Severe flooding in the Midwest, earthquakes in Japan, fatal tornadoes in the southern states…maybe it’s me, but it seems that these disasters are happening more often and in more diverse places than ever before. That makes it all the more important to be prepared for an emergency because in all reality an emergency in your area is a matter of  “when”, not “if”.

Here are some simple steps you can take to prepare for an emergency.

1. 72 hour kit. My wife and I each have a backpack with the basic supplies we’d need if we had to leave our house for three days. It includes highly concentrated food (e.g. Powerbars, soup, etc.), medical supplies (band-aids, gauze, Tylenol, antiseptic), water and water purification tablets, toothbrushes and toothpaste, soap, a change of clothes, a hand-crank flashlight/radio and cash.

These backpacks are kept in a closet near our front door so in case of a fire or other emergency, they’re easy to grab and go. We replace the perishable items in them about once a year, or based on their expiration date.

2. Meeting location. In an unexpected event like a fire or earthquake, have a safe place for your family to meet that’s outside your home. Growing up, it was by our mailbox. This is to make sure everyone knows to go to the same place so people can quickly be accounted for. It’s extremely important to know if everyone is out of the home because you don’t want to risk the lives of emergency response personnel by sending them into a burning or unstable building looking for someone who has already gotten out safely.

3. Build up a supply of supplies. We’ve grown accustomed to driving down to the local market on a whim to pick up anything we need. But as we’ve seen in the news, it doesn’t take much time for grocery store shelves to be picked clean during emergencies.

Start to slowly build up a store of food and other supplies. In the event of a food shortage (for whatever reason), you’ll have enough to subsist on. So the next time something you eat regularly is on sale, buy a few extra and put them in boxes under the bed. Same thing goes for canned fruits and vegetables, pastas, fruit roll-ups and other items that aren’t immediately perishable.

4. Learn from cartoons . How many times have we seen cartoons of someone stranded on a desert island with cans, and no can opener? (Or maybe I’m the only one.) All your canned goods you have aren’t going to do you much good if you have an electric can opener with no power. Keep a manual can opener in your 72 hour kit as well.

5. Just add water. Freeze-dried food is great for emergency preparedness because it’s lightweight and has a long shelf life. However, it won’t do you much good if you don’t have water. Each time my wife and I go to Costco we pick up a big box of bottled water. This has been a good method for us as it spreads out the cost and also makes it easier to rotate through (water does go bad you know). Imagine having a month’s worth of bottled water all expiring at the same time!

Water, of course, is also beneficial in case supplies become tainted or cut off all together.

6. Out-of-state contact. If there’s a major disaster in your area, say an earthquake, there’s a good chance phone lines and cell towers may be overrun with people calling each other and emergency services (“All circuits are busy now. Please try your call again later”).

Sometimes when local calls can’t get through, long-distance calls will. Have a designated contact person out of state (for my wife and I, it’s my parents in Oregon) who you can call and check in with. Even if my wife is just 10 miles away from me at work, I can call my folks 750 miles away and we can all coordinate through them. Plus it allows my parents to know that we’re OK as well.

7. Keep emergency numbers handy. Put local numbers for emergency services, poison control, the Red Cross, your gas, electric and water companies, your state health department, etc. in your 72 hour kit or another easy-to-access place.

8. Master your utilities . Know where the shut-off valves for your utilities are, and know how to shut each off. Even if your home seems to be in good condition after an earthquake or other disaster, a hidden water or gas pipe with a crack could cause significant damage over time if left unattended.

9. Prepare your car. If you’re like me, you probably spend a good chunk of my day away from your home. Keep your car stocked with some water, blankets, snacks, flares, jumper cables, flashlight with batteries (ever tried changing a tire on the side of a road at night?) a cell phone charger, some backup cash and walking shoes and socks.

Listed here it seems like a lot, but it will all fit neatly in a gym bag in your trunk.

Also, it’s a good idea not to let your gas tank get too low. My wife has started filling up at about half a tank and it’s been reassuring to know that the car is always available and ready to go.

In conclusion

These are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how to prepare you, your family and your home for an emergency. And keep in mind that these things won’t just be useful in the case of natural disaster. What if you get laid-off or have some kind of medical emergency that diverts your income? In that case, wouldn’t it be amazing if you didn’t have to buy food for a couple of months because you already had it stored?

These are practical things you can start doing right away to build up resources against a time of need.

Like I said, this certainly isn’t comprehensive. What do you think should have been on the list? Please share your thoughts and suggestions in the comments.

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A while back I decided to ditch my traditional wallet for a slimmer, more efficient hack using a Moleskine notebook. The only things I carried over from my wallet were my driver license, my debit card, and a few business cards. I ended up leaving a number of membership/loyalty cards in my wallet (along with my credit, library and other cards) for the sake of simplicity and that the pocket in the back of a Moleskine notebook just isn’t that robust. :)

For the most part, I’ve been fine. But there have also been times when it would have been extremely useful to have, say, a grocery membership card that could have saved me 15 cents a gallon on gas.

