Scrap question of the day

[BernardandMissBianca]

I saw a story after Katrina about a girl who got her first house and when she evacuated she grabbed what she thought was important, TV, DVD player, and stereo. When she returned her house was gone. Her statement really hit home with me, "I just want my pictures." My heart just broke.

Q-What is your scrapbook saving plan encase of fire or something similar?

No flaming please, not that you would. My kids are my top priority and everything else can burn to the dirt as long as they are safe. It's just a question.

We had 1/2 a Maple tree fall last year, luckily it fell away from the house. But the other 1/2 is still standing.(we plan on cutting it down but it is a huge tree which will cost $1000 to cut down and ins. won't pay for it unless it does damage. Go figure they won't pay for preventative measures .)
If it falls it will land on the master bedroom side which is where my scrap stuff was before the baby was born. She's not in that corner of course but her dresser is. It got me thinking about what I would do if we had a fire or something. Obviously I would be shoving my kids out the door, but I moved my finished albums near 1 door and my pictures near the back door. My thinking is I can grab the albums as I'm walking out the door. Hurricanes, I would take them with us if we had to evacuate.

Do you have your albums in easy reach? Have you made duplicates of your pics and have them stored safely in a safety deposit box? I have heirloom pics on disk at the bank but I'm behind doing my other photos. I guess I am paranoid but with DH gone most of the time I worry about how to get myself and the kids out of the house by myself. I know it's silly to worry about pictures but we had a flood in our old house from a burst pipe and we lost so much, I cried for weeks. You don't think the stuff is important and most of it is replaceable, but the sense of loss was greater than I expected.

 

[rlovew]

I have a lot of my photos stored online at some of the photo sites, we don't have a developer nearby and have to order them anyway. My albumsare put into our hurricane kits once one is coming near- we would be taking these with us if we evacuated. As far as a fire I haven't really thought about it. I can't imagine grabbing my albums on the way out the door. Its not that I don't think they are important- they just aren't something I would think about grabbing. Granted I can't imagine grabbing our electronic equipment either. I am not sure how well our house would burn as it is mainly concreete block and my albums are on walls that are block as opposed to near interior walls.

 

[Mickster]

I have thought about this, especially after Katrina, but I still don't have a good plan. I have so many albums and so many pictures, I think it is unlikely that I'd be able to get them out under almost any circumstances. I have my pictures online (back to 2000- the birth of DS), but not many more than that. It makes me sad to think about some of my pictures not surviving, but I know that my parents and siblings have copies of many of the pictures of our youth.

 

[DeborahA]

We make back up copies on cds and my husband stores them at his work. He has a large locker for his personal use--we have negatives and cds there.
Deb

 

[hopemax]

My plan is haphazard too. My digital photos are backed up on cds that are in a little tote that is easy to grab, and many of the good shots are online as well. It's my wedding photos that are the ones that worry me to death, that I need to do something with. Right now I have a shoebox with all of the negatives from those photo cameras from the tables, my mother's, my grandmother's AND the mother of our ring bearer/jr. bridesmaid. Not to mention the proofs from the photographer. So if anything were to happen to them, I would lose everything, and basically have no one I could go to get theirs.

I really want a scanner that will scan negatives, so I can get all of my stuff backed up on cd, and the important stuff on online storage sites.

 

[PrincessNancy96]

I have all my albums right now in my hope chest.. the neighbor across the street is a fire fighter and he said they first thing they save after the people are the family pictures because they are harder to replace.. I have told him where my albums are on that they are first to go after us... I do have to start making cds of all our pictures and get them into the safety deposit box.. guess I will make DH help me get this started today...

 

[NewOrleansLady]

I just started scrapbooking so I don't have a ton of books yet. Most of my pics are transferred onto cd, so I would just grab that.

On a side note, my family is from St. Bernard parish which is south of New Orleans. After the hurricane the whole parish was under water for at least two weeks (can't remember exact time ), but anyway, my mom, sister and brother lost all of their pictures. We were able to get the albums, but all the pictures have smeared edges and smell horrible.

 

[BernardandMissBianca]

I just started scrapbooking so I don't have a ton of books yet. Most of my pics are transferred onto cd, so I would just grab that.

On a side note, my family is from St. Bernard parish which is south of New Orleans. After the hurricane the whole parish was under water for at least two weeks (can't remember exact time ), but anyway, my mom, sister and brother lost all of their pictures. We were able to get the albums, but all the pictures have smeared edges and smell horrible.

