organizing – Retirementally Challenged

What would you Grab if you had to Go?

My husband and I were relaxing on our deck a few days ago when we noticed several planes circling to the east of us. All three were mostly white with red markings and lettering. When one of the planes flew close enough to our house, we could clearly read the words CAL FIRE on the underbelly. That’s when we noticed the brown smoke in the distance.

The fire, I soon learned from checking social media, had started in a canyon a couple of miles from our home. A small brush fire when it was first reported, quickly grew to an estimated five acres. We live a reasonably safe distance away but those whose homes were close to the canyon’s rims, received evacuation notices.

The great news is that the fire was brought under control within a couple of hours. No homes were damaged and everyone who evacuated was able to return home safely. With the memory of January’s devastating Southern California wildfires fresh in our minds, I imagine everyone living within a few miles of the canyon fire heaved a huge sigh of relief. We know how a small brush fire can spread quickly, consuming tens of thousands of acres, destroying thousands of homes, and threatening lives.

After the smoke cleared and the planes were gone, my husband and I talked about what we would take if we had to evacuate our home. Whether we had the luxury of time or just minutes, what would we grab first? I mentioned family photos, a few items of personal or monetary value, my laptop, and important paperwork. A change of clothes would probably be helpful too. As I looked around our house, I didn’t see many items that I either couldn’t do without or that couldn’t be easily replaced. The possibility of losing everything really focuses you on what is important.

Old family photos are often at the top of people’s *grab first* list.

This conversation has encouraged me to give a lot more thought to the question: What would I take? What’s important? What is irreplaceable? What would we need to sustain us if we couldn’t return to our home – assuming we still had one – for a while? What would we need to help us recover any losses?

Where we live, wildfires and earthquakes are the biggest threat. For others, it might be floods, tornados, or hurricanes. I am not aware of any location that is completely safe from a natural disaster. Although we don’t dwell on threats, being prepared for what ifs can help give us peace of mind.

Creating a Grab and Go evacuation plan wasn’t on my original Organize My Life to-do list but in the wake of recent events, I have added it and moved it to the top.

I don’t have a final list yet, but here is my initial outline:

List of items that will be needed if away from home for any length of time, or that are valuable and/or irreplaceable. Don’t forget medications.
List of personal records that may be needed (insurance, financial, medical, etc.).
List of passwords, PINs, and codes that may be needed.
Make a separate list of items to take if there is more time to pack before evacuation.

On both lists, indicate where the items are located. If anything needs to be gathered quickly, ensure those items and records are easily accessible (if your precious photos or family heirlooms are buried in a storage closet, you may not have time or the ability to grab them before you have to leave).

This is a list that I hope to never need, but I will feel better when it’s completed. Better to consider what to take now rather than when feeling worried and stressed.

Do you have a Grab and Go list for your home? Can you think of anything I should add to my list?

Desktop Travel

A few weeks ago, I wrote that my computer had died and needed to be replaced. Although I wasn’t happy about the inconvenience or expense, I have discovered a silver lining (and, don’t we all need a few extra silver linings these days).

Sometime early last year, I took on the challenge of culling and organizing my digital photos. It took me several weeks to go through them all, delete duplicates and disappointments, and finally create eight distinct topic folders under which my images could be filed. Full disclosure that one of the eight folders was titled “Miscellaneous” but… whatever. I was awfully proud of myself when I finished and have been careful to keep everything mostly organized since then.

Until…

When setting up my new computer, old files were transferred from my two back-up hard drives to my desktop. Although this was done by a “professional,” the way the transfer was made pretty much set me back to square one. Suddenly, my new computer was full of all the duplicates and disappointments I had previously gotten rid of and there were multiples of everything, including several copies of the eight organized folders.

Someone less anal and terrified of losing anything probably would have just kept one complete set of the eight folders and deleted everything else. Not me. I had to go through everything once again to be sure what I was keeping and deleting was what I wanted to keep and delete.

I have finally finished the job and the images in my Pictures folder are all organized in their correct folders. No duplicates and very few disappointments (not every photo is a winner but some of the less-than-perfect ones can still be quite loveable).

I knew the task would be time-consuming; what I didn’t expect was how uplifting it would be. I got to travel again to Cuba, Canada, and Mexico, enjoy a cross-country road trip with my girlfriend, visit the Pacific Northwest and Atlantic Northeast, tour San Francisco and Key West, and get my kicks on Route 66.

I also was able to travel back in time and enjoy dinner parties with friends and family, summer gatherings on our deck, and celebrations – large and small – with absolutely no social distancing, masks, or BYOEverything.

It was glorious.

If you are like me and have a lot of pictures filed away on your computer, I encourage you to do some time travel of your own. Just because flights have been canceled, travel delayed, and planned get-togethers put on hold, doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy a trip down memory lane.

It might be a good time to organize your photos and make sure everything is backed up, too.

Paper Purge

Up until recently, my husband and my efforts to reduce clutter have been mainly focused on things like clothes, books, and miscellaneous household items. I am fairly satisfied with our progress and am pleased that the “public” areas of our house are, if not clutter-free, at least not embarrassing if someone stops by unexpectedly.

Now, we’ve turned our attention to the gobs of paper engulfing our offices. These include financial documents, articles and recipes saved to do something with “someday,” and an astounding number of lists – written on notepaper, on the back of envelopes, on post-its, and at the bottom of other lists. The paper that clutters the top of my desk is bad enough but lurking inside my file cabinets, and in boxes in my closet, are even more papers, and they need to be sorted, shredded, or recycled.

At least I know that I come by my paper problem honestly. My mother had a hand-made sign on her desk that read:

“Those who keep a neat desk will never experience the incomparable joy of finding something they thought they had irretrievably lost.”

I’m not sure if she was the author of the quote (she was a writer/editor) or if it was borrowed but it perfectly described her desk… as it does mine.

So, for the past several days, my husband and I have been slowly working through our piles and files. Boxes with documents for shredding are filling up, as is our big blue recycle can. Although we still have a way to go, we are motivated by three notions:

Security: We enjoy traveling and plan to continue for as long as we can. So far, we’ve been lucky to have trusted friends take care of our house while we are gone but that might not always be possible. Our goal is to have limited personal/private documents so that if we participate in a home exchange or arrange for a housesit, securing these papers will be easy.
Flexibility: Although we are happy with our current home and neighborhood, recently we’ve talked about alternative living situations. Would we be happier in a condo (no yard to maintain, minimal upkeep, more security when we travel, etc.)? How about an active retirement community or, at least a smaller town with walkable neighborhoods? This decision may be many years away, but why not start purging now so it won’t be as difficult later?
Reality: Am I really ever going to read the articles I’ve saved? Nope. Especially with the Internet as my go-to source. Some of the information is worth keeping, but most can be tossed. And those random notes and lists? I am trying to corral them all into one notebook, and as I cross out items, or no longer need the information, the pages can be ripped out and recycled.

Although the process has been slow, the experience has been very satisfying. My desk is neater, my files drawers aren’t nearly as full, and – even better – a couple of times I’ve experienced the incomparable joy of finding items I thought were irretrievably lost.

Rightsizing in Place Using S.P.O.T. Goals

I’m guest posting on Kathy Gottberg’s blog SMART Living 365 today. Please link on over and check it out (and, if you could leave a comment there, it would be much appreciated).

While you are visiting her site, treat yourself to some of Kathy’s insightful articles. She is an accomplished author who writes passionately about creating a meaningful, sustainable, and rewarding life. I’m sure you’ll love her blog as much as I do.

I hope to see you there!