Our important family information binder

I posted a question on my Instagram account yesterday, asking if anyone could tell what I was working on, just by looking at a single picture I shared. And a couple of you lovely people guessed correctly. I'm impressed.

As was mentioned, I've heard some refer to what I was organizing as an emergency binder, others call it their 'grab and go' binder (if they had to leave the house quickly in an emergency, it would be what they would grab). I give our particular version the very fancy name of the important family information binder. (If someone has a more clever name I can adopt, please share away.)

The one reason I don't call ours an emergency binder is because it actually includes quite a bit more information than that. (Although, I would for sure grab it if I had to leave the house in an emergency.) For some people, it might make sense to separate what we have in our binder in a couple of different places. But it is actually really helpful for me to have it all in one place. In fact, the reason I was going through it yesterday was because I had additional items I needed to add to update it. Plus, I wanted to reorder things in a way that made more sense to me. Or maybe I was just coming up with an excuse to work on an organization project. Either way.

Nonetheless, for those interested, I'll list below what I keep in this binder. It definitely has important emergency info, but I also include other important family information that belongs together, at least in my mind.

(And a side note for those who could possibly be confused at several things I have on my list. Many of the items are from important events and milestones that occur as individuals and families within the church I belong to and love so very much. So if something doesn't make a lot of sense to you, it is likely because it falls under that category. If you have any questions, either organizationally or otherwise, about what I mention here, please, please don't hesitate to ask.)

And now, what is included in our important family information binder:

• Marriage certificate

• Birth certificates

• Baby blessings

• Patriarchal blessings

• Blessing certificates

• Baptism and confirmation certificates

• Priesthood ordination certificates

• Mission calls

• Seminary completion certificates

• Eagle Scout award certificates

• Young Womanhood award certificates

• Blood type of each family member

• Immunization records

• Vehicle titles

• Social security cards

• Passports

Okay, any questions to ask or thoughts to add? I'd definitely love to hear them. In the meantime, one last idea from me.

If your kids are getting to the older stage, it might be smart to set up your binder in a way that leaves empty pages ready to add to as soon as those milestones are hit and the certificate or record is given to you. With our six kids and many important events happening often, it makes it more likely that I will add to this binder more quickly and efficiently, if the space is ready to hold what is to come. And let's be honest, time flies when you are raising kids. So why not make something in your life just a little bit easier and less time consuming?