Ep 36: How to Overcome Paper Clutter with an Emergency Binder

Would your family know what to do and have access to the necessary financial and insurance information if something happened to you? Imagine you were in a car accident or caught COVID-19 and ended up in the hospital for a month. Who would take care of your kids? Who would pay the bills? Who would communicate with the insurance companies? And would they know where to get the information they’d need?

If you are unsure of the answers to these questions, you need an Emergency Binder for your household.

With so much uncertainty these days, an Emergency Binder that could help another adult step in and temporarily take over duties of running your home for a short while is a must-have.

But, what does one put in an Emergency Binder? Where do you keep it? How do you keep it safe? And who should you tell about it.

All of these questions are answered and laid out in 8 specific sections of a binder. By the end of the show you will have an amazing blue print laid out and be able to DIY your very own Emergency Binder for your family.

It’s a wonderful way to have peace of mind and know that your family will be okay should you find yourself in an emergency and not able to be there for them physically.

This episode of the Wannabe Minimalist Show will help you discover:

What an Emergency Binder is
Why an Emergency Binder is necessary for families
The 8 specific sections you need to have in your Emergency Binder
How to safeguard your sensitive information
Who to tell about your Emergency Binder

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Feeling overwhelmed by paper clutter and a lack of organization when it comes to important documents in your home? Discover how to overcome your paper clutter with an Emergency Binder and why you must have one in the first place - especially if you …

TRANSCRIPT

You’re listening to the Wannabe Minimalist Show with Deanna Yates Episode number 36. Today’s episode will be part of a series that looks at taming your paper clutter. We’re starting with an Emergency Binder. And if you’re not exactly sure what that is, don’t worry. By the end of this show, I will walk you through what it is, why you need one, and give you a free checklist for setting one up so you can finally start to get the paper in your home under control.

Hey there wannabe minimalist friends! Welcome back to the show. As always, I’m your host Deanna Yates, creator of LittleGreenBow.com and the wannabe minimalist podcast.

In today’s episode we are helping you conquer one of the most common types of clutter - paper clutter!. In fact, this and toys are the two areas you all ask me about all the time. And I feel like I’ve covered toys a bit more recently so it was time to give our piles of paper some love.

Now, this is a big topic and I don’t think I can do it (or you) service by trying to cram it all in one episode so I’ll be doing a series about paper clutter over the next few weeks. This week we are focusing on adulting and will start with an Emergency Binder.

But, before we dive in and chat about getting your papers in order, I want to let you know you can grab the show notes for today’s episode and a free checklist for creating your own Emergency Binder at littlegreenbow.com/36. Once again that’s littlegreenbow.com/36.

You guys! I cannot tell you how many of you tell me about your paper clutter and ask for help getting it under control. And I want to remind you that this is a no-judgement zone and I totally get it.

In fact, can I let you in on a secret…I am a bit of a procrastinator and will put things off to the last minute myself if I am able too. I don’t recommend this, but it’s one of my quirks so I just want to remind you that I am far from perfect. For example, this year I filed our taxes on the very last day - yep…July 15th…yikes.

And while I was at it, I realized that it had been a few years since I had gone through our paper files. I cleaned them out and boy oh boy did it feel amazing to shred and toss all those papers we no longer needed.

But, there was still a nagging feeling that just because I knew where our papers were and had our banking and financial information in my head, I wondered if anyone else could figure it out if they needed too.

So that leads me into the question of why do we need an Emergency Binder?

I mean, we’re in the middle of a global pandemic so I think it’s perfectly reasonable to be having these “what if” ideas right now…and even if it seems morbid or too “dooms day” for you…the fact is that once you become someone’s spouse, partner, or husband, you have someone else to think about and plan for. Add kids to the mix and it’s 9 million times more important.

I’ve been hearing about these stories of kids who have lost both parents to COVID and it just breaks my heart.

However, even without the coronavirus, we really should have our affairs in order as they say, but a rising death toll reported on the news every night really seems to drive this matter home…at least it does for me.

Now, this may make you feel a bit uneasy at the beginning, but I promise that once you have your emergency binder put together, you will feel much more peaceful and dare I say confident.

It’s comforting to know that your spouse, a family member, or close friend could step in to help with your home, children, and money issues if you were incapacitated for any length of time.

Now I know we don’t like to think like this, but what would your family do right now if you were in the hospital for a week, or two, or a month? Would anyone else know what bills you have and how to pay them? How about your insurance information? When you stop to think about it, there are probably tons of things you take care of that they don’t know about and vice versa with your partner.

Are you starting to see why this is so important?

