For some people, it’s tough letting go. Of anything.
Take my wife, for instance; she saves everything.
The other day the Honeybee showed me her baseball ticket from our very first date way back on September 24, 1995.
And if I ever feel oddly compelled to scrutinize the birthday card I received from my mother-in-law in 1998, I can rest easy knowing that the Honeybee has it dutifully stored upstairs in our bedroom closet.
What’s that? You say you’re looking for the operating instructions to a vintage Easy Bake oven, circa 1986? If I’m not mistaken, they’re in our closet too, not far from the rest of those 643 old birthday, Christmas, Easter, and Mother’s Day cards she’s been saving that nobody will ever look at again.
Protecting the Important Stuff
I’m a bit more judicious than the Honeybee when it comes to saving things — and I use a fireproof safe for the most important stuff.
Of course, no strongbox can hold everything — and so that demands a bit of discretion when deciding what to put in them. Here are some of the more important things you should consider protecting:
Birth certificates. Your birth certificate is proof that you are a citizen of the country you live in. Lose it, and you’ll have a difficult time getting a passport, or landing a job that requires proof of citizenship.
Property titles. Yes, home deeds and car titles are replaceable, but why go through the hassle if you don’t have to?
Insurance policies. Home, life and auto insurance policies are a key part of any financial back-up plan. If your house burns down or has been burgled, the first thing you’ll want to get your hands on is a copy of your home insurance policy and your agent’s phone number.
House photos. Speaking of insurance, photos of the interior and exterior of your home are invaluable for reporting losses due to fire or theft to your insurance company. If possible, keep them on electronic storage media like a thumb drive or CD.
Safe deposit box keys. Not having access to your safety deposit box during an emergency is not only inconvenient, it can be costly, as the boxes will have to be forced open and replaced at your expense.
Social security cards. Your social security number is required to get a job, collect social security benefits and receive certain other government services. That’s why the US Social Security Administration strongly advises people to not carry the cards on their person.
Passports. Getting a new passport on short notice, while not impossible, is still a tough order. Even expedited passports can take as long three weeks to process.
Financial account info. To ensure you’ll be able to access funds on short notice, be sure to keep a list of contact and account information related to any retirement plans and other financial accounts. You’ll also want to have a contact list of all your creditors; you’ll need to let them know if a particular emergency may result in delayed payments.
Spare car keys. For those who aren’t comfortable using hide-a-keys.
Wills and living trusts. Not only yours, but also any others in which you are the designated executor.
Health care proxies. In addition to your own, you’ll want copies for anyone who has designated you as a health care surrogate.
Medical information.This includes phone numbers of your family doctors, and copies of your medical prescriptions so you can rapidly resupply needed medications.
Emergency Cash. Keep a quick-access stash of small bills in case an emergency occurs that catches you with little or no money in your wallet. I accumulated $200 in five- and one-dollar bills over a relatively short period of time by occasionally dropping them in my change jar.
A Few Closing Thoughts
Most fireproof safes are not waterproof, so make sure you protect the contents by wrapping them in a plastic bag.
That being said, assuming the fire gets hot enough, most fireproof boxes cannot prevent any plastic stored within them from melting. That’s why, in the event of a fire, you should take the box with you — but only if it’s safe to do so.
Finally, if you’re worried about having your strongbox stolen by thieves, keep it in an inconspicuous location or — better yet — place it in a locked file cabinet. That’s where we keep ours: in the bottom drawer — right next to several old Pee Chee folders containing coursework from the Honeybee’s freshman year of high school.
After all, you never know when that might come in handy.
Photo Credit: Mykl Roventine
You are absolutely right about documentation. My Alzheimers afflicted mom got it into her head to cut up and throw away her social security card, bank card, credit card, non driver’s liscence, and check book. She remembered to tell us when we had to make a change in her bank account. I had to go through the entire process of obtaining her birth certificate, marriage liscence, social security card and drag her wheel chair dependant self off to DOMV for the necessary photo ID. It’s almost funny now.
What a nightmare, Olivia! I can only imagine the hassles of having to renew or replace all those personal documents and papers. Yikes!
I have let my parents hold onto my SS card in their fireproof safe, and my citizenship certificate (although I think you’re *supposed* to carry that on you at all times, I’m certainly not carrying such an important piece of paper around in my jeans pocket all day…)
Keeping photos of your house in there is a good tip!
