Moving can be exhausting, overwhelming and stressful. There I said it. Moving isn’t for sissies! Relocating across the country? Well thats a beast of its own! We’ve moved 5 times. Two of those moves were over 400 miles and two of them were over 1,000 miles plus one move from our camper to our current house. I still can’t believe we lived in a camper for a YEAR! I digress…. It isn’t very easy to just go grab identification documentation when its packed somewhere with the office stuff, on a tractor trailer headed to another state, or packed with all the rest of the items from your fireproof safe that is in a safe place somewhere in your box trailer under all of your adored family plants. No? Just me? Well you get the picture. I learned very early on that it was imperative to keep important documents well organized when moving. This could also be helpful if you are a zombie apocalypse preparer.

A family binder is key! I first shared the details of our family binder nearly 10 years ago. I was preparing to add our twin daughters to the binder and wanted to share how it had served me so well in our big move from Georgia to New York. Here is what our family binder looks like:

We upgraded to a zippered three ring binder to reduce the chances of anything falling out.

What we include:

Marriage Certificate

Birth Certificates

Draft Card

Passports

Social Security Cards

Baby Footprints (I would be heartbroken if these got lost)

Hospital Bracelets (total devastation if I lost these too)

Medical records

Copies of health & dental insurance cards

Other important certificates

Immunization records & tags for Sofie (our fur baby)

Copy of wedding photos from our wedding and both of our parent’s weddings

Jewelry appraisals

Titles to vehicles and trailers

Wills

Life Insurance documentation

insert most beloved items here

Each family member including our beloved golden-doodle, Sofie, has their own folder with a button flap. I keep a printed photo of that person and all of their important documents. It keeps things organized and easy to grab when needed without searching through piles of papers. Every folder is in a certain order: picture, marriage certificate (for Josh & myself), birth certificate to keep, birth certificate for identification purposes (that is used for sports, etc), immunization records, and then everything thing else.

Additional folders are for jewelry appraisals, titles to vehicles and trailers, and copies of wills or other legal documents. It’s such an easy way to organize these important items and then they are ready whenever you need them… especially when it’s time to move! Do you have a family binder? If not, it’s time to get to work!