Before I created an Emergency Binder, it would have been tough for my family if I was out of commission for a period of time, but now I like to think things would be a bit easier if it ever came to that.

That leads me to question #2….Exactly what is an Emergency Binder?

The answer is pretty simple and there is no need to over complicate this. An Emergency Binder is simply a book that contains your important documents and information. You organize these items in one book so that in the case of an emergency, another adult could step in and help out your family.

But, I hear some of you saying…isn’t that unsafe and risky to keep all of your important documentation together? Couldn’t someone steal it?

We’ll get to the idea of keeping it in a safe place a bit later, but just know that only a few select people should be told about your Emergency Binder. These are the people you would feel comfortable taking care of your kids in an emergency. ‘Kay?

Now that you understand what an Emergency Binder is and why it’s so important, let’s look at how you can set up your own.

Don’t forget, I have created a free checklist for you and you can download it by going to littlegreenbow.com/36.

There are # sections and I’ll walk you through each one.

Section #1: Quick reference

This is where you put all necessary contact information for the important people to reach.

Now, I understand not all of you will have attorneys, accountants, and personal bankers. I don’t either. If you have those people in your life, put them here. But, for the rest of us, this is where you will put the contact information for:

family doctor and dentist information
school contact information
insurance information (health, life, home, auto)
your bank
employer information
baby sitters or trusted contact information
family allergy information
contact information for the executer of your will

The idea of the quick reference is to make it super simple for someone in a very stressful situation to get the information they need as quickly as possible.

If you have a fire-proof safe or safety deposit box, that information should go here too.

Section #2: Personal information

This is where you put your family’s personal documents. Some will suggest putting in photocopies of the documents and putting the originals in a fire-proof safe or safety deposit box. I will leave it up to you to decide.

At this time, we have our documents in the binder, but are looking into a small fireproof safe. I have found that you can get new copies of your marriage certificate and birth certificates, but there are quite a few hoops to jump through so you’ll have to weigh the risks and decide what works best for you.

But, either way - originals or photocopies, the documents you want to store here are:

Birth certificates
Social security cards
Copies of Driver’s Licenses
Passports
Immunization records
School records
Any professional certificates

Section #3: Financial Information

Moving on to our finances. In this section you will put information about any bank account or financial record you have. You will also want to include instructions for how to access these accounts. This is where people get nervous, but I promise we will address safeguarding your binder.

As for passwords, we use a program called 1Password. This allows us to create crazy strong passwords - think 14 random characters and symbols long - that no human brain would remember. Instead, we have one very long and strong password to the program and it saves these passwords for us.

In our binder, I have this 1 Password written down. The person accessing our stuff will need our computers, phones, or tablet to access the information. It will not be very useful to know our password without one of these things. So, that’s one way we keep our information a bit more secure.

I digress…in this section you will want to include:

account numbers for your bank accounts
credit card information
information your investment accounts
Any savings bonds you have
loan information of any loans you have outstanding
statements showing any loans that have been paid in full - like school loans, car loans, or your mortgage
Contact information for your financial advisor if you have one
Information about disability or social security payments if you collect those
Any bills you pay on a regular basis - things like your mortgage or rent, car payment, insurance payments, credit card bills, phone bills, utilities. I like to keep this list here so things would not fall through the cracks.

See that wasn’t so bad. I know a lot of people get hung up on section 3, but you’re gonna do it and be just fine.

Section #4: Health and Life Insurance Information

This is another biggie that people are not fond of putting together, but it’s not too hard. Just think about what information someone would need if you were in the hospital.

This includes any and all insurance information you have:

medical insurance (you may want to list any HSA bank accounts here too even if it’s doubled up from the financial section)
dental insurance
life insurance - you can put the annual report you receive here and then toss the previous years.
Any booklets you receive about these insurances can be kept in your longer-term paper storage or in the back of the binder if you have an accordion style folder.

Section #5: Home and Auto Information

We’re getting closer to the home stretch (see what I did there). But, honestly, we are done with the two sections that cause the most stress.

This section will be for any and all information relating to where you live and the vehicles you drive. You may end up listing some information twice - like mortgage or rent information, but those things are super important so I’d rather we double it up instead of miss it.

Home and auto information you should include are:

Information for your landlord, where to send the rent, and how much it is
Mortgage information and how to make payments
Utility information
Home purchase agreement, home title, and certificate of survey for the property
Loan payoff if you have paid off your home
Any property assessment and taxable valuation reports
Home insurance information
Auto information including Certificate of Title, Vehicle Registration, and License Plate Renewal Notice for each vehicle
Auto insurance information including the contact information for your agent and how to make any payments

Section #6: Retirement information

This could also be included in the financial information section, but I’ll keep it separate because money going out is already stressful enough and we’re keeping this simple.

