In Case of Emergency

It’s happened before and every time we promise to be more prepared next time.

I moved to Colorado Springs from a place where wild fires threatened our city at least once a year. We frequently asked ourselves: Will we be evacuated? Should we start packing things? What should we do? 

One day at two o’clock in the morning, we woke from a dead sleep by loud knocking on our door. Not a friendly knock, a knock that you immediately know in your gut something is wrong, very, very wrong.  

We evacuated our home in 10 minutes.

We knew there was a fire nearby but thought it was contained. Unfortunately the winds picked up overnight – the fire changed direction and intensified. I will never forget that feeling of running around the house looking for things we needed to grab and having no idea where to even start. In the middle of a crisis, your brain is processing what is happening while trying to make life changing decisions about what you’re going to keep and what you could possibly lose forever. 

We were unprepared and undecisive in a moment of crisis.

I am horrible at making decisions and it runs in the family. We take FOREVER to decide what to cook for dinner or what to wear that day… let alone quickly deciding the most important items we needed to save in our home.

Thankfully, the firefighters saved our home and we returned safely! Unpacking the car, we found some of the most random items thrown in out of panic.

My mom packed my sister’s report cards (not our birth certificates). To this day, I still give my mom a hard time about why she packed hers and not mine. Other “important” items we packed:

• A box set aside for Goodwill
• The TV remote (but not the TV)
• Decorative pillows
• A softball trophy from 1995

And yes, we packed essential items like toothbrushes, pajamas, clothes, medications. However, none of the important documents filed away in different spots made it out of those “safe” places into the car. 

We only grabbed items that were in eyesight.

If we had lost our home, we would have lost photo albums, birth certificates, passports, the house deed, insurance information, etc.

It is vital to have important documents organized, gathered in one place. 

While many of these are replaceable, the last thing you want to be doing after losing your home is scrambling to replace documents. This can be a folder with copies of documents or a portable file box with everything neatly organized. We also recommend you make a list of other valuable items to grab in an emergency like photo albums, computers, medications, a box of valuables. You want to make the process of collecting things in an emergency as simple as possible. It might feel silly to make a checklist of important items, but having a clear plan to follow will really help you out in a crisis.

Organized documents saves you months of headache.

We’ve created many In Case of Emergency Waterproof File Boxes for our organizing clients and now offer these in our online shop! We have pre-label a portable box to keep important documents organized and easy to find in an emergency. Now is the time to prepare for an emergency!

At Joyful Spaces, it is our pleasure to help you tackle stressful, overwhelming spaces: home, office, business, garage – we love it all! Whether you need assistance with one room or your entire house, we’re here to help you meet your goals. No judgment, just results.

Our professional organizing services are based in Colorado Springs, Colorado. For more organizational solutions, be sure to read our other blog posts, and we are always available to meet and consult on a space for you. To learn more, check out joyfulspaces.co.