The photos are important, Kellen. We’ve actually gone so far as to make a video of the inside of our home.
Kellen,
If you are concerned about keeping proof of citizenship on your person, you may want to consider getting a US passport card. It’s the size of a driver’s license and will fit in your wallet. It is proof of both identity AND citizenship, so it can be used when applying for a job. It also covers travel to Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda. (For any other destination, you need a full passport.)
Yes, it is expensive, but like a passport it is good for 10 years. If you are someone who, shall we say, looks “foreign” to most cops (Profile? WE don’t profile.), a passport card can save some hassle.
Your wife sounds like me. I just refuses to get rid of anything. My husband ends up throwing things away and pissing me off but I understand where hes coming from though it doesnt make it any easier. Those are important items but I guess I really need to get a safe before worrying about what to put in one. Still a work in progress.
The Honeybee keeps lots of stuff — a lot of it is sentimental, so I have a hard time pushing her to get rid of it. Things like all of my kids’ baby teeth, and their Halloween costumes. But then there is the stuff like her school work — and the kids’ school work — that really doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Then again, I tend to find myself on the other side of the spectrum sometimes, Tiffany — I toss a lot of stuff I figure I’ll never use again — which gets me into trouble sometimes when I figured wrong! 🙂
Just got back from the DMV. It went well — probably because I brought my passport. I handed her my cherished original SS card that was issued in 1962, and she sadly informed me that the card was just a “stub.” When I got the card, it was part of a larger card with instructions to separate it along perforations, thus rendering it a stub. I had applied for a new card with my current address, but haven’t gotten it. I handed over my cherished “birth certificate” from 1946, and she sadly told me that this is only a commemorative document with my footprints and Mom’s thumbprints. But not a “real” birth certificate, for which I have now applied. My passport got me through that.
On the way home, I got a safety deposit box for when all the “real” documents arrive, and put what I had in there.
Hi, Len! What a useful list for those of us who are organizationally-challenged and trying to clean up our act! I tend to follow the Honeybee’s rules about keeping things, so I have a lot of cleaning up to do. Would you think it wise to include a home inventory with the photos of your house? I have known people who have had a really hard time remembering the items in their house when working with insurance following a fire, etc.
I think the home inventory list is a great idea. The photos (or in my case, video) is the lazy man’s way of doing things, but it does provide incontrovertible proof to support your claims. I reckon I’d probably overlook a few key items if our home was totally consumed by fire, for example. It would be a real challenge to remember everything.
I have been thinking about getting a fireproof safe. I haven’t made the plunge. I know the small price is worth it for piece of mind, I just haven’t done it yet. Thanks for the tips. I would hate to have the plastic melt on the documents inside.
They’re definitely worth the price – much cheaper and more convenient than renting a safe deposit box year after year. And they hold more stuff too.
Any thoughts on fireproof safes vs safe deposit boxes?
With the shaky state of the banks today, I wouldn’t keep anything in their safe deposit boxes.
I’m beginning to think the Honeybee was separated from my wife at birth….
She still puts up the kids Christmas drawings in season, even though some of the drawings are 20-25 years old and falling apart….
Oh … the Honeybee does that too, Dr. Dean.
There is no way I can lug the little safe out when the house is burning down around me. That thing is heavy! It’ll be tough enough to grab the kid and 3 cats. Good list though.
I recently spent 8+ weeks helping my husband & his sister clean my mother-in-law’s Independent Unit in a Retirement Home Complex, so she could go into an assisted living unit. My mother-in-law is almost 100 years old. We had to deal with storage of items that were up to 70 or more years of saving. I might add that she was NOT into getting rid of any of this – mostly paper – letters, cards (for everything!) & photos (even of people she didn’t know!). It was very difficult & would have been easier just to keep her in independent living & hire someone to care for her – then at least we could have gotten rid of everything, but we had to “store” much of it – you know what that means.
If for no other reason, please people, get rid of your own collections, don’t rely on others to do it for you! We are now starting on our own – my husband is just like his mother!
Some of my family members recently had a fire which destroyed almost everything they owned. I’m sure they would echo all of these tips, and would like to go back and follow them if they could. One specific problem they encountered is that the one car that wasn’t lost in the fire had its keys lost in the fire. They wished they would have kept a spare in their fireproof safe.
