How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

Updated 9/28/2021

How To Save Your Treasured #Voicemail Messages

Your mission is to learn how to back up all of the voicemail messages you’ve been saving and resaving, so that you can keep them safe and sound without worrying about losing them.   

When we first started writing our books, I was amazed to hear how many people have old voicemails on their phones and answering machines that they keep resaving every month or two, to keep them from being deleted. 

For some people it’s the news of a new arrival to the family, or a job offer they’d been waiting for. 

For others it’s the last message or voicemail greeting of a loved one who’s passed away.  

The problem with trying to save voicemail messages this way, is that one hiccup from a cell phone carrier or badly-timed power outage and that message can disappear.

Forever.  

That’s what happened to one woman.  When her fifteen year old son unexpectedly died in his sleep, she couldn’t bear to erase the greeting on his cell phone’s voicemail — so much so — she kept paying for his mobile service, just so she could call it every once in a while to hear his voice.   Then one day, his phone company changed storage systems and lost his voicemail greeting.  

She was absolutely beside herself.  

Thankfully, weeks later, the phone company found the greeting, saved it to a CD and sent it to her.  

But when a recording is THAT important, you can’t just leave it up to chance, hoping that it never gets erased.  

Besides, backing it up is so easy to do, you’ll wonder why you didn’t do it months ago! 

Do you have messages that you want to save?  

The first thing you need to do is to figure out what method is best for you. 

Where Is Your Voice Mail?

Old messages are usually in one of three places.  

•  Your smartphone or cell phone’s voicemail

• A digital answering machine or landline voicemail system

• Or an answering machine that uses a cassette tape

SMARTPHONES

Voicemail | Android    

In general, most Android smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy or LG have an option within the voicemail to save the message to your Dropbox, iCloud or One Drive.

That’s the easiest method, because it will back up and save the recording for you, usually as an MP3.   

Once it’s stored to the Cloud, you can download it to your computer and save the message to your backup files, as well as a portable hard drive for safe keeping.

If the message you want to save is someone’s voicemail greeting, you won’t be able to save it by sharing it.  In that case, the best way to save it is to play it out loud on speakerphone and record it using another smartphone, tape or audio recorder.  See the section below for details.

Voicemail: iPhone 

Saving a voicemail on your iPhone is as easy as sharing a photo. 

First, click on the voicemail you want to save. 

Tap the share button on the upper right corner of your screen.  Then choose where you want to save it.  

You can email it to yourself, save it to your files (including iCloud) or to other file sharing services like Dropbox.  In this instance, I decided to save it to iCloud. 

At the top you’ll see that your voicemail is about to be saved as an MP4 file. 

Just decide which folder you want to save it to and tap “add”.  That’s it, your voicemail is saved!

Why did I choose iCloud?  Because it’s a great way to save your voicemail to more than one location.  More locations means less of a chance the voicemail will accidentally be deleted. 

Not only does saving your voicemail to iCloud mean you’ve saved your message to the Cloud, but from there, you can download it to your Mac or PC, or transfer it to one or more portable hard drives or flash drives.  You can even email it to other locations or other people for safekeeping.

If the message you want to save is someone’s voicemail greeting, you won’t be able to save it by sharing it.  In that case, the best way to save it is to play it out loud on speakerphone and record it using another phone’s audio recorder or an external tape or audio recorder.  See that section below for details.

Voicemail | Flip Or Non Smartphone

What if you have an older cell phone that won’t let you save and export your old messages?

No problem!

You can turn the message into an MP3 (we’ll cover this one in a minute)

Or you can call your cellphone carrier and ask them how to download a voice mail from your particular phone.

Or you can play the message on speakerphone and record it onto a digital recorder as an MP3 

ANSWERING MACHINES

Answering Machine | Cassette Tape

The easiest way to archive it is to simply save the tape.  Which would be fine if this was just a simple message. 

Since it’s not, and since cassettes have a habit of breaking, you really need to back up the message and save it to your computer as an MP3.  

One easy way we’ve found to convert all of our cassettes to MP3s is the Reshow Cassette-to-MP3 Converter. Once your old message, favorite albums — anything you have lying around on old cassettes — is saved as an MP3, you can save it and play it on your computer, the music app on your phone, your favorite music streaming service or anywhere else you listen to music.

Answering Machine | Digital Chip Or Landline Voicemail System

Play the message out loud on your digital answering system and record it onto a digital recorder or the recording app, on your smartphone. 

If the message is on a landline voicemail system, use a speakerphone to play the message out loud and record it.  

This is also the best way to save a voicemail greeting from a smartphone, since a greeting can’t usually be saved like a message can.

Or You Can Leave It To The Professionals…

If you have an old cell phone with a treasured message or voicemail greeting on it on it and would rather leave the archiving to the professionals, it’s time to go to CBW Productions.  You can find them at www.cbwproductions.com.

They’ll make a copy of any message that’s on your cell phone’s voicemail and email you the MP3 copy.  Or if you would rather, they’ll send it to you on a CD.  

The next time someone leaves you a message that you never want to lose, do yourself a favor. Take five minutes to back it up to at least three other locations, so you can enjoy listening to it whenever you want, forever.