This section will include any:

retirement savings
pensions
401Kssocial security information
trusts
And finally, I like to put information about wills here.

Section #7: Business information

This section will not apply to everyone.

If you are a business owner, you will want a final section that addresses your business formation, partner information, and IRS info.

This section should include:

the most recent business filing
most recent signed W-9 form
copy of the business filing through the your state
Your EIN paperwork from the IRS
the contact information for any business partners or investors
Business bank account information
Business accountant and attorney contact information

Section 8: Family Routine and Preferences

My family runs pretty well and I know it would be a comfort to my daughter if some of our routines and traditions continued. Remember, if this book is needed by another adult, your child’s world is turning upside down.

In this section I include:

Our general routine
favorite weekly traditions
favorite meals
simple recipes
2 weekly meal plans

That might be strange, but I am the one who does the grocery shopping and cooking in our home. If my husband had to take over, this would give him a good place to start.

And that wraps up what should be included in your Emergency Binder. The cool by-product of getting this together is that it helps organize your paper files at the same time. These are the most important papers you need and anything else you keep is pretty secondary.

So, I promised you I would get back to security and keeping this information safe.

Without going off into a tangent about how in general the world is not as scary as we are told, you need to think about what you are keeping your binder safe from.

The two big things that come to mind are a fire and a burglary.

The first is not going to steal your identity, but will make it incredibly difficult to replace the information in the binder. My suggestion here is to keep an electric version in your fireproof safe or on a portable drive that you are likely to have with you. You can get thumbnail drives so tiny these days. Password protect it and keep it with you if you are worried about a fire, but don’t want to risk it getting swiped should your purse get stolen.

The second threat you are probably most worried about is a burglary. The good news is this risk can be minimized by disguising your emergency binder as something more ordinary.

For instance, consider keeping it with your cookbooks (or just in the kitchen if you’ve decluttered all your cookbooks like me) and label it Favorite family recipes. Or stash it with your craft supplies and label it as my favorite craft projects. What kind of burglar would be interested in family recipes or craft projects?!?

The ideas is to keep your binder stored with items that burglars are not interested in anyway. That’s why I don’t recommend storing it in the living room by the TV, in your office near your computer or fire-proof safe, or near your jewelry. These are the most common things to be stolen so limit the exposure to your financial and personal information by keeping your binder elsewhere in your home.

The last thing to do is to decide who to tell about your binder. Consider not only who will take over your responsibilities for you, but who lives close-by and can get to your kids quickly. That may mean you need to tell not only your parents or a sibling, but a close friend if you don't live near family.

Whew. That’s a lot of info and it’s not a project you will finish in an hour (unless you're already really organized), but I am 100% confident that this Emergency Binder will bring you and your family peace of mind. Not only now when so many things are uncertain, but for the long-term too.

Now, I want to ask you…what are your thoughts about the emergency binder? Do you have one? Are you going to create one? I’d love to hear all about it.

Hop on over to my Free Wannabe Minimalist group on Facebook and share with me! Introduce yourself and tell us what you think about emergency binders or any other paper clutter questions you have.

The group is completely free and you can find us by searching on Facebook for Wannabe Minimalist or by clicking on the link in the show notes.

Okay, so don’t forget if you would like to get all of the show notes for today’s episode along with the Emergency Binder Checklist you can find it all at little green bow dot com slash 36. Once again get all the show notes and the links for everything we talked about today on my website at littlegreenbow.com/36.

And, before we go, as always, I love hearing from you so if you have any questions about what we talked about today, or any other topics you would like to see addressed please reach out either via email at hello@littlegreenbow.com, or at Facebook.com/littlegreenbow. You can also join my free Wannabe Minimalist group on Facebook where we deep dive into more topics to help you on your journey to minimalism - no matter what that looks like for you and your family.

That just about wraps it up for this episode of the Wannabe Minimalist show.

Thank you so much for joining me to today and if you liked what you heard, it would make my day if you would leave a review on iTunes and while you’re there please take a second to subscribe to be notified of new episodes. This helps others find the show too.

Okay last thing for today, I promise. Be sure to join me next week for another guest episode. This time I will be talking to Jenny Ber-air-a-ton about simplifying your beauty routine with eco-friendly products. She is a stylist who switched her beauty routine around years ago and she has some wonderful tips and strategies that make it super easy for everyone. You won’t want to miss it. See you next week.