Personal documents
Prepping in regards to important documents!
There are all kinds of potential disasters that you need to be ready for and many types of prepping. Don't forget about all your important documents!
Types of documents you will need that may be destroyed:
- Birth Certificates
- Drivers Licenses
- Car Registration and Title
- Gun Receipts
- Insurance documents: House, car, life, medical, etc.
- Medical Info: allergies, current medications and dosages, doctors contact info, surgeries, date of birth
- Funeral wishes, organ donation, DNR document, etc
- Credit card numbers, name on card, expiration dates, CCV#, pin numbers and lost card phone numbers.
- Bank account numbers, branch address and phone.
- Complete as possible belongings inventory (with pictures if possible)
- Social Security Cards
- Passports
- Diplomas
- Eyeglass Prescription
- Marriage Certificates, Divorce Papers, Custody Documents
- Mortgage or Real Estate Deeds of Trust
- Current Military or Military Discharge DD 214
- Employment Records
- Resumé
- Contact List (Names, address, emails and phone numbers and any one and every one that you may need.)
- ID kits for all family members.
- Pictures of family members (Pets too!)
- Pets recent prescription and vaccination records
- A list of usernames and passwords for online accounts (Or online password manager)
- Your Will or Living Trust, Powers of Attorney, etc
*PDF files are an online friendly file format. Use this file format for all your scanned documents.
In a case of total destruction of your home, these will be the only copies you have! Keep these up to date.
Make digital scans or info documents of the items you need. You want to keep a copy of these ONLINE! Companies like Google, iCloud, Apple, Skydrive, Carbonite etc have redundant backup systems that will ensure that these will not be lost. Much more so than any private person will have in place.
Store these on an online data server of your choice. Gmail automatically comes with Google Drive as do many other email programs. You can also opt to store documents on your website server if you wish. There are also many other online document storage options out there.
You should also use a thumb drive, USB device or portable hard drive. You want to keep one of these of your documents in your bug out bag. This is a good backup of your documents.