High Tech Toys

Here are some of our favorite high-tech tools and toys to help you get all of your favorite photos, music, home videos, movies – and anything else that can be stored digitally – backed up, stored and accessible.  Wherever you are.  Whatever is going on around you.  24/7. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020

Anker PowerCore 5000 Portable Charger

Axis Self-Powered Safety Hub

Canon PowerShot Wi-Fi Enabled ELPH 190 Digital Camera

ClearClick Video to Digital Converter

Epson Perfection V600 Photo, Film, & Document Scanner

ez Share WiFi SD Card

Fireproof Document Bags

Prime Music

Sentry Fireproof/Waterproof  Lateral File Cabinet

SentrySafe Fireproof and Waterproof Safe

HP Photo Printer All-in-One Wireless Envy 7120

ION Audio Premier LP Turntable Vinyl Record Player

Kodak P570 Personal Photo Scanner

Magnavox VHS to DVD Combo Recorder

Reshow Cassette Player  MP3 Converter

Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook

SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Sony 4K HD Video Camcorder

Sony HX400V Compact Digital Camera

VuPoint Handheld Magic Wand Portable Scanner

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff backed up and together, pick up a copy of our book “Keep Everything You Love Safe” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Updated On 9/28/21

Did you know that your Samsung Galaxy smartphone can save your life?

And it’s not just Galaxy but any kind of smartphone, like the iPhone, Droid Incredible or even the Windows Phone. The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency.  And the way to do that is with ICE.

But…  And this is a BIG but…

If you usually password protect your phone, emergency personnel might not be able to see your ICE information. 

Believe it or not, in many cities emergency workers aren’t allowed to break into a password protected mobile phone, even in an emergency.   Which means that having an ICE contact on a password protected phone is useless, right?  

Wrong!  As long as you set up your lock screen and your ICE contact correctly, all an emergency worker has to do is glance at your locked screen to find your ICE Contact. 

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having an ICE contact is the perfect way to keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

Here are two different ways to set it up, depending on the model Galaxy you have.

Many Samsung Galaxies have an Emergency Dialer on the Home Screen.  Simply set up your ICE contacts and then press and hold your first ICE contact until the menu appears, then add it to the ICE Emergency Contact Group.  Now it will appear on your Emergency Dialer. 

If your Galaxy doesn’t have this feature, but you normally password lock your phone, all you have to do is add your ICE information directly to your Lock Screen. 

Here’s how to do it!

Go into Settings and touch My Device and then Lock Screen.  Then touch Lock Screen Widgets.  Now on the very bottom of the menu you’ll see Owner Information.  Touch that and a window will appear.  Simply type in “ICE CONTACT” along with your contact’s name, phone number, your allergy or medical information – anything you would need an emergency room to know about you.   Then Check the Box and Choose Okay. 

Now your ICE information will appear right on your Lock Screen, no password needed. 

Problem solved!

While you’re here, be sure to check out our other posts like How To Put An ICE Contact On Your iPhone, or How To ICE Your Samsung Galaxy to learn everything you need to know about ICEing your phone.  And while you’re feeling proactive, don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on your spouse’s and kid’s phones too, along with each other’s contact information.   

And when your phone is ready to keep you safe, remember to keep it safe with a sturdy (and beautiful!) new case like this one, or this one.

High Tech Toys

Here are the coolest ways we can find to keep everyone you love safe and connected.  Smart phones, smart watches, smart flash drives that beam data where you need it and a car accessory that diagnoses your engine on the go.  You’re welcome.

Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone

Apple Air Pods

Apple Watch Series 3  

Apple/iTunes Gift Card

Autobrain GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone  

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

BlueCosmo Inmarsat IsatPhone

Samsung Galaxy Note 20

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Large, Black

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy Fold Z2

IPhone 12 Pro Max

IPhone SE

IPod Touch

Jitterbug Flip Phone

The Ridge Slim RFID Front Pocket Wallet

Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case

Red Parrot Smartphone Case

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

As great as the ICE Contact you just created is, we have a high-powered, fully loaded version in our book “The ICE My Phone Kit” along with step by step directions for ICEing iPhones, Galaxies, regular androids and even phones that are, shall we say, not all that smart.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On An iPhone

Updated On 9/28/21

As much as we love Apple’s Medical ID, there are two reasons you still need to make a regular ICE Contact, to use along with it. 

1. You can put an unlimited amount of vital information into a regular contact.

2. Hospitals are used to looking for ICE Contacts rather than Medical ID and if you don’t have a regular one, they might miss it.

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having an ICE contact is the perfect way to keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

Below, you’ll find everything you need not only to set up your Medical ID the RIGHT way, but the ICE Contacts that go along with it. 

First grab the information you’ll need:

All of the contact info for your two (or more) emergency contacts.

• A list of your allergies.

• A list of your medical conditions/recent surgeries

• The contact information for your main physician(s)

• Any other information you would like an ER to know about you.

Grab your phone and let’s get started!

1. Put the word ICE, all capitals, in the First Name field. Don’t type anything else in this field!

2. Put your ICE Contact’s full name and relationship to you in the Company field, ie John Smith – Husband.

3. Type in every phone number you have for your contact.

4. Type in all of your contact’s email addresses — again, every last one.

5. Type in all of your contact’s social media handles/user names. You never know what will be up and running in an emergency. Many people have reached loved ones on Facebook and Twitter, when cell phone and landline service was down.

6. All of your own allergies, medications and medical history go in the notes section. Even better capitalize the words ALLERGIES, MEDICATIONS etc to ensure that they’re seen. (LINK TO FAQ)

7. Add your physician’s names and phone numbers in the notes section and if you like, a link to your own Medical History Form. If you don’t have one, you can borrow one of ours.

8. Is your contact in different locations on different days? Add that in the notes section as well.

9. Instead of their photo, add an ICE Contact Graphic to the contact to make it stand out. Go to our Free Resource Page to find one you love.

10. And finally, never put your social security number or insurance member number into your ICE Contact. You can add the name of your insurance company and customer service number, but the actual numbers can wait until later.

