Organize your family's essential information in case of an emergency

My mom had a minor stroke last week and was unable to speak. (She's fine now, thank God.) But when it happened, we had no idea where her "stuff" was - her insurance info, her bank accounts, even the location of the keys to her house was a mystery. Ultimately, we were able to get everything pulled together, but it was a waste of precious time that we could've spent on other, more important things.

What do you need?

It took a crisis like this for me to realize that if I or my spouse ever become incapacitated, whoever comes behind us and tries to figure out paperwork is basically up Sh*t Creek without a paddle. So! First, I had to figure out what exactly it was I needed to have on hand. This would be:

• Up-to-date medical insurance information
• An updated will
• Power of attorney information
• Life insurance info
• A basic guide to your bank accounts - numbers, passwords
• A basic list of bills in case someone else needs to help you pay them
• Doctor and vet info
• Spare keys for both house and car

Now, this was just my list for me and my family. You can customize it as you see fit, but these were the most pressing items I had to track down for my mom last week. I'll probably add to this list as time goes by, but it's a good start for an essential info kit that your family and friends will be able to utilize in order to help you more completely.

Best ways to organize your info

Obviously, some of this information is not going to be able to go onto a computer, and that's actually (believe it or not) a good thing. Not everyone who will be in charge of taking care of you should you be medically incapacitated is the computer-savvy ninja that you are, so let's make this as simple and easy access as possible. You have a few options that are written in order of what works best:

• First, start a paper trail: All your paperwork in one file in one place couldn't be easier. Make copies and hand them to your significant other and one (or two) friends and or family members that you trust, literally, with your life.
• Next, scan and save: Y'all still have scanners, right? Scan those essential documents in and save them to your hard drive, a CD, and a USB stick. Label everything, and give simple directions on where this information can be found to your already mentioned friends and family. Make sure that they understand how to access this information - don't assume that they can figure out how to use a CD drive or a USB.
• Lastly, store it on the web: This is technically one of the ways that I'm advising you to store your essential info, however: do NOT use this as the only way. Please. I'm begging you. There are a myriad of online storage options available to you, including the multi-faceted Gmail, and it's a pretty easy and secure option for making sure your stuff is all in one spot. This particular option is advisable after you've completed the paper trail and electronic backup; be absolutely sure to write down where this information can be found in case you can't help out yourself. Definitely, this is a super backup option, but I'm putting extra emphasis on the "backup" part of that sentence.

Don't put this off

Last week was a wake up call for me, to put it mildly. I don't ever want my loved ones to be put in the frustrating position of scrambling for paperwork for me, and I'm pretty sure you don't either. For more information, I invite you to read the following resources; but please feel free to chime in with your essential paperwork strategies in the comments as well.

• Organize paperwork on your Mac
• One way to digitize and centralize paper documents
• How to organize your financial documents in a filing cabinet

Wendy Boswell is Lifehacker's Weekend Editor and is getting organized this year whether she likes it or not. Subscribe to her feature series Technophilia using the Technophilia feed.

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