Enter Just One Club Card. It’s a site that let’s you plug in the numbers under the barcodes of your club/membership/loyalty cards and will print out all the appropriate barcodes on a single page. The page is designed to be cut and folded into a card shape for E-Z access. And ta-da! All your membership cards are available to you on a single card.

Of course, not every club card in the world is available but there are some popular options including Smiths, Albertsons, ACE Hardware, Best Buy, Delta SkyMiles, and Office Depot as well as some lesser-known establishments such as Bob’s Stores. (I have never heard of Bob’s Stores. Would anyone care to enlighten me?) There’s even an option to add a store/business yourself if the one your looking for isn’t available.

The proprietor of the site says he won’t use your barcodes/information for any nefarious purposes, but use at your own risk. (Personally, I’m not all that worried about someone finding out what kind of groceries I buy.) It could be a great way to cut down on the clutter, and width, of your wallet.

Visit Just One Club Card here.

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Saturday I ran errands with my wife and son. My wife and I are trying to be good about keeping a family history, so it was off to Robert’s to buy a photo album. Now, I consider myself a fairly tech-savvy guy and the last time I used a photo album for anything was probably about eight years ago. While there are, of course, benefits to keeping your pictures digitally, there are also some downsides:

1. Labeling/tagging and organizing them can be very time consuming.
2. Even with backups, there’s always a chance of losing everything.
3. There’s something wonderful about the tangible, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. (Ha!)

Since I last bought a photo album the makers of such albums have almost universally added a small, but significant feature: a spot for a CD in the back.

What a brilliant way to index your photos! Print off the most important ones – the ones you’d want to show off and really miss if they were lost. Put them in the album. Put unabridged photos on a disk and stick it in the back of the album. Now you have the best of the best printed and preserved and as well as a backup of all your pictures. You also have a handy visual index of where to find which photos.

The album itself was relatively inexpensive (about $13) and you can print off 4×6 prints at Walgreens or Walmart for about ten cents each. That means you can buy and fill a photo album for about $35 including tax. Our goal is to fill one album a year.

Why are we doing this? Because, as I said earlier, there’s something beautiful about holding something that’s been passed down to you from generations earlier. Face it, your grandkids inheriting your Flickr username and password isn’t going to mean nearly as much as if you left them a complete and well-documented photo album. :)

Does anybody else out there still use old-school photo albums?

Thanks for reading!

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So what’s the simplest way to remember where you parked? Pull out your cell phone and take a picture of the nearest color-coded pillar. Simple.

You may even want to go so far as to snap a shot of which mall entrance you used. Sometimes I remember I came in through, say, Sears, but I can’t remember which door in Sears. Was it men’s wear or large kitchen appliances?

Oh. And please remember to delete the parking pillar pictures on a regular basis or someone is going to be checking out your cell phone and think you either have a really bizarre sense of what constitutes “art” or you’re insanely boring.

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Sometimes it’s because of laziness but other times it’s because I simply forget. Fortunately, it’s easy to send yourself reminders with Google Calendar.

Set up a new calendar called Reminders. Using that calendar, schedule days you want reminders to do things. For example, if you’ve resolved to write your grandma a letter once a week (a great idea – not only does it communicate with a loved one, but make a copy of the letters to keep as a personal history) schedule an appointment for Monday titled “Write Granny” using your Reminders calendar.

Of course, you can set each appointment to repeat weekly so you don’t have to repeat the process 52 times.

Repeat with your weekly and monthly resolutions.

I’d also suggest establishing “check-up” reminders. For example, if you want to read War and Peace, perhaps break it up into sections. So by the end of week one you want to be on page 125, week two: 250, etc. So on the first Saturday set an appointment that says, “War and Peace page 125″. Continue to do this for the remaining Saturdays until you should be done with your resolution. It’s a much more manageable way to approach a big task like this. Knowing you only have to read 125 pages a week is much less daunting than being reminded to “Read War and Peace.”

Once your schedule is established, go into your Google Calendar settings, select your Reminder calendar, Notifications then select Daily Agenda. Ta-da! All your resolutions will be there happily waiting for you in your Inbox each morning making sure you don’t forget to write Granny and tell her about your latest adventures.

Oh, and if you want to keep your calendar looking clutter-free you can uncheck your Reminders calendar (see picture) to hide those appointments from view. They’re still there, you just won’t have to look at them all day. Then again, that might not be a bad thing.

Do you have any other suggestions on how to remember your resolutions? Please leave word in the comments.

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While I don’t necessarily think my subconscious is planning my day for me in my sleep (then again, if it’s was I wouldn’t know would I?) I think he makes some good points. What do you think?

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The http://livsimpl.dreamhosters.com/2007/10/26/unschedule-your-life/ The concept of unscheduling essentially means making sure you have time to do what you want to do: don’t schedule work, schedule free time.