And now, let’s make your ICE info even easier to find, by setting up your iPhone’s Medical ID.  

Don’t forget that you can fill in your ICE Contact on your Mac or iPad.  Not only is it easier to type on a larger screen, but once you save it to your contacts, it will sync with iCloud and appear right on your phone.

What Is Medical ID?

Medical ID, a part of the Apple Health App, not only gives you a place to put your emergency medical information, but it puts a link to that information right on the front of your phone, where it can be viewed by a hospital even if your phone is password locked. 

You’ll find it on most iPhones (iPhone 6 and up) using iOS 8 and higher.   If your phone is older and doesn’t have Medical ID, you can just leave your ICE Contact the way it is.

On your home screen click on the Health App – it’s the one with the heart on it.  This will take you to the Dashboard page of the Health App.  On the bottom right of the screen, you’ll see the Medical ID icon.  Click on it. 

On the Medical ID screen, click on the red link that says Create Medical ID.

The most important part of the Medical ID screen is at the top.  It’s the On/Off Switch that shows a link to your emergency information on the home screen of your phone even when it’s password-locked. 

Before you do anything else, switch this to the ON position.  It will turn green like the graphic below.

By the way, none of the information in your Medical ID is shared with any of the other apps on your phone.

Enter All Of Your Information

Put all the information you possibly can into your Medical ID.

As you can see it already has fields for your birth date, medical conditions, allergies, current medications and other information.  There are two sections that you need to pay special attention to – Medical Notes and Add Emergency Contact.

After you finish filling in the regular fields, use the Notes Section to list anything that didn’t fit into them, like the names and phone numbers of your physicians and healthcare providers and contact information for your Insurance Company.  Again, don’t add any sensitive personal information like a social security number, insurance member ID number or financial information.  

You can also place a link to your Medical History Form in the Notes Section to give emergency personnel to quick access to your medical history until your emergency contact arrives at the hospital.

Add Your Emergency Contact

When you click on Medical ID’s Add Emergency Contact button, it will show you a list of your contacts, so you can choose the people you’d like to add to your Medical ID.  That’s why we had you set up your ICE Contacts first. 

Go ahead and click on the button and choose your first ICE Contact. 

If you have additional ICE Contacts (a smart idea, in case your first contact is unreachable), then click on the Add Emergency Contact field again to add as many additional people as you would like.

Want to save time turning your husband or wife’s contact into an ICE Contact?  Simple!  Just tap & hold the contact you want to use, choose share and email it to yourself. Then open it in your email, make the changes from above to turn it into an ICE Contact and save it to your contacts as ICE.

That’s all there is to it!

While you’re here, be sure to check out our other posts like How To Put An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy, Android or Window’s Phone (you’ll find the links below), to learn EVERYTHING you need to know about ICEing nearly any type of phone.  And once your phone is ready to keep you safe, remember to keep it safe with a sturdy (and beautiful!) new case like Red Parrot Smartphone Case, or Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case.

And don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on your spouse’s and kid’s phones, iPods and gaming devices too, along with each other’s contact information.  

Having an ICE contact and Medical ID is an awesome way keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

High Tech Toys

Here are the coolest ways we can find to keep everyone you love safe and connected.  Smart phones, smart watches, smart flash drives that beam data where you need it and a car accessory that diagnoses your engine on the go.  You’re welcome.

Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone

Apple Air Pods

Apple Watch Series 3  

Apple/iTunes Gift Card

Autobrain GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone  

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

BlueCosmo Inmarsat IsatPhone

Samsung Galaxy Note 20

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Large, Black

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy Fold Z2

IPhone 12 Pro Max

IPhone SE

IPod

Jitterbug Flip Phone

The Ridge Slim RFID Front Pocket Wallet

Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case

Red Parrot Smartphone Case

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

As great as the ICE Contact you just created is, we have a high-powered, fully loaded version in our book “The ICE My Phone Kit” along with step by step directions for ICEing iPhones, Galaxies, regular androids and even phones that are, shall we say, not all that smart.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPod Touch

Updated On 9/28/21

Did You Know That Your iPod Can Save Your Life?

The secret is letting your iPod do the talking for you in an emergency.  And the way to do that, is with ICE.

What is ICE?  

During Hurricane Katrina, so many people were injured, unconscious and separated from their families that emergency workers came up with the idea of putting an iCE – In Case Of Emergency – Contact in their cell phones.  Now, when a patient who is unconscious or unable to speak comes into the emergency room, hospitals worldwide check their smartphone for an ICE contact, to help them locate their next of kin.

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having an ICE contact is the perfect way to keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

But what about the times when you or your children don’t have your smartphone with you?  Like when you’re out running or playing sports?  All those times you don’t have room in a pocket – if you even have a pocket – for a full-sized phone.  I bet you have something else with you though.   Your iPod.   And thanks to the nice, brilliant folks at Apple, you can put an ICE Contact on it – no sweat.  

Grab Your iPod & Let’s Get Started

So here’s how to set up an ICE Contact on your iPod.  Before you begin, you’d better decide who your ICE Contacts will be. 

The first one of course will be your spouse, partner, best friend or close relative.  Someone that you want there with you at the hospital or, if need be, making decisions on your behalf.  But what if that person is also injured, or is out of town or forgot to charge their phone?  Why not choose one additional person to be an iCE Contact – someone very close to you, who you know will drop everything to race to your side and handle things until your significant other can be reached.

Let’s set up your first ICE Contact.

Touch the Contacts Icon on your iPod Touch to open up your Contacts.  Click on the plus sign + to add a new contact and touch the Name Field.  Don’t put the name of your contact in this field, only the word ICE. 