Gaston Parizeau
Hi Len, Thanks for this useful list. Usually the things that should stay inside a fireproof safe will have the papers of your property, passports, IDs , expensive jewelry, insurance policies, any documents that are evidence for something and all the other stuff you can think of being really important to you.
Your home is likely to be your biggest asset, do not forget to have home insurance coverage to protect your home and your belongings in case of damage cause by unforeseen circumstances.
Thanks for the reminder about home insurance, Ashley. Of course, those of us with a mortgage have no choice — we have to have it!
Len, when it comes to sports memorabilia I’m the same as your wife. I kept all my ticket stubs from Oriole games. It turns out I had a stub from the first game of Cal Ripken’s streak -May 30th, 1982. That’s a rare stub – sold it for $4,000 about 10 years ago. My wife (girlfriend at the time) was with me but she didn’t keep her stub.s
Joe: I was having some fun at the Honeybee’s expense. I keep one special ticket stub too. It is a ticket to the game where Wayne Gretzky recorded his 802nd regular season NHL goal, which broke Gordie Howe’s record. (That’s essentially the equivalent of Hank Aaron breaking Babe Ruth’s home run record. Sorry Bonds’ fans, Bonds’ record is tainted.) I still remember that game like it was yesterday.
I wonder how much that ticket would fetch today?
Len, I really appreciate the list. I have always kept things like car titles and birth certificates in the safe, but for some reason I stuck my insurance policies in my file cabinet. D’oh!
As far as things I have kept… I don’t have a huge amount of stuff, but for some reason I have the original receipt for my wedding gown. It just seemed like a neat thing to hang onto at the time. However, I have been divorced from my ex for over 20 years, (and remarried!) and don’t have the gown any more, but I still have that 38 year old receipt!
Sassy, I think that is really neat that you still have the receipt. It is funny some of the objects we decide to ultimately hold on to in life. I’m sure if I go into my garage right now, there are more than a few things I should have probably let go of years ago.
I keep a list of real friends (not fake Facebook so-called friends) in the safe too, complete with addresses and phone contacts. If a question were to come up, those who had daily contact with me could help with where is X questions and the little things about the house, vehicles, pets, etc.
If I can access all of my insurance documents on line at USAA, is there a reason to keep them in the fire-proof safe?
Another question Len – I have all of my files and photos backed up with Carbonite. Is it foolish to rely on this in case the worst happens to my home? I do keep official documents in the fire-proof safe like birth certificates, SS cards, passports, deeds, pink slips, extra cash but there is limited space. If necessary, upon your recommendation, I will purchase a larger safe.
Thanks for the great info!
Hi, Ellen. Regarding your first question, if you are certain USAA backs up its data then I think you’ll be okay.
I’m not too familiar with Carbonite, but it seems to get generally good reviews.
One should have fireproof cabinets to save their important documents especially office which have lot of important file and documents.
Good discussion , I learned a lot from the information ! Does someone know where my business could get access to a blank DS-82 example to use ?
Yep. That’s for passports. Click this link, Laura.
My friend got ahold of a fillable DS-82 document at this site
Thanks for sharing such an informative article
Good article. I’m looking at getting a safe for documents and other items we believe to be important. But first I’m going to have to look at getting a good fireproof safe for everything we wish to keep safe and secure.
Excellent article.
One thing I would add to the “house pictures” paragraph is photos or scans of all the cards in your personal wallet. If you lose it, the very numbers you’ll need are printed on those cards! (It’s also a record of exactly what you were carrying in your wallet).
Hi Len. This is a very interesting read. Anyway I understand you about keeping things most important to you or that have sentimental value. Some people like doing that, however it’s also important to hide it in a safe place so that burglars can’t find it.
We have two fireboxe safes and recently went in to get our passports and they had what we thought was mould on them. What can we use to protect this from happening and also affecting other items.
Perhaps store them in a plastic bag?
I could never afford those fireproof filing cabinets. And if you have to evacuate, you could never take what was in a huge filing cabinet anyway. One tends to fill what one has! I was so glad when I discovered they now make portable fireproof (up to 2000 degrees Fahrenheit) and water-resistant boxes.