important papers

Let’s Get Storm Ready!

Abby H.

As I’m sure of you have seen, Southern California is about to get slammed with the tail end of Hurricane Hillary.

Most of us here in SoCal have never been in this kind of weather storm, so here are a few tips to get your home ready.

For those of us who have been here through wildfires, you may notice that some of these tips are the same, but this time for different reasons. We won’t be worried about ash debris, instead leaves, branches, and maybe items that have not been secured (depending on how high the winds are gusting).

Outside your home:

  1. Secure any loose items. Bikes, scooters, plants, patio furniture, outdoor toys, and play equipment. If it can be put inside the house or garage, great! If not, make sure it’s secured into the ground.
  2. Close your windows and doors. Make sure they can lock. Caulk any gaps. Water stays out!
  3. If you live on the ground floor, sandbags might be needed. Check with your local Public Works department for free sandbags.
  4. Pick up any fallen branches, large rocks, or loose wood- Anything that can be picked up in the gusts of wind and can turn into a projectile.

Inside your home:

  1. Charge everything. Phones, laptops, tablets, portable gaming devices, portable batteries, flashlights, walkie-talkies.  I also have a portable battery that charges via a small solar panel. I am charging that in my front window right now. If power is lost, you can still keep in touch and stay entertained.
  2. If you have tablets and streaming services, download some movies or cartoons to keep the kids entertained and their minds off the storm. I downloaded a bunch of movies and books onto the iPad and tablets last night.
  3. Everyone needs to take a shower or bath. Wash your hair, shave your shaveables. Clean out your tubs afterward and fill the tubs (Or fill some buckets) so you can flush the toilet if there is a disruption in water service.
  4. Speaking of water, everyone in the house needs at least a gallon of water to drink. Fill up pitchers for hand washing and any minor dishwashing and keep them near sinks.
  5. Put some bottles of water inside the freezer. If the power goes out, the frozen water bottles can keep your food cold. also- DO NOT keep opening the fridge and freezer if the power goes out. You are letting the cold air out!

Personal matters:

  1. Make sure you have a week’s worth of meds. We use the daily med boxes (like these). I filled them all last night.
  2. Stock up on any personal care items you may need- especially TP. Body cleaning wipes (don’t flush them). If you are or will be menstruating, make sure you have supplies.
  3. Don’t forget the pets. Make sure you have enough food, water, and treats for them.
  4. Have a plan in case you need to leave your home. Coordinate with someone on higher ground or contact the Red Cross to see where shelters may be located.  This also means you may need to pack an emergency bag to go.  My post about wildfire bug-out bags can be found here. Most of the info is transferable.
  5. Snacks- check your cupboards to ensure that you have ready-to-serve snacks that your family will eat. We took a quick trip to Dollar Tree yesterday. Each kid got $20 to spend on storm snacks.
  6. Fill up your gas tank. Each car/vehicle. If there is an extended amount of time without power, the gas stations will be closed.
  7. Check your car’s windshield wiper blades and replace them if needed.
  8. Check the tires and inflate them as needed.

We are spending our morning getting ready for back to school. I’ve been doing these prep activities when the kids are occupied, so they don’t get the feeling something is off. They know a storm is coming, but beyond that, they are excited for the rain.

Family Binder: Important Info at Your Fingertips

Abby H.

The other day I was talking to a friend about how we store all of our information now that my computer is on the fritz/being repaired.

I mean, Most people have everything stored on their computer or on the cloud/external drive, which is great, but if your computer goes out… Are you really going to access everything via your smartphone? That was my plan originally, but after like.. oh, say 8 hours of that, I posted on Facebook, asking my friends if anyone had a spare computer or laptop I could borrow. Because don’t you know it, the computer died… 2 days before school started. When I was taking an ONLINE CLASS!!

My friends Michael and Amanda are generously loaning me their laptop, and it’s much easier to do homework and write.

IMG_3895So, how to store all the important stuff… I’m bringing back The Family Binder. It’s a 3 inch binder, with section dividers, heavy weight page protectors, and plastic folders. We’ve has one for a long time, and as we moved more to paperless bills, it got used a lot less, and became a good way of storing a copy of our monthly budget, important papers, passwords (so many passwords, you guys!).

As you can see I’ve decorated the front of the binder with photos, the Brandon Bird SVU Valentine’s Day card Mr. Husband got for me years back, sonograms of the kiddos. You can make it as plain or fancy as you’d like.

