GTKY

JamieK1882 · June 2014

If your house were burning down, and you could only take 3 material items (not counting SO, children or pets)...what would you grab and why?

JamieK1882 · June 2014

1. Definitely my photo albums. I make DH and I an album every single year and it chronicles our whole life together. I would hate to lose those. I also am including wedding albums in this.

2. engagement ring/wedding band

3. Louis Vuitton purse

JamieK1882 · June 2014

@lissydee‌ that's smart..I'm just not organized enough to have that essential folder. Need to get on that!

Maelara · June 2014

My phone, my purse (so we have some payment options) and also our essential folder. ETA - I should add, my purse has everything. ID, money, keys, etc. My phone is right beside my bed at night so it's no big deal. If I could add another, I'd add the diaper bag. It almost always has extra bottles prepped in it for DD. Scratch that, I'd leave my phone and take the diaper bag.

Kristil2014 · June 2014

1. My purse - ID, money, etc.

2. My external hard drive. I am a photographer and don't want to loose any client files. As well as my personal file.

3. Car keys

moroccojade · June 2014

I have actually been through this... My house burnt down when I was 15. Me and my parents ran out the front door very early one August morning when our neighbour was pounding on it screaming "fire".

My dad grabbed nothing. I grabbed my boyfriend's jacket to tie around my waist as I was sleeping in a rather short tshirt and underwear... And my mother? She grabbed her cigarettes! (She always jokes that she should have grabbed the full pack and not the half that she did take. She actually had a pile of cash from the business she was working for at the time in the drawer beside her bed. But of course, she didn't take that... but yes - she grabbed CIGARETTES.)

Yes, everyone has grand ideas of what they would take in an emergency. But really? Stuff is the LAST thing on your mind... you just want to get hell out of there. (although I guess I did want to protect my modesty. And my mom did know that she would need a stress reliever ASAP.)

Maelara · June 2014

Emnob28 said:

When you live where I live you're constantly berated with what to grab in an evacuation situation and because it's often due to fires it's usually an emergency situation and you may not always be home when it's time to leave so you literally have seconds if even that to grab your stuff. Therefore my list has been discussed at length between MH and I. The rule is he grabs item number 1 on the list and I grab item number 2 then we do what we can to remember items number 3 but if for some reason we can't get to them were covered with items 1 and 2.

This is probably so much more than GTKY - but it's such a serious subject where I'm at you don't mess around!

1. Our fireproof safe that includes all the vitals (insurance docs, passports, socials, etc) plus a small amount of cash just in case. We've also put discs with our most prized photos in the safe so we always have our wedding photos.
2. The desktop computer which holds electronic copies of pretty much every possible account or bill we'd need access to as well as all other photos and treasures we wouldn't want to lose.
3. Our car keys, wallets, purse, etc.

Every summer this becomes a problem here too. I live in the prairies and once fire hits everything goes up fast. Our first concern is to get us and the animals out. During those times we also have an evacuation plan.

hiketheworld · June 2014

1. Family heirlooms- my grandma and great grandmas wedding rings and locket, great grandmas painting

2. Computers (DH and mine)

3. Hmmmmm. No idea

Maelara · June 2014

Emnob28 said:

@Maelara - I'm hoping that with all the rain and snow this year we won't have to worry about the fires and I live on a very high hill so I try not to worry about floods!

We had a weird winter and are getting a ton of rain. It dries out fast here though. Last year we had tons of water and we still had fires make it into city limits. Lots of evacuations. Luckily, we didnt have too. But we take in the friends who do.

ETA - that may have been the year before. Sorry, it all becomes a blur!

JamieK1882 · June 2014

Wow scary that this is an actual,plan based on where people live, just meant it as a light-hearted GTKY but glad you guys have plans in place!

Ineedmorecoffee · June 2014

My computer, (not the monitor just the actual computer) because it has ALLLLL of our pictures of our son from when he was a baby that I don't have backed up anywhere. Which I need to do!!

My purse

Our file with all of our socials and birth certs

JamieK1882 · June 2014

ClrkKntismyAE said:

1. The only picture I have with my entire family: parents, brothers, and myself. My parents divorced over five years ago and have so far refused to acknowledge each other's existence.