By the way, if you don’t see a plus sign to add a new contact, it just means that you need to turn on iCloud first.  Just Go to Settings, then Choose iCloud and turn on Contacts.

Now touch the Company Name Field.  Here is where you put your contact’s name along with his or her relationship to you.  For example, John Jones – Husband.  That way a doctor or nurse reading it, will know that this contact is your husband. 

Time To Make Your iPod  Do Some Heavy Lifting…

The best thing about an iPod is that you can put everything that you need to communicate, right inside this one contact.   Here’s the basic information you need to include:

♦  Your emergency contact’s main phone number, mobile number and work number.

♦  Email Address & IM, Twitter or Facebook address (these are vital in case you need to send that contact an emergency message or quick update).

♦  Your contact’s schedule if there are specific days that he or she is at a certain location.

♦  Be sure to include every piece of information you can.   Why?  When people are injured in a regional emergency, like a tornado or an earthquake, not every type of communication will be working.  For instance, after the Japan earthquake, many people were able to reach each other via Twitter or Facebook even though their landlines and Wi-Fi weren’t working.

Like most smartphones, your iPod also lets you change, add or create fields inside the contact, so that you can customize it as much as you like.  In general, all you need to do is touch and hold the name of the field that you want to change.  This will bring up a menu of alternate field names to choose from, including the option to Create A Field and add whatever you need.

But what about information that doesn’t fit into an iPod  field?  That’s when you turn to your new best friend – the Notes section.   Notes holds quite a bit of information, so simply put the miscellaneous information you need to communicate, in there.

What kind of information? 

A list of Allergies, the Medications you’re currently taking, Names and Phone Numbers of your Healthcare Providers and contact information for your Insurance Company.  Just make sure you don’t put any member numbers, social security numbers or financial information in your phone.  

What Other Types of Information Should I Put In My ICE Contact?

Whatever you want.  Let’s say that two or three lines of Current Medications and Allergies isn’t enough.  Then why not create a medical history form for yourself and every member of the family, put it in a password protected online folder, and place the link to it in the Notes section of your ICE Contact.  This way a doctor can access your, your spouse’s or your kid’s basic medical history, while you’re en route to the hospital. 

If you don’t have your own Medical History Form, go ahead and download ours.  Just right click on the link and save it to your desktop. 

And while you’re at it, you can put medical treatment release forms for your children in the folder as well, and place the links to those forms in their ICE contacts.  You can also put in links to a full list of contacts or emergency numbers, or links to your family’s evacuation plan and gathering locations, so that every member of your family always has all the information they need, right at their fingertips.

By the way, don’t forget to make emergency cards for your family too.  Download them here, and tuck them into their wallets with their ID, just in case their mobile phones  can’t be accessed after an accident or regional emergency. 

What About The Rest of The Family?

Every family has one person who keeps everyone else organized.  And since you’re reading this post, something tells me it’s probably you! 

If that’s the case, it’s up to you to ensure every member of your household not only has ICE Contacts set up on his or her iPod, but that everyone’s iPhones and smartphones contain all of the contact information for every other family member.  That way you’ll be able to get in touch with each other as quickly as possible in an emergency.

And don’t forget that you can always put an ICE Contact in your family’s iPhones and smartphones as well.    We’ll even make it easy for you.  Just read the post and follow the instructions to set up your family’s ICE Contacts.   

Do yourself a favor.  Take five minutes right now to set up your family’s ICE contacts.  That way your family will have all the information they need to stay safe and secure, no matter what the situation. 

Talk about peace of mind!

High Tech Toys

Here are the coolest ways we can find to keep everyone you love safe and connected.  Smart phones, smart watches, smart flash drives that beam data where you need it and a car accessory that diagnoses your engine on the go.  You’re welcome.

Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone

Apple Air Pods

Apple Watch Series 3  

Apple/iTunes Gift Card

Autobrain GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone  

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

BlueCosmo Inmarsat IsatPhone

Samsung Galaxy Note 20

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Large, Black

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy Fold Z2

IPhone 12 Pro Max

IPhone SE

IPod

Jitterbug Flip Phone

The Ridge Slim RFID Front Pocket Wallet

Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case

Red Parrot Smartphone Case

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

As great as the ICE Contact you just created is, we have a high-powered, fully loaded version in our book “The ICE My Phone Kit” along with step by step directions for ICEing iPhones, Galaxies, regular androids and even phones that are, shall we say, not all that smart.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

Updated 4/12/21

Did you know that your Samsung Galaxy can save your life?

And it’s not just the Galaxy, but any kind of smartphone, like the newest iPhones or Androids. The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency.  And the way to do that is with ICE.

What is ICE?

During Hurricane Katrina, so many people were injured, unconscious and separated from their families that emergency workers came up with the idea of putting an ICE – In Case Of Emergency – Contact in their cell phones.  Now, when a patient who is unconscious or unable to speak comes into the emergency room, hospitals worldwide check their smartphone for an ICE contact, to help them locate their next of kin. Everyone in your family should have an ICE contact in his or her smartphone.  In fact, they should have two or three just in case the first contact is unavailable. 

Before You Begin… 

…you’d better decide who your ICE Contacts will be.  The first one of course will be your spouse, partner, parent, best friend or close relative.  Someone that you want there with you at the hospital or, if need be, making decisions on your behalf.  But what if that person is also injured, or is out of town or forgot to charge their phone?  Why not choose one additional person to be an ICE Contact – someone very close to you, who you know will drop everything to race to your side and handle things until your significant other can be reached.

Let’s set up your first ICE Contact.

