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Thursday, October 13, 2011

The Survival Binder

Original Article

Back up personal files

“What is a Survival Binder?” you may ask.  The answer to that is quite simple, a survival binder is all the pieces of paper that make up your life and the lives of your family, along with other information that may prove useful in an emergency, together in an easily accessible place .
By Josh (The Survival Kid), a contributing author of SurvivalCache.com

Why?

You may not have much warning if you ever need to bug-out, and when moments count you don’t want to be caught rummaging through a filing cabinet for those documents that you think you might need.  A Survival Binder is just as important as your Bug-Out-Bag is to your survival post-TEOTWAWKI.

Getting Started

Some things you will need to make your binder:

A 2″ 3-ring binder


Plastic page sleeves

Subject dividers

Waterproof flash drive memory stick

2 Loksak element proof bag (1 for originals and 1 for back up)

3 Hole Paper Puncher
After you have gathered the above materials your first task is to gather together all those things that hold critical information and Flash drive of your personal filesmake copies of them (physical and digital).  After you make your physical copies, return the originals to a water/fireproof safe or safety deposit box for safe keeping.  Store the originals/copies inside a loksak bag for safe keeping in case you have to transport your binder outside of your lock box or safe (never store the originals and copies together).  Copy the digital images of your records over to a water proof flash drive and store in a 3rd separate location.  Now you have a back up to the back up (Two is One and One is None – Three is even better).

Some things you may want to include are:

birth certificates

marriage certificate

stock certificates

diplomas

wills

life insurance policies

deeds

personal contacts (name, phone, address, email address)


loan documents

articles of incorporation and other business documents

savings bonds

business contracts

bank records

credit card info

tax records

utilities info

power of attorney


appraisals of precious goods or antiques

immunization records

passports

warranties

school transcripts

veterinary records

medical records

blood types

prescriptions


family pictures
Now that you have your info together insert your subject dividers into the binder. Here are some ideas for your categories:
Back Up Files

Animals: (This is the section to keep important info about your pets, farm animals and veterinary records.)

Contacts: (Keep up to date contact info for your emergency contacts here.)

Finances: (Self explanatory)

Firearms: Maintenance, Reloading and Repair


Food: Storage, Preservation and Cooking (see LDS Preparedness Manual – it is free)

Medical:  Basic first aid, dentistry, emergency medicine, naturopathic

Misc. Skills & Knowledge:


Records:

Sanitation:

Shelter:
If you have more ideas please share them below.



Photos by:

Takashi


Rah Rah





1 comment:

  1. This is a great post. I've been in the process of assembling my "Survival Binder" and it had a good many of the items on your list, however I really appreciate the additions!

    ReplyDelete