Happy Prepared New Year!

Happy Prepared New Year! The first step to making sure you have a Happy New Year is to do the best you can to make sure you have a good chance to live through it. One way to make sure this happens is to prepare for emergencies. 

You don't have to turn into a "doomsday prepper" overnight. A little bit at a time is okay. That way you can get what you need to be prepared for emergencies as you can afford it. 

I like for people to start with a go bag or bug out bag. That is a small bag containing essentials to get you by for up to three days during an emergency.

Paperwork is the first thing I recommend for you to start with. Make a list of all of your important papers will help with the list. Scanning or photocopying are ways to save copies of those important papers.

One way for you to decide which papers belong in your go bag, is to think what would be the hardest to find a replacement for! I have seen what people go through when they don't have any papers to prove who they are. It is a catch 22. You need one thing to get another and there is no place to start. Some people never do recover from this. That is why some people are homeless. 

I would really like for my readers to avoid this horrible fate. The thought of you panhandling on street corners or along the highway with cardboard signs because you didn't have a go bag with copies of your important papers is not a good one.

One of the first things you can do to have a Happy New Year is make a list of your important papers to copy and put in your go bag. 

When you recover from your celebration of the New Year, you can copy the papers and actually put them in your go bag. I think putting them in zip lock plastic bags or some other way to protect them inside your go bag is good.

It is okay to have a DVD, or memory stick or some other media with your papers stored on it for your go bag, but you also need some paper copies, of at least the most essential ID papers. Finding an available computer to print out copies of those papers can be too hard during the chaos of a disaster.

I have several posts on the subject of choosing a go bag. My personal preference is to use a backpack for the go bag. This leaves your hands free and makes it easier to balance and walk fast and move around well. It is usually better on your back to use a backpack than to walk around lopsided by carrying a heavy load on one shoulder on in one hand.

Whatever you choose for a go bag, get it and pack it with your essentials for up to three days. Once you have that, you will have the peace of mind knowing that, if given an order to evacuate your home, you can grab your go bag and be out the door in minutes. This could save your life the next year or later. I hope you do this.