Touch the Contacts Icon on your Galaxy to open up your Contacts.   Click on the plus sign + to add a new contact and touch the First Name Field.  Don’t put the name of your contact in this field, only the word ICE.  We’re doing this because your Galaxy sorts contacts by their first name by default and you want your contact to show up as ICE, not as your contact’s actual name. Next, touch the Last Name Field and enter your contact’s full name, ie. John Jones.  Now when you save the contact, not only will it be alphabetized as ICE, but it will also have your contact’s name right next to it – easy to read and easy to use.  Do the same thing when you set up your second ICE contact.  The only difference is that you’ll name it ICE2.

Time To Make Your Galaxy Do Some Heavy Lifting…

The best thing about a smartphone is that you can put everything that you need to communicate, right inside this one contact.   Here’s the basic information you need to include: Put all the information you possibly can into your two ICE Contacts.  For example:

• Your emergency contact’s Main Number/Cell number/ Work number, Relationship to you

• Email Address & IM, Twitter and Facebook address (in case landlines are down  & you need to send an emergency message )

• Other info, for example, days that the contact is at a certain location

• Add extra fields if you need them.

• Use the Notes Section to list your Allergies, Current Medications or the Names & Numbers of your Physicians.

• Be sure to include every piece of information you can.   Why?  Because you never know what type of communication will or won’t be working.  For instance, after the Japan earthquake, many people were able to reach each other via Twitter or Facebook even though their landline phones and Wi-Fi weren’t working.

Adding And Using Fields

Like most smartphones, your Samsung Galaxy lets you change, add or create fields inside the contact, so that you can customize it as much as you like.  To add fields to your contact, press and hold the field name until the menu appears, then check the boxes next to the field/label you want and clicking OK. One great field to add is Relationship, to tell emergency personnel who your contact is to you. But what about information that doesn’t fit into a field on your phone?  That’s when you turn to your new best friend – the Notes section.   Notes holds quite a bit of information, so simply put the miscellaneous information you need to communicate, in there.

What Other Types of Information Should I Put In My ICE Contact? 

A list of Allergies, the Medications you’re currently taking, Names and Phone Numbers of your Healthcare Providers and contact information for your Insurance Company.  Just make sure you don’t put any member numbers, social security numbers or financial information in your phone.    Or, let’s say that two or three lines of Current Medications and Allergies isn’t enough.  Then why not create a medical history form for yourself and every member of the family, put it in a password protected online folder, and place the link to it in the Notes section of your ICE Contact.  This way a doctor can access your, your spouse’s or your kid’s basic medical history, while you’re en route to the hospital. 

If you don’t have your own Medical History Form, go ahead and download ours.  Just right click on the link and save it to your desktop.  And while you’re at it, you can put medical treatment release forms for your children in the folder as well, and place the links to those forms in their ICE contacts.  You can also put in links to a full list of contacts or emergency numbers, or links to your family’s evacuation plan and gathering locations, so that every member of your family always has all the information they need, right at their fingertips.

What About The Rest of The Family?

Every family has one person who keeps everyone else organized.  And since you’re reading this post, something tells me it’s probably you!  If that’s the case, it’s up to you to ensure every member of your household not only has ICE Contacts set up on his or her phone, but that everyone’s phone contains all of the contact information for every other family member.  That way you’ll be able to get in touch with each other as quickly as possible in an emergency.  And don’t forget that you can always put an ICE Contact in your kid’s iPods and gaming devices as well.  Just because you don’t have a phone with you while you’re running doesn’t mean you can’t stay safe!

What If Your Phone Is Password Locked?

I know what you’re thinking.   ICE contacts are great – as long as emergency personnel can actually SEE my ICE information.  But what if you lock your Galaxy with a password?  Believe it or not, in many cities emergency workers aren’t allowed to break into a password protected mobile phone, even in an emergency.   Which means that having an ICE contact on a password protected phone is useless, right?   Wrong! As long as you set up your lock screen and your ICE contact correctly, all an emergency worker has to do is glance at your locked screen to find your ICE Contact.  Here are two different ways to set it up, depending on the model Galaxy you have. Most Samsung Galaxies have an Emergency Dialer on the Home Screen.  Simply set up your ICE contacts and then press and hold your first ICE contact until the menu appears, then add it to the ICE Emergency Contact Group.  Now it will appear on your Emergency Dialer. 

If your Galaxy doesn’t have this feature, but you normally password lock your phone, all you have to do is add your ICE information directly to your Lock Screen. 

Here’s how you do it: Go into Settings and touch My Device and then Lock Screen.  Then touch Lock Screen Widgets.  Now on the very bottom of the menu you’ll see Owner Information.  Touch that and a window will appear.  Simply type in “ICE CONTACT” along with your contact’s name, phone number, your allergy or medical information – anything you would need an emergency room to know about you.   Then Check the Box and Choose Okay. 

Now your ICE information will appear right on your Lock Screen, no password needed.  Problem solved!

Turn Your Phone Into A Mobile Command Center

While you’re at it, you can even turn your phone into a Mobile Command Center.  Just store copies of your family’s medical history forms, emergency action plans, checklists and Evacuation Plan, right on your phone and those of each member of your immediate family.  And while you have them, don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on their phones as well, including along with each other’s contact information.   That way you can all get in touch with each other quickly in an emergency. 

And when your phone is ready to keep you safe, remember to keep it safe with a sturdy (and beautiful!) new case like this one, or this one.

Do yourself a favor.  Take five minutes right now to set up your family’s ICE contacts.  That way your family will have all the information they need to stay safe and secure, no matter what the situation. 

High Tech Toys

Here are the coolest ways we can find to keep everyone you love safe and connected.  Smart phones, smart watches, smart flash drives that beam data where you need it and a car accessory that diagnoses your engine on the go.  You’re welcome.

Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone

Apple Air Pods

Apple Watch Series 3  

Apple/iTunes Gift Card

Autobrain GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone  

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

BlueCosmo Inmarsat IsatPhone

Samsung Galaxy Note 20

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Large, Black

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy Fold Z2

IPhone 12 Pro Max

IPhone SE

IPod Blue IPod

Jitterbug Flip Phone

The Ridge Slim RFID Front Pocket Wallet

Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case

Red Parrot Smartphone Case

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

As amazing as our 2 Minute ICE Contact is, we have a high-powered, fully loaded version in our book “The ICE My Phone Kit” along with step by step directions for ICEing iPhones, Galaxies, regular androids and even phones that are, shall we say, not all that smart.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Back Up Your #Facebook Friends List

Updated 9/28/2021

Quick. Name all the people that you’re friends with on Facebook.

You’ve got two minutes…

Time’s up. 

Well could you do it?  No?  Oh no!   Because all of that work you put into making your Facebook page the masterpiece that it is, can be gone in an instant.  Not just yours, but anyone’s.  That’s because Facebook is a web site with millions of users and billions of entries.  As hard as they try to maintain it and keep all of your uploads and pictures and information safe, all of it is just one electronic hiccup or hacked account away from disappearing.   In an instant.

But the GOOD news is, that won’t happen to you.  Because you’re about to learn something very few people know. 

You can download and backup all of the information in your Facebook timeline for safekeeping, which not only means you would be able to restore it, but you’ll be able to remember exactly who is on your friends list.

Just follow the instructions below and all of the information on your Timeline will be safe and secure right on your personal computer or portable hard drive.  

So here goes…

 

Take Action! 

I Can Download My Friends List?  Really?

Yes, you really can!   Using the instructions below, you can download a lot of the information in your Facebook account, including:

• Your Friends List

• Your Contact Information

• Interests

• Groups

• Photos and Videos that you have uploaded to your account

• Messages that you have sent and received

1. First Go To Account Settings

Just log into your Facebook account, and click on the Down Arrow on the right side of your Account Menu and choose Settings & Privacy.  

On the next screen choose Settings.

On the next screen choose Your Facebook Information.

On the next screen find Download Your Information and choose View.

2. Download Your Information

Here you’ll see a list of all of the information in your account that you can download.  To download everything, just keep all the boxes on the right of the list, checked.  Or you can press deselect and select only the information you want.

• Then Click on Create File.

• Follow the prompts to enter your password and you’ll receive a message when your archive file is ready.  Then Download the Archive of your Facebook Data to your computer. 

3. Keep It Safe

As Facebook suggests, since this download contains your profile (timeline) information, you should keep it secure and take precautions when storing, sending or uploading it to any other services.

Once you download your Facebook Backup File onto your computer, you can also:

• Save  it to your password-protected Dropbox, iCloud or OneDrive for safekeeping.

• Save it to a  flash drive or portable hard drive, and place it with the rest of your backup files:

  • In a safe deposit box or water/fireproof safe in your own city.

  • In your watertight Plastic Evacuation Bin. 

  • In your file cabinet at work/office. 

High Tech Toys

Here are some of our favorite high-tech tools and toys to help you get all of your favorite photos, music, home videos, movies – and anything else that can be stored digitally – backed up, stored and accessible.  Wherever you are.  Whatever is going on around you.  24/7. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020

Anker PowerCore 5000 Portable Charger

Axis Self-Powered Safety Hub

Canon PowerShot Wi-Fi Enabled ELPH 190 Digital Camera

ClearClick Video to Digital Converter

Epson Perfection V600 Photo, Film, & Document Scanner

ez Share WiFi SD Card

Fireproof Document Bags

Sentry Fireproof/Waterproof  Lateral File Cabinet

SentrySafe Fireproof and Waterproof Safe

HP Photo Printer All-in-One Wireless Envy 7120

ION Audio Premier LP Turntable Vinyl Record Player

Kodak P570 Personal Photo Scanner

Magnavox VHS to DVD Combo Recorder

Reshow Cassette Player  MP3 Converter

Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook

SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Sony 4K HD Video Camcorder

Sony HX400V Compact Digital Camera

VuPoint Handheld Magic Wand Portable Scanner

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff organized, backed up and together, pick up a copy of our books “Back It Up” and “Keep Everything You Love Safe” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

 

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

Updated On 9/28/21

It’s more important than EVER to have all of the medical information about the people you love, at your fingertips.

When a patient is brought in the emergency room unconscious, aside from obvious injuries, the doctors caring for him basically have no information about their patient.  They have no idea what he might be allergic to, what medications he’s taking or the surgery he had the month before. 

And when you add in the COVID pandemic and the fact that you might not even be able to set foot in the hospital to be with someone you love?

It’s more important than EVER to have all of the medical information about the people you love, at your fingertips.

Here’s what to do to keep YOUR family safe.

Elaine Sullivan was an active seventy-one year old living on her own in Chicago.  One day while getting ready to take a bath, she slipped and fell, striking her head and mouth on the side of the tub.  Her neighbors realized they hadn’t seen her all day and called the paramedics, who went in and found her, conscious, but unable to speak.

Elaine had previously been a patient at the hospital she was taken to, she had Medicare and Medicare Advantage insurance and everything she needed.  Or so she thought.  Even though she was stable, injuries to her mouth made her unable to speak, so she was unable to speak for herself.  Over the next few days, after a series of serious medical errors and a critical drug interaction, her condition worsened.

Elaine Sullivan was my grandma. 

