kattitudes

OK, so we all bought a three ring notebook and spent some time decorating it, so we love it and are ready to enjoy keeping it around and using it.

As a reminder, here are the eight sections of the Family Organization Notebook that we are going to put together:

• the basics of your family
• an emergency plan for your family
• health/health insurance information
• insurance as it pertains to your possessions, life and such
• your money matter locations and such
• information for an attorney/preparation for legal issues
• information for caregivers, be they taking care of your home, pet, children, parents or what have you
• finally, information on your house itself and what is in it

Today, we are going to focus on our family information section. Yes, you probably already know your name and address and such, but you would be surprised how quickly even the most basic of information can slip your mind if you are in a panic situation and/or if you are not available to get the information. So, as a result, take a sheet of paper for EACH individual family member and record the following information:

• Full name
• date of birth
• Address (including city, state and zip)
• home phone
• mobile phone
• fax number
• email address(es)
• Work or school information including:
  • Company or school
  • position or title
  • physical work/school address (including city, state and zip)
  • work/school phone
  • work/school fax
  • work/school mobile
  • work/school email address(es)
  • work ID number
  • department
  • work charge code (if needed for home expense reconciliation)
  • assistant name
  • assistant contact number
  • boss name
  • boss phone number
  • HR contact
  • HR contact phone number
  • 401k/pension contact
  • 401k/pension phone number

A couple of comments about the information you provide here: notice there is no place for a social security number? While this notebook is going to be your all-inclusive one-stop for all the answers in your house, you do not want to make it an easy situation for dishonest individuals who might help themselves to all your personal information. So, we are going to observe a few cautions about the personal information we do put on paper and social security numbers is one of those.

As mentioned previously, the trick here is to create a single page of information for each individual and put the page in your family organization notebook. You have a week to get this done. Next week, we are going to deal with the pressing issue of your family emergency plan.

As one final note, putting together a notebook like this would make a wonderful and thoughtful gift for friends and family. Life has become so hectic that slowing down long enough to get information in one place at one time can be a challenge. Decorate some additional notebooks and create pages for friends and family members, giving them the lists of information that they will need to fill out. It is a gift that shows compassion for those you love in the midst of a hectic life.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 9th, 2007 at 7:39 pm and is filed under Family Organization Notebook, emergency supplies, kat chat, life skills. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.