How to build an emergency binder

1. Choose the binder and its home

Most households use a plain 2-to-3-inch 3-ring binder — big enough for 80–150 sheets, small enough to carry. Add a set of five tab dividers and a sleeve for loose papers. What matters more than the binder itself is where it lives: a single known spot that every adult in the household can name — commonly a kitchen shelf, a hall closet, or next to the go-bags. The location should be away from the most likely water damage (basement floors, under sinks) and easy to grab on the way out the door.

Many families keep a second, slimmer copy of just the checklist and contacts sheets in a go-bag or the car. Paper copies survive a dead phone battery; that redundancy is the whole point of the printed format.

2. Print the four core sheets

The binder core described on this site has four parts, and each has a free printable template:

1. Family emergency checklist — the front-of-binder overview: 72-hour basics, documents to copy, and the communication plan, with tick boxes.
2. Important documents inventory — five sections of commonly filed papers with a “where kept” line for each.
3. Emergency contacts sheet — one page of numbers: utilities, doctors, insurance, schools, and an out-of-area contact.
4. This guide — kept in the binder, so anyone opening it understands the system.

Fill what you can on screen (entries stay in your own browser — nothing is uploaded), then print. Print two copies of the contacts sheet: one for the binder, one for the go-bag.

3. Decide what gets copied vs. noted

Not every document belongs in the binder as a copy. A workable split most organizers describe:

• Copy into the binder: IDs, insurance cards, immunization records, prescription lists (names only), the home inventory photo sheets.
• Note the location only: originals that stay locked or filed elsewhere — birth certificates, social security cards, deeds, wills and trusts. The inventory line records where the original lives (fire safe, bank box, attorney).
• List, never store: account institutions and their phone numbers. Record the institution and the number to call if a card is lost — not account numbers or passwords.

Copies go in sheet protectors, one document type per protector, behind the matching tab. If a section grows past a handful of pages, that is a sign the section needs its own divider, not a thicker pile.

4. Set up the medical section

The medical section of an emergency binder is a filing section: its job is to have the right papers findable, not to make medical decisions. Households commonly store: insurance and prescription cards, an immunization record per family member, a one-page list of current prescriptions (names and the provider who issued each — questions about the medicines themselves go to the prescriber), any advance directive or healthcare proxy papers a doctor or attorney has already prepared, and a provider contact list.

Keep the section factual and current. The documents inventory marks this section clearly as a storage checklist rather than medical guidance.

5. Agree on the communication plan

The plan fits on one printed page. It records: the out-of-area contact everyone texts if local lines are busy (distant contacts are often easier to reach than local ones), two meeting points — one near home, one outside the neighborhood — the pickup procedures for schools and workplaces, and who is assigned to each utility shut-off, described rather than demonstrated. Print one copy per family member; school-age children often keep a copy in a backpack folder.

6. Keep it current

A binder helps only if it matches reality. Two habits keep it fresh: a twice-a-year review (the daylight-saving clock changes are a common trigger — check expirations, insurance renewals, and the contacts sheet) and an after-any-change rule: new job, new policy, new baby, moved funds, update the affected page the same week. Put the review date in pencil on the cover so the whole household can see how fresh the binder is.

7. Official preparedness sources

This site provides organizing templates compiled from publicly available preparedness information — it does not replace official guidance. For official checklists, hazard guides for your area, and current recommendations, read the sources directly:

• Ready.gov — Make a plan (FEMA): the official US family emergency plan framework.
• FEMA.gov: disaster declarations, assistance programs, and preparedness publications.
• American Red Cross — How to prepare for emergencies: preparedness steps and kit guidance.

Ready.gov's own emergency plan pages include document-oriented checklists; households often use this binder's inventory sheets as the filing companion to those official checklists rather than in place of them.