Despite the fact that the hospital had my mother’s and my contact information for our home in Los Angeles, the hospital didn’t even try to call us for 6 1/2 days.  By the time they did, Grandma was in critical condition from a lack of the most basic care.  She was supposed to be on vacation at the time so we weren’t expecting to hear from her.  By the time they finally called us, we had no time to get to her before she passed away, unnecessarily and alone. 

As we found out the hard way, some hospitals don’t make calling your next of kin their priority. 

Even though most hospitals try to find an unconscious patient’s emergency contacts, sometimes they get so busy or are so understaffed that they don’t make that call as quickly as they should.

What caused Grandma’s death?  A simple drug interaction that would have easily been prevented with one phone call to us.

And recent natural disasters and COVID-19 have only amplified the need to get a patient’s identification, medical history and emergency contact information to the physicians treating him as quickly as humanly possible.

Your Emergency Medical Information 

Emergencies can rattle the best of us, and the phone number or facts you know by heart are the very ones that could elude you when you need them most!

You just can’t leave information that important up to your memory.  So let’s get it down on paper, where it belongs.

1 What Information Am I Going To Need?

Grab a pencil and paper and jot down the types of medical information you have for each member of the family.

This includes your family’s medical history, the names of everyone’s physicians, specialists, dentists, optometrists and other health care providers and their current and past prescriptions. 

2 The Most Important Things Are…

Close your eyes for a moment & imagine that you’re sitting in the ER with everyone in your house.  One by one, imagine that your spouse, each child or your parent has an injury, like a broken arm, or needs emergency surgery.

The doctor – someone who doesn’t know you or your family’s unique medical or emotional needs – walks through the door.

What does this doctor need to know about them?  

Jot down all of the things that just went through your mind.  Old injuries, allergies, surgeries, anything you think is important.

3 Locate and Gather All The Information You Have

Using those notes and the list you completed in Step 1, locate and gather all of the medical information you have at home, along with your address book or contact information for physicians as well as the people you’ll be using for emergency contacts.

4 Create Your Medical Information Forms

Grab a copy of our Medical History Form, or if you have a copy of our book “Write It Down” you’ll find a copy in the back of the book.

Create one for each adult and child in your family, adding all of the information you’ve located.

5 Choosing Your Emergency Contacts

Choose and name at least 3 emergency contacts for each person, including yourself.

Main Emergency Contact:  If you are married, include your spouse on your form and yourself on your spouse’s form.  For your children, this would be you and your spouse.

2nd Contact: should be a nearby relative or good friend who you would trust enough to make informed choices on your behalf, if necessary.

3rd Contact: should be an out of town/out of state relative or friend.

6 Anything Else To Add?

Is there any other information you need, to deal with a medical emergency while evacuated or away from home?  If so, scan or make copies of that information and place it in the same computer folder as your completed medical history forms.

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to put ICE (In Case Of Emergency) Contacts in your and your family’s smartphones along with a copy or link to your medical history forms.  That way if you ever need quick access to a family member’s medical history you’ll have it right at your fingertips.  You’ll find instructions on creating ICE Contacts on an iPhone and on a Galaxy/Android, right here on the blog.

7 Now For Safekeeping…

Print, scan or make three copies of the form you just completed, along with the documents or other materials you need and store them in at least three secure, damage-proof locations.   That way if one or two of the locations are inaccessible, you’ll still be able to grab the information you need.

If you’ve decided to print out your forms and medical documents on paper, you can place them:

• In a safe deposit box or water/fireproof safe in your own city.

• In your watertight Plastic Evacuation Bin. 

• With your emergency contacts or with relatives in the city where you’ll be evacuating.

• In your file cabinet at work/office.  If your spouse, child or relative is injured while you’re at work, you can grab the medical information from your files and take it to the emergency room.

Once you save your forms and medical documents onto your computer, you can also:

• Save the forms to your smartphone and/or your password-protected Dropbox, iCloud or OneDrive so that if a member of your family is ever rushed to the emergency room, you can send the form directly to the emergency physician, so that they’ll have a medical history immediately, before you even arrive at the hospital.

• Save them to a flash drive or portable hard drive, and take them with you during evacuation on a key ring or in your evacuation bin.

One important note:  DO NOT put your or your family’s social security numbers in your list of vital information or in online files or folders, no matter how secure they are.  If you have to have those numbers with you (and haven’t memorized them), copy or scan the originals and place them in a secure safe deposit box instead.

High Tech Toys

Here are the coolest ways we can find to keep everyone you love safe and connected.  Smart phones, smart watches, smart flash drives that beam data where you need it and a car accessory that diagnoses your engine on the go.  You’re welcome.

Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone

Apple Air Pods

Apple Watch Series 3  

Apple/iTunes Gift Card

Autobrain GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone  

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

BlueCosmo Inmarsat IsatPhone

Samsung Galaxy Note 20

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Large, Black

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy Fold Z2

IPhone 12 Pro Max

IPhone SE

IPod Touch

Jitterbug Flip Phone

The Ridge Slim RFID Front Pocket Wallet

Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case

Red Parrot Smartphone Case

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff written down, backed up and together, pick up a copy of our book “Write It Down” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

Updated 9/28/21

Do Your Home Movies Have An Expiration Date? 

Those old graduation films, your wedding video, your baby’s first steps.  All of those old videos, whether video, beta, mini DV or Super 8 – have a shelf life and it’s not as long as you thinhttps://amzn.to/2Onf2mUk.  

Just ask HGTV’s Lisa LaPorta.  When we interviewed her for our book Get Your Stuff Together, she told me about the day she slid her beloved high school videos into the VCR and they were absolutely gone.  Not just beige, or a little hard to hear, but completely and absolutely degraded to the point where those movies could no longer be watched.

