42 Important Papers in Your Home was meant to piggy-back the lists of 42 starting with 42 Things in Your Home Office and Library. While working on that post, I decided there were too many things in a home office or library and rather than generalize them and lump them together, I spread them out to include more specific lists and 42 Important Papers in Your Home was to be the last part of that series of lists. So, I’m rambling, but let me make this clearer by listing the earlier posts here:
- 42 Things in Your Home Office and Library
- 42 Basic Office Supplies in Your Drawers and Cabinets
- 42 Paper Supplies in Your Home Office
- 42 Binders, Supplies and Accessories in Your Home Office
- 42 Important Papers in Your Home
Now do you see the pattern?
But, life intervened and San Diego County had 14 fires over a ten-day period and now, to me anyway, 42 Important Papers in Your Home is more a list to use for emergency planning and preparedness than a list for household inventory.
If you are a new reader to my blog, I’ve been creating lists of 42 for household inventory purposes for the last 11 months. I do this because we lost our home in the 2007 Southern California wildfire known as the Witch Fire or the Witch Creek Fire. It took me 9 months working nights and weekends to create my list of household inventory items for our insurance claim because I wasn’t proactive prior to the fire and we didn’t even have photos or a video of the contents of our house!
We have lived in our new home for 5 years now and you would think that I had learned my lesson and made a household inventory already. I’ve made half-hearted stops and starts over the years, but never got all the way through it. I thought by sharing it on my blog, it would keep me motivated and focused to finish this project!
In any case, while my lists of 42 were meant as a whole house inventory, they go hand-in-hand with emergency planning and preparedness because they provide me and readers a “starting point” should we need to recreate such an extensive list in the event of a catastrophic loss.
By the way, more than 50 homes were lost in this latest fire. If you know of someone who knows someone who lost their home, whether in this recent firestorm or something else in some other part of our country, forward them a link to this post. Because while I’m not nearly done with my lists of 42, out of the total 44 lists of 42 posts I have done on this blog, I do have 33 household inventory lists. And, that’s a start.
The easiest way to locate all 33 is to check out “Archives – By Category” under the “New? Start Here!” tab on the menu bar (or these two links).
As always, at the end of this post I provide a FREE printable version of this list to add to your household inventory binder.
Back to 42 Important Papers in Your Home…
You can use this list in several ways:
- if you’ve had a loss, this list will jog your memory in case you were not able to take these papers with you during evacuation; then you can start trying to get copies from different government agencies, financial institutions, etc.
- if you’ve not had a loss, you can use this list to find these papers and organize them in your home
- once you’ve located all these important papers, use this list as a checklist as you make copies for multiple locations, such as a “Fly-Away Kit” (my father’s term for his briefcase-type bag of important papers that he kept ready in the hall closet next to his front door) or in a safety deposit box in your local bank.
- also, if you don’t have some of these important papers (such as a will and trust), this list might get you thinking about it!
Here’s the list of 42 Important Papers in Your Home:
- Birth Certificate & Adoption records
- Marriage Certificate & Dissolution
- Passport, Visas
- Immigration documents, Green Card
- Citizenship & Naturalization papers
- Death Certificate, Funeral Plan documents
- Military ID, Records & Benefits info
- Pre-nuptial Agreement
- Child Support Payment Order
- Alimony & Child Support Payments
- Driver’s License
- Vehicle Registration, License, Title
- Social Security Card
- Disabilities documentation
- Will & Trust documents
- Living Will & Power of Attorney
- Health Care Records & Prescriptions
- Advance Care Directive
- Dental Records, DNA swabs
- Child Identity Cards
- Letter of Last Instructions
- Tax Returns & Tax info
- Mortgage Papers
- Property Deeds, Easements
- Lease/Rental Agreements
- Savings Bonds and Notes
- Stocks, Bonds, Mutual Funds, CDs
- Retirement info: 401k, Pensions, IRAs
- Partnership or Corporations documents
- Copyrights and Patents
- Business Licenses
- Insurance Policies
- Bank Account info
- Credit Card info
- Contracts, Notes, Debts, Liens info
- Pet Health & License records
- Education records & Diplomas
- Employment records & pay stubs
- Organizational Membership records
- Utility bills
- Household Inventory
- Keys, Address Books, Passwords
And, here’s your FREE printable checklist: TS4T Checklist – 42 Important Papers in Your Home.
Print it and add it to your household inventory binder and start chipping away at this project. That’s what I’m doing! You’ll be glad you did!
Tootles,
Related Posts:
(other lists of 42 household inventory)
- 42 Kitchen Basics for Your New Home
- 42 Things for Your Pets
- 42 Things in Your Living Room, Family Room and/or Great Room
- 42 Things in Your Laundry Room
- 42 Cooking Essentials for a Well-stocked Kitchen
- 42 Baking Essentials
- 42 Must-Have Kitchen Utensils
(other posts about emergency planning and preparedness)
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