2. The stuffed animals with the recordings of DD's & DS's heartbeats.

3. The only picture FI has of his older brother. FI's brother is mentally retarded and was taken to live in a group home when FI was six. Their mother was deemed unfit to take care of a special needs child. He visits every few months, but FI has a bad relationship with his mother and has only seen his brother twice in about four years.

Stuffed animal with baby's hb? That's so cool!

sweetbabyrahe · June 2014

1. I'm a scrapbooker so photo albums, at least wedding and DS's baby album.
2. My purse with wallet and keys inside
3. DS's favorite teddy bear

ccam · June 2014

1 - my purse

2 - our computer

3 - folder with birth certificates, ss cards, passports, etc.

missnacholover · June 2014

I'm going to assume I'm wearing my wedding and engagement rings since I always do, soooo...

1. My purse - Wallet, keys, ID inside.

2. My diabetes "bug out bag". (I have a bag packed with about 2 weeks worth of supplies should there ever be a fire)

3. Probably my laptop.

My wedding photos are all online so I wouldn't worry about them.

amtay825 · June 2014

1. I would give everything else up just to get the picture I have of my first son we lost at 20 weeks 10 years ago this October. It sits on my dresser and I look at it almost daily, especially now comparing this LO growing to him. (You're almost as big as Aiden was when he was born...etc.)

2. Our family accordion that has everything in it....has all important docs in it.

3. purses, keys wallets etc.

I go thru scenarios like this in my head all the time. I even talk to my son about them sometimes lol. If someone breaks in when I'm in the shower, what are you going to do? If a fire starts and I'm in the shower, what are you going to do? If something happens to me and I get really sick I can't talk or wake up, what are you going to do? LOL

NunyaBennis · June 2014

1. Phone
2. Files
3. Work Laptop (ugh, that's sick). I'd rather say something sentimental like the engraved clock that my hubs gave me on our first anniversary... but that can be replaced a lot more easily than anything issued by the government. There is no insurance available for that amount of red tape.

DoubleUp8 · June 2014

My childhood home burnt down while my brother and parents were at work back in April 2012. We were very luck that the firemen know how important pictures are, and when the saw some albums on a book shelf in the house while in there trying to fight the fire, they threw the albums out of the window. Friends and community members removed each photo and dried them for us. They are a little smoky and a few are singed along the edge, but we have them.

Unfortunately, the house was a total loss. We were able to save a few things. Our family videos, dating back to my first Thanksgiving at 11 months old, happen to be under a bed in a guest room. Only one VHS didn't work, and it happened to be the one I had a DVD copy of. IT would have been really hard enver to here my grandfathers voices again. One died when I was 9 and one died when I was 26.

Another item that survived was the bassinet that was my grandmothers when she was a baby, then my mom's, then mine. It was tucked away from the fire in a funny under the stairs storage compartment and only suffered smoke damage. My mom had taken it upon herself to clean and refurbish it for the 4th generation since there are so many thing she lost that she won't be able to pass on to her grand kids.

Three things we really miss:
1. The funny statue my grandfather carved in college of a monk. We named him and had a santa hat for him to where at Christmas time. We lost my grandfather to a terminal disease 2 years prior to the fire, so it was really hard to lose that funny reminder of him.

2. Christmas decorations. All of the ornaments my mom and dad had collected since college and all the funny memories we remembered hanging them on the tree each year. My mom lost the only picture of my brother and I with Santa she had because I was afraid of Santa and refused to sit on his lap.

3. The dollhouse my grandfather hand built for me when I was 5.

Having dealt with a fire, even if I wasn't living at home. It is such a traumatic event. Things you don't even think about art on the walls, family heirlooms/furniture, childhood drawings, suddenly make you feel the loss that much more acutely.

ETA:Didn't meant o be a debbie-downer, but our experience has made me feel questions like this should really make people think and feel grateful.

Also, buy a fireproof safe and keep the documents and items in it in ziploc bags, to prevent water and smoke damage. Just because it keeps out the fire the smoke and water can still get in the smallest of gaps!

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