IMG_3901I use some of the pages from the household notebook section of Organized Home.  I love the holiday printables from Organized Home the best. I’ve been using them since 2010, and they really help us stay on budget and keep track of all of the shenanigans that the holidays bring!

Additionally, I have extra sections for vacation planning, important papers (marriage license, vaccination records, copies of prescriptions/ list of all of our medications, birth certificates, kids social security cards, insurance id cards/policy information, and a copy of the deed to our home), and vehicle maintenance. IMG_3896I have a folder tucked in the front pocket of the binder for the big kids educational/medical stuff like his most recent IEP, Regional Center correspondence, and copies of his medical diagnostic paperwork.

I know a lot of you are reading this thinking that most of this information can be accessed online or via your smartphone, but think about when you will most likely need to access this binder… In an emergency. Not the time you want to drain the battery on your phone trying to figure out what your homeowners insurance policy number is, or your insurance agents phone number.  I also keep notebook paper in the back, in case of an emergency. If nothing else, it’ll keep the kids entertained!

If you want to make your own Family Binder, you can put as much work into it as you’d like. I made ours while I was pregnant and nesting with the big kid. So I went to town with with laminating sheets, scrapbooking stickers, decals, paper, and all kinds of doo-dads. I even made a family binder for my Sister-in-Law and her husband when they got married.  Just make sure that you store extra empty page protectors in the back- you never know when you’ll need to add more information!

I keep ours in a safe, easily accessible location, in case we need to leave the house. Living in San Diego County, it will most likely be a wild fire that causes us to leave home. We live too far inland and up high enough where rising flood/excessive rain water won’t touch us.

Talk back: If you have a family binder, I’d love for you to share photos in the comments or post pics on Instagram and tag me: @hewesfamilyfun  using #familybinder.

 

Prepare for Wild Fires & Natural Disasters: What to Pack in Your Bug Out Bag

Abby H.

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As most of you are aware, there are a few current wild fires going on in Southern California. And that means that some of our friends, family, and neighbors are having to evacuate their homes.

During times like this is hard to distill your entire life into whatever you can load into your vehicle or carry on your back.  I lived through the 2003 and the 2007 wild fires in San Diego. In 2003, we had no power for 3 days, but we didn’t have to evacuate. We had everything packed up and ready to go just in case, as the fire was just up over the hill.

At that time, we received a lot of great advice in regards to what we should be taking with us. That includes:

1.Meds for everyone- If you have a chronic health condition, pack your meds into your purse/bag FIRST (but make sure they are easily accessible). If you have meds that need to be kept cold, have blue ice packs stashed in your freezer.  Having a good First Aid kit you can grab is important too. We have this one at our house- It’s been very helpful.

2. The next few items can be kept all together in a box some place safe. If not originals, then copies of each.

  • Health Insurance Cards for everyone in the house (this includes pets).
  • Car insurance ID cards, Registration for all cars (especially if you have to leave one or more behind).
  • Information on your homeowners/condo unit owners/renters insurance. If you don’t have a copy of the policy, have your agent/Insurance carrier email you a copy and print it out. Write down and take contact information for your land lord or mortgage company (including your loan number).
  • Birth certificates, Marriage licenses, Passports (We keep all of our important papers in a family binder, along with copies of one of each of our bills, so I can have account numbers and contact numbers for each utility/creditor).
  • Food for pets, any special snacks or food that everyone in your home needs in case of dietary concerns.

3. If you are in a hurry, instead of trying to pack bags of clothes, grab your laundry hamper. Sure the clothes are dirty, but more than likely, everything you need for a few days will be in there.

4. Family heirlooms: Wrap paintings/art in blankets and layer them flat in a vehicle. Most people keep their photos on a terabyte drive or the cloud instead of family photo albums these days. Grab your albums and/or your external hard drives.

5. A Dop Kit/Toiletry Kit, diapers and wipes if you’ve got kiddos.

That’s pretty much the important stuff. Other stuff if you have time…

  • Blankets/sleeping bags
  • Something to keep your hands/mind busy (books, magazines, knitting, small crafts, coloring
  • Extra chargers/cables for any and all devices you are taking with you. Portable emergency charger (like this one).

Most local fire agencies have a twitter feed you can follow too to keep up to date.

 

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