The place I found this is a blog called Prepared Not Scared. It doesn't look to be very active any longer but if you go there and dig around you will find yummy recipes, cute graphic items like calenders and games and some really great preparedness ideas! Tricia Smith, the woman who writes (wrote?) the blog was the Family Preparedness Coordinator for her Ward in Bountiful, UT at the time I first started my Vital Records Binder. All credit for the ideas, organization, order, thought process... EVERYTHING... is hers. I am just copying what I think is a really great idea and inviting you to follow along as I post how I'm going about accomplishing it.
The plan, as I remember it, is that it should take a year to complete everything in the Binder. And it is a comprehensive set of documentation that, should something terrible ever happen, is a grab and go item to help you restart your life after the disaster.
Your assignment for Week 1 is to gather your materials. You will need a large (3-inch plus thick) 3-ring binder along with full page sheet, business card, and CD protectors (all available at office supply stores) that are punched to fit in the binder. You'll also need to download and print the tabs to divide all the sections of the binder from each other. Once printed, go ahead and slip each tab into a sheet protector and put it in your binder.
Click HERE to view, download and print the tabs. I'm having trouble creating a shareable file for the labels that go on the sides of the tabs but I'll keep working on it and post them as soon as I can. Once they are available, or if you want to create your own, they are just attached with clear packing tape.
When you're done, it should look something like this!
Take a few minutes and thumb through the tabs reading what goes into each one and you'll see just how comprehensive this project is!!
A few people who've seen my beginnings of a binder have complained that it's bulky and heavy and hard to tote around and they can save everything on a flash drive that's easy to just slip into their purse or bug-out bag. If you are comfortable that the days following any kind of major disaster will include readily available electricity, computers, and printing services then that is a good option for you. I'm not so sure my faith in technology is that strong. I think it could take weeks to have those services up and running so I'm choosing to make the binder.
1 comment:
With the variety of calamities that could befall an area, it is best to be prepared on the most basic level. That is the reasoning behind having food for 72 hours ready to grab and go and so should this be too.
Thank you Kathy for sharing your process... I am sure it will be helpful to those of us who have not done similar preparation yet.
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