Hopefully you will be able to scan them all and maybe get new prints made. It makes me sad that so many people have stories like yours.

I'm currently taking all of my heritage photos and puttung those on CD and sending them to other family members, that way if something were to happen to mine we have extra copies, it's just catching up with the my 30+ years worth of stuff that has me worried.

I do like the idea of a storm bag though. Not that we get many hurricanes here and we don't live on the coast but we have several large maple trees in landing range of the house, that is what concerns me. I would be so worried about the kids getting what they need I may over look my albums but having them prepared ahead of time would make them easy to grab.

 

[UP Disney]

I store my negatives (from pre-digital days) and CD's of pictures in my safety deposit box. This is for the worst case scenario that I were unable to save my pictures, photo albums, scrap books, etc. in an emergency.

When I was about 15 or 16, I went to a youth church group. One night, we were asked the question, if your house was on fire and all your family & pets were safe and you had time to save one thing what would it be. Even back then, I said my pictures. Pictures are what evoke the memories of all the things that have come before.

 

[latharia]

My albums are near the exit ... but there are so very many of them, again a problem with being caught up, that I wouldn't be able to carry them all out. I have many of my photos online, and several duplicates of family pictures with other family members, so that'd have to suffice!

 

[Spinning]

I have thought about this too. The albums are in the front room which is near a door. But to be honest unless we were told to evacuate I dont' think i would remember to get them. I do have my favorite pictures backed up online. I really have thought about a fire box for my CD's but haven't.....might have to pick one up!

 

[Lisa]

Good topic to think about.

All of my digital photos are stored on an off-site server, so I know those pictures are replaceable. All our albums are in the living room between two doors, should we need to get out that way, we could grab as we go out the door, however if we needed to make an emergency exit out our daughter's bedroom window, (that is the only way we would go out for the obvious reason and fortunately, that side of the house is only the second floor up, whereas our side is three floors up), the albums might not make it out until later.:/

 

[richeyarin]

I store my finished scrapbooks in all different places throughout the house: hope chest, coffee table, magazine racks, etc. There is no chance I would be able to grab them all if there was a fire, but I figured it also means that all that work would not be destroyed if there was an isolated flood or other damage. Thanks for bringing up topic. I think my pictures and especially scrapbooks are my most valuable material possessions!

 

[pjlla]

I have stored my negatives and duplicates of my home movies at my mother's house since the kids were born. I also started storing duplicate CDs of my digital photos when we went digital 5 or 6 years ago. I offer the same "storage" to my mother in return.

As far as my actual scrapbooks go... it would be tough to carry them! I have so many.... it would probably take 2 or 3 trips! They do sell soft pouches for scrapbooks that are supposed to be fireproof. I have been thinking about asking for a few for Christmas.

I have ALWAYS been fire paranoid.... even since I was a little girl. When I was first married I bought a fire safe to have at home to store important papers and negatives. When I got it home and read the information about it, it specifically said it wasn't rated for photos and negatives.... what a waste!

I guess in an emergency and assuming the kids were already safe, I would probably be best just grabbing our CPU.... we added extra memory and have ALL of our digital photos on it ( as well as being on CD at home and CD at my mom's house). I could always re-scrap later.....................P

 

[Queenie]

All my digital photos are backed up discs, you've reminded me that I need to back the discs up at my mum's and my sister's houses. I'm also in the process of scanning all our family photos from mine and mum's to back up onto discs. Luckily we have almost no risk of flood/hurricane/tornado where I live (saying that there was a tornado on the other side of the city 2 weeks ago!!) My scrapbooks are near the nack door but I doubt I'd grab them in case of a fire. My top priority (after family and animals) would be the battered old teddy bear I've had since I was a few weeks old.

Does anyone else back up home video too?

 

[DisneyCowgirl]

My brother had to evacuate for Katrina and the things he was most happy he thought to throw in the car were his quilt my grandmother had made him and a photo album/scrapbook my mom had made him. This of course got us all thinking, and when Rita headed my way, these were the same things I loaded into my car's trunk--all the photo albums, my quilt, my grandmother's silver and a couple changes of clothes. That's all that would fit in my car, and DH and I agreed that everything else was replaceable.

In case of a fire, I know I would want to grab those photo albums and scrapbooks, but DH reminds me everytime we see a fire on the news that we grab the baby and get out. Nothing else.