Organizing Tips
Tips for Autumn 2011:
Hello Everyone,
Autumn arrived gently this year with our Seal Beach, Long Beach and other coastal cities enjoying wonderfully cool mornings and the rest of Orange County also often mild and pleasant.
As the season changes it’s a good marker for taking care of something too many of us like to avoid: preparing for that unexpected emergency. In this case, organizing isn’t just smarter. It can be a life saver -- or at least a sanity saver. Here’s why and how. No matter whether it’s a personal emergency – such as a fire in your home – or a regional one driven by Mother Nature – these organizing tips will work for you.
RECORD KEEPING
Make sure you organize your medical and legal papers – deeds, car registrations, birth and death certificates, transcripts, insurance and other important documents. Make copies of these as necessary as well as of your credit card numbers in case your wallet disappears. Store them in a fireproof location or, even better, put them in a safe deposit box.
Another thought for the well-organized: send these copies to a trusted friend or relative in another part of the country not likely to be affected if a disaster strikes your neighborhood.
Take photos or make a video of your home and its contents. Insurance companies will want this kind of documentation to respond to claims you make. It’s one of the best ways to ensure you are made whole again. Remember, the more personal organizing you have done in advance, the more quickly you will recover.
Store these records with your paper documents.
Share these organizing tips with your neighbors. It’s always a plus when you can work together now to recover and stay together later.
SUPPLIES
Okay, top on the list of supplies for the organized survivor: extras of your important medications. If you have a medicine you absolutely need, you want to make sure you’ll have access to it even if you can’t get to the medicine cabinet.
Talk to your doctor about how to accomplish this. If your insurance company won’t pay for an early prescription, you can try saving a couple of doses each month until you have an extra month’s supply. Don’t forget to rotate your supplies to keep them fresh.
Tell your doctor about your emergency organizing plan and ask him if he has any samples of your medication you can use for your emergency kit.
Now, to be well organized and ready for anything, you need two kinds of emergency kits. One for a quick get-away, sometimes called a “grab-and-go bag,” and a storage locker or garbage can full of supplies for sheltering at home.
The well-organized grab-and-go bag will include: your extra medications and such items as at least one complete change of clothing, extra underwear, extra glasses, shoes, a jacket, flashlight and batteries, sanitary supplies, some non-perishable food items, at least $100 in small bills, and as much water as you can get in there.
Neighbors of mine found out how important this was when their home caught fire. They were evacuated into the night in their pajamas. Because of fumes, the fire department wouldn’t let them back in to get anything.
They had to wait for the Red Cross to bring them clothes and a neighbor to get them a hotel room for the night.
If they’d organized a grab-and-go bag in advance, they could have grabbed it as they were running out the door.
For a longer term emergency, when you won’t be able to shop at the local grocery, the organized will store some non-perishable food – nothing special, tuna, soup, that kind of thing – and lots and lots of water. Personal organizing for a big disaster will also mean you’ve got a radio that will operate on batteries or solar power.
COMMUNICATIONS
Organize a family drill with a variety of escape options. You should all agree on a gathering place outside.
Next, have an out-of-area contact that each of you can call to report where and how you are. You might only be able to get one call out and it’s more likely the long-distance lines will work for a while, so this is one of the best ways to locate each other.
This kind of organizing will give you invaluable peace of mind in any serious emergency.
Those of us who live in Orange County -- all of Southern California -- know we live in Earthquake Country. Organizing of this sort – being prepared for a major regional disaster – will take a great burden off your shoulders. Do this important personal organizing and that worry in the back of your mind will take a serious rest.
I’m so pleased to be able to share these emergency organizing tips with you this month. I’m also looking forward to providing some serious organizing tips for relieving the stress of the holidays. Watch for that column in November.