When Mr. Lively and I got married the number of important documents that I needed to keep track of tripled. Not only did I then have Mr. Lively’s birth certificate, social security card, etc. but we also had car documents and ring appraisals to store.
Rather than scour the apartment every few months to find that one little piece of paper that we need in the future, I decided to corral all the papers in one central location. This makes locating and storing life documents super simple. Plus, it also lets Mr. Lively know where to look if he ever needs to track something down and I’m not around.
While in college I received this Life.Doc binder which was created with this purpose in mind.
Inside there are tabs for many important categories.
On the back of each tab there are pockets for tucking papers.
I used the family one to house our birth certificates, passports, social security cards, and other “life” documents.
But other document categories warranted their own sections which were not included in the kit. So I simply made my own sections with sticky tabs and plastic sheets.
Which really goes to show you don’t need any fancy kit to make one of these binders. Just some plastic sheets and a sticky tabs does the job.
When our little puppy comes home or when kids enter the picture, this binder will house even more information as needed.
Currently we are storing this binder in a hidden part of our apartment. And if we ever get a safe, it will be stowed there. Our financial information is also not stored in this binder for additional precaution.
During my name change process I needed to grab many of these documents for different purposes at different points in time. It was handy to always know where to look for the exact papers I needed. And if we ever have a fire or need to leave the apartment quickly, we can grab our information easily on the way out the door.
Though the apartment still has varying levels of progress (read: chaos) in each room, it feels nice to know this essential aspect of our lives is organized and tucked away.
