Once you have made decisions about what you are keeping, it is time to define categories for storage. Categories for your garage might be recreation, hardware, tools, gardening, and seasonal. If you have wood scraps, be sure to store these together but don’t keep every scrap. Also, take this opportunity to clean your garage, sweeping out bugs, dirt and more!

“Finding a Home”
Once you have created your categories, remember to locate what you use most in the areas of best access. Whatever you use most should be located closest to the door to the house. Items that are used the least can be stored behind or beneath other belongings. Use wall and ceiling space to maximize your area. However, keep as much as you can off the floor.

Organizing Products
When purchasing organizing products for your garage, retail and wholesale superstores have wonderful and inexpensive products. Garage items can be very heavy and need extra support. Four tier metal shelving units are most popular. Sturdy plastic containers with lids that seal are an excellent way to keep bugs and dirt away. Rubbermaid has products designed specifically for garages with slots for specific tools.  Called “Fast Track” it is an easy way to use vertical space where you have lots of it!.   As always, be sure to label everywhere including bins and shelving.   Monkeys Bars also has outstanding products to organize visually with hooks, shelves and more.  If you can see it you know you own it.

Is garage organizing a priority for you? Email me what you have accomplished to park your car in there!

Come see me at The Woodlands Home Show

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5 Steps to Simplify and Organize Your Home

Downsizing? Right sizing? Empty Nester? Transition with a new baby? Learn the simple ways to make a difference for your home and create peace of mind for you and your family!

www.woodlandsshows.com

SATURDAY & SUNDAY,
August 29 & 30, 2009

SHOW HOURS
Saturday from 9am – 7pm
Sunday from 10am – 6pm

Presentation on Saturday at 1pm and Sunday at 2:30 pm

Happy Organizing and see you there!