The weekend before Christopher and I got married we moved all of our stuff to our new apartment in Memphis and got it all unpacked and set up. We then drove back to Searcy and lived out of suitcases for the week leading up to our wedding. We got married August 16th and left for our honeymoon. We returned to Memphis after a week and I was immediately thrown into graduate school life and busy-ness. So all that is to say… it was a very quick, very transitional 3 weeks. So bear all that in mind when I tell you something that might just horrify you.
See that cardboard box labeled “bedroom”? Yeah, that’s where all our important documents were. Birth certificates, marriage license, social security cards, passports, etc. All in a very destructible little cardboard box. It’s pretty terrible that we transported all of our important stuff in this little box, but what’s really bad is how long it stayed in this little box…
You guys, I took these photos just a couple of weeks ago. All of our important documents have been hanging out in a cardboard box in our office for 6 and a half years. I know, I know, it’s awful. But here’s the thing – we just don’t think about it often. Only when we need our passports for travel. Otherwise we don’t ever need anything from this box anymore. So we just have forgotten. We meant to get a safe and a safety deposit box years ago, but it just never happened.
We aren’t really worried about theft. In Memphis it is far more likely that someone breaking into our house is looking for electronics, jewelry, cash, and guns – none of which would be stored in a cardboard box (at least by normal people, haha!). But I did worry about a house fire or flooding. So it has been on our to-do list. To get a safety deposit box at the bank for most of our important papers and to get an in-wall safe in our house for a couple of things I don’t want to be parted from in case of an emergency (especially my passport).
So a couple of weeks ago (the weekend that I said we got lots of house projects completed), we finally installed an in-wall safe in our house. And officially threw away the little cardboard box. ;) We still need to get a safety deposit box at the bank for our birth certificates, ss cards, and marriage license, but at least this is a big step in the right direction, haha!
Are there any important things that you know you should do, but have been putting off? Writing a will? Setting up a retirement fund? Etc?