How do you keep the same thing from happening to your movies and videos?  Glad you asked…

Before we start backing up your current movies and videos, here are a few tips on safeguarding all the videos you’ll be taking in the future.

Do you regularly take videos with your Smartphone? 

If you do, how often do you download them to your computer for printing or safekeeping?  Everyone should get into the habit of downloading their new pictures and videos every few days.  Dropbox is a great tool for this.  It’s a free application/web based file box that syncs up the photos and documents on your smartphone or tablet with your computer.   All you have to do is set up and download their app on your phone, tablet or iPod Touch.  Then save your new photos to your Dropbox folder and they’ll be waiting for you at home on your computer.   In fact most of the newer generation Wi-Fi video cameras, or cameras with an ez Share WiFi SD Card smart memory card do the same thing.

The Truth About Videos…

Videos just aren’t like other keepsakes.  With photos, MP3s or even important documents, we can just throw them onto a computer or a portable hard drive and back them up or take them with us in an emergency.  The videos that we’ve taken the last five or ten years with a digital video camera are easy to archive.  But the videos that we treasure the most are usually on videocassettes or worse, 8mm film.  Try taking those with you in an evacuation!   If those one-of-a-kind family movies on video cassette are destroyed, they’re gone forever.

And that’s not the only problem. 

With JVC, Sony, Panasonic and other video cameras and smartphones as inexpensive and easy to use as they are today, chances are that you have more videos of you, your family and friends, and the special moments of your life than ever before. 

But if you’re like most people, all of those videos are sitting on your computer, in a bunch of different places.  Or worse, you have 10 or 20 of them sitting on your video camera, just waiting to be accidentally overwritten.  Whether digital, on videocassette or film, all it takes is one fire, flood, fried hard drive, or hacked You Tube account and all of those memories are gone, along with a huge piece of your family’s history.

One other thing that you need to think about is the fact that videos and even film don’t last forever.  The latest statistic is that videos degrade in just eight or ten years.  And by degrade, I don’t mean that they get a little faded.  Videos lose their sound and can become garbled to the point that you can’t even watch them anymore.  Not what you want when you pop in that wedding video or the tape of your baby’s first steps.

Film, like Super 8 or 8mm reels, lasts longer (30 to 50 years), but it’s much harder to watch unless you have a projector and is harder to transfer to DVD for safekeeping.  But don’t worry, we’ve got some great tips on easy ways to preserve both film and video in the Take Action steps below.

Your goal for this section is to make all of your treasured videos and films completely accessible to you during a disaster, emergency evacuation, computer or Internet meltdown.

Just follow the steps below to locate all of your important videos, copy them and store them in at least three secure, damage-proof locations.

Take Action! 

1. You Can’t Archive Them If You Can’t Find Them…

Grab a pencil and paper and jot down the types of videos you want to secure, their format (digital file/format, standard video cassette, DVD or special sized video cassette) and their current location.

Using the list you just compiled, locate and gather all of the videos that you want to secure and set them aside for a moment.

2. Any Videos Lurking On Your Hard Drive?

Do you have any home videos on your computer?

Yes?  Then let’s start with them.  And while you’re at it, grab your video camera  and cell phone so you can download any videos that are still there.

• Create one new folder on your computer desktop and name it Backup Videos (dd/mm/yy) with today’s date.

• Locate all of the digital videos that you want to keep safe.  Leave the original files where they are on your computer, copying each one into  the new Backup folder.

• Instead of taking the time to choose which videos you want to keep safe and which you don’t really care about, it’s much easier just to copy them all for right now and back them all up.  Then  some time when you have nothing better to do, you can come back and sort through them.

3. Now for the Super 8 & Videocassettes

Now it’s time to deal with your 8mm or Super 8 films and video cassettes. Take a few moments to gather them and separate them into two different piles.

In Pile 1, place any videos that you want to copy and save in a digital format.

In Pile 2, place videos that you:

• Already have in digital format and could easily recopy if the one you’re holding were harmed or destroyed.

• Have numerous other copies of the video in other locations.  (Check to make sure that this is actually so before you decide not to copy them)

• Simply don’t care enough about to keep it disaster safe.

• Go ahead and put the videos in the second pile back where you found them.

4. The Best Way To Copy Videocassettes

The only way to archive your films and videos is to copy or transfer them into a digital format and save them to your computer or onto a DVD.  There are a few great ways to do this yourself or you can have a professional do it.

If your movies are on videocassette , ION makes a great little device called a ClearClick Video to Digital Converter for your PC or Mac.  It’s a small device — you plug one end into your computer and the other end into your VCR and it saves your videos in digital format on your computer.  The Magnavox VHS to DVD Combo Recorder is also a wonderful way to rerecord a VHS tape onto a DVD directly.

5. What About My Super 8 Movies?

If you have reels of 8mm & Super 8 films lying around, you’ll need to have them transferred to digital format professionally.

There’s a wonderful company called iMemories that helped us digitize our  movies.  They’ll even send you a safe ship kit equipped with a GPS locator to pinpoint your movies’ exact location, every step of the way.  And they do an incredible job of transferring film, videotapes, audio files and photos .  The best part is that once they’re completed, you can share them with your friends and relatives in your own private online theater.

6.  Where and how you decide to secure and store your videos is up to you.  But here are a few ideas:

Once your videos are digital, you can place them:

• On a portable hard drive or on a DVD, and take them with you during evacuation on a key ring or in your plastic evacuation bin.

• On a flash drive or portable hard drive, in a safe deposit box or water/fireproof safe in your own city.

• On a flash drive or portable hard