National Preparedness Month
Are You Ready?
Our Martha tips for this month focus on “Preparedness.” You probably didn’t realize it, but September was National Preparedness Month. I guess I wasn’t very prepared for that seeing that it is now October. Anyway, we were urged to get our “Emergency” supply kits ready. Is this really necessary? If you’ve got a reasonably organized “Smart Martha” home you know exactly where to get what you need in a very short time. Let’s try it!
KISERS! THERE IS A HURRICANE OR TORNADO OR EARTHQUAKE COMING!
“Oh, No! Seth, you take the little guys to the hallway in the center of our home. (We don’t have a basement). JP, You fill a pitcher with water (or not, if we have some bottled water). Joseph, you gather the flashlights. I’ll grab some blankets. And Keith, (my spouse) grab the radio from the laundry room and some extra batteries. I’ll get my cell phone and laptop. Everyone meet in the hallway!”
You’ve got food—at least a week’s worth if your pantry is anything like mine, some water, and your first aid kit is ready and fully stocked. If this doesn’t cover it, there probably isn’t a better way to prepare.
Now that I’ve let you off the hook regarding the “Emergency Preparedness Kit,” I want to encourage you to be prepared for some other kinds of disasters. I want to give you some suggestions of things you actually should do to be prepared for other disasters.
What if your spouse suddenly passed away? Would you know where to find all your financial information, including all retirement savings? How about all the insurance info?
At a recent seminar, when I was talking about your “Important Files,” ( The files which contain vital information—such as insurance info, deeds, birth certificates, health records, etc.) a woman suggested that each family made sure that they had back-up copies of these important records stored away someplace. She said that she had copies of these important documents sealed in a manila envelope and stored at her best friend’s house. In case of a fire, flood, or landslide, you could see how a safe copy of these papers would save you many headaches.
Now I’ve had a fireproof safe in my home for such an emergency, but I hate to admit that the contents of the safe were sparse. So, I took this suggestion from this Smart Martha and made a few copies to be stored in the safe. I feel much more secure already. . . And for those of you who don’t know where any of these important papers are now in your house or you have a spouse who doesn’t, just talking this over with your spouse and deciding which ones need to be copied and where these are stored is an important exercise.
Copiers, Credit Cards, and Passwords
Here is another great tip that has saved me so much time: if you need a printer for your computer, make sure you purchase one with a copier. I bought another one of these printer/copiers last week, and I only paid around $30 for it at Walmart. And to save money on ink:
1) Only print in black and white, except for special reasons. Tell your kids to only print in black and white. This is an option when you go to print your paper. It may take some figuring out. On my print preview page it is called grayscale.
2) Don’t buy new ink cartridges. Get them refilled. Most cities have stores that sell only refilled cartridges for a fraction of the cost of a new cartridge.
"My Purse is gone!"
Back to “Preparedness.” Last month a good friend of mine came by my house in a state of panic and tears. She put her purse down to put something in her car and forgot it. When she went back to look for it, it was gone. It didn’t take us very long to find the phone numbers of all her banks and credit cards and the cell phone company in order to call them to cancel all of these services, but if she had had a list of all of these together somewhere, it could have been a little simpler with less panic. Luckily, my friend had just a few credit cards.(Another good reason to keep just a few credit cards.) Another Smart Martha at one of my seminars had this suggestion to keep track of credit cards. She said that she simply lined up all her credit cards that were in her purse on a copier and copied both front and back. This simple step takes less than a couple of minutes. You could make two copies and keep one in your important files and one in your fireproof safe.