How to Make a Family Emergency Binder? (Free Download)
![](https://survivalistbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/momwithaprep-family-emergency-binder-SOC2.jpg)
Creating a Family Emergency Binder or a Grab and Go binder will help ensure that your entire family is ready for emergencies. So, just like that, with a little advanced planning, you won’t ever have to worry about being without the important information you and your family might need in an emergency.
Do you have all of your important, vital documents in a handy place that you can grab in an emergency? If you had to make a run for it right now, would you have the records and official documents you would need to rebuild your life? If something were to happen, are you ready?
Most people don’t. That lack of planning can make a bad situation even worse for you and your family. If you want to ensure you’re ready for anything, you must create a Family Emergency Binder. And we can help! Be ready for anything that might happen to you or your family. With this guide, it will be easier to prepare. First off, we need to learn more about this binder.
Unlike a Home Management Binder that includes everything about running your home, from scheduling chores to home warranty repairs to everything under the sun, the Family Emergency Binder is geared specifically toward managing your family in the case of an emergency.
While some may include more emergency bag checklists and food storage info, the basic Family Emergency Binder should be lean and mean to grab and go. These are things that you really need in case of emergency. It’s better to be prepared anytime. We’ll never know when disaster strikes. That is why we need to be ready for our family. In times of crisis, it is great to have something to hold on to that will potentially be a lifesaver.
Not only is having something handy in your house for day-to-day use good, but in the event of a quick evacuation for something like a hurricane, flood, fire, tornado, or earthquake, you want to have something easy to grab that has all of your vital information, documents, and notes for your family.
It does not have to be an elaborate four-binder system with all of your life’s history in it, but simply keeping a few pieces of paper in an emergency backpack or tucked away in a drawer somewhere may not be enough if you’ve fled in panic.
We keep a vital emergency binder handy with the papers we need, plus a separate binder with all of our planning information in it. It houses home inventories, food storage, home warranty info, shopping lists, plans, and more.
Our immediate need emergency binder is a 1-inch binder with all that we would have to have if we had to leave in an emergency. That is what I’m going to be listing here. You can add more information as you need for your family or go with one of the systems listed below.
Donna had a great idea to help save space – If you are worried about carrying a lot of paper for your medical info, word process the basics, use the smallest size font you can, and print out the information. The space/size will be greatly reduced. In the aftermath of a localized emergency, to “read” it is put on a copy machine and enlarged.
Related Read: Preparedness Quick Tip #28: Create a Home Inventory
Related Read: Do You Have an Escape Plan?
While I advocate having an emergency bag for each family member that should contain cash, carrying cash on your person at all times, and having cash stashed in your car for emergencies, I feel it’s also important to have cash in your emergency binder.
Because lives are uprooted during localized emergencies, you may only have one or two pieces of any of the important binders, bags, etc., to carry with you, so important things need to be duplicated in all of them.
I don’t advocate keeping your entire life savings in your binder but having a pencil case meant for a school binder full of some coins (for laundromats, vending machines, etc.) and small bills and larger bills (purchasing food, gas, and accommodations on the go).
DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE EMERGENCY ID CARDS FROM MOM WITH A PREP
Your binder can be as unique as you are. You can decorate it up, keep it simple, use something other than a binder, or keep it all on a thumb drive (see below). Here are some basic supplies you might need for your emergency binder. Start from the list and make it your own.
There is an inherent risk of creating a binder with all of your personal and financial information. It’s important to keep your binder in a safe and secure location. I recommend a fire-proof safe or lockbox.
While we’ve been taught to keep all of our important documents in a bank-safe deposit vault, it may not be easily accessible in a state of emergency. So you’ll have to determine how best to handle these documents for yourself.
Another issue that will come up from the preparedness community is that you’ve got all of this vital information available for anyone to pick up from the Red Cross table because you’ve set it down and turned to pay attention to your toddler for a moment.
Then poof. It’s gone. Forever. And now they have your information.
Consider, as an alternative, doing codes for things to remind you of what they are without actually writing them out fully.
Granted, coding the copies of your vital documents may be hard, but you can disguise your phone numbers, accounts, and passwords to hint at what they should be instead of being outright. But make sure your spouse knows the code, too.
The risks are great, no matter what you decide to do. But you have to do something. Don’t sit and be so scared of the what-ifs that you don’t do anything.
Not every localized emergency means that there will be no electricity, internet access, or access to printers or computers. Your local emergency could mean you must leave your immediate area and go to another neighborhood or city, but you just don’t have access to things near your house.
If you are uncomfortable having a binder full of vital information in your house, especially if you cannot keep it secure in your location because you are rooming with other people, consider doing a cyber emergency binder.
Even if you do keep a physical one, having one available in downloadable format may make its access easy if you lose your binder along the way and need to get to those important documents and have access to a computer.
Or load that information onto a thumb drive that you can tuck into a pocket on the way out the door. You can store multiple thumb drives in different locations, just in case.
Again, it is vitally important for you to understand that uploading your documents onto a cloud on the web, even if you think it’s a private place, does not mean that they will ultimately be safe from hackers and people looking for information. You have to decide whether or not to do it.
You can use places like Dropbox.com, a friend’s server, or even your website. Just understand that nothing is completely safe and secure.
However, having your documents in more than one place allows you greater ability to get copies regardless of the emergency — weigh your options.
Once you have your vital Emergency Binder complete with the documents that are necessary for you to conduct business, gain access to your community. Then, begin to rebuild your life after an emergency; you can branch out.
Expand your Family Emergency Binder to include checklists for creating emergency bags for your family, food storage plans for feeding your family in case it is a stay-at-home emergency, etc.
Here are some ready-made resources and free downloadables that you can use. Some of these will have the basic lists to record your details for your Vital Family Emergency Binder and move on to full Emergency Planning Systems.
My favorite system is that from Self Reliant School called the Preparedness Planner and Record Keeper. It’s a great system to track not only the vital information you need in the beginning. Also, it is a system to track all of your food storage. You can read my full review here.
The ever-growing bundle includes:
Every newsletter will include another printout to include in your binder. Plus, you can add more subcategories and your printouts to watch it grow!
Take a moment to read through the websites to get an idea of the organization, then make your life easier in the event of a disaster – grab your binder and go!
Later, we’ll beef up our emergency binders with full preparedness plans. But for those of you who are new to the idea of creating an emergency plan for your family. So, this will get you started!
Want even more ideas on great Grab and Go/Emergency Binders? Check out the Your 72-Hour Kit Plan by Misty Marsh.
And what happens when disaster strikes and you cannot save your binder from destruction? Daisy at TheOrganicPrepper has this advice for recovering important documents after a disaster.
Also, consider taking your Family Emergency Binder one step further — details coming soon, but first, check out this post that teaches you how to create an editable, printable PDF resource from ANY web page. That way, you can begin to print off information from the web without all those pesky ads and sidebar information to waste your ink.
Your thoughts? Do you have a grab-and-go binder? What other vital personal documents would you include? Let us know in the comments.
If you loved this article, consider sharing it on Pinterest!
Tom is a Marketing & Communications graduate interested in nature, gardening, agriculture, and traveling. For the last decade, Tom has turned his hobbies into a full-time job, creating useful resources and guides for all our readers. If he is not working on his next article, you will find Tom spending quality time with family or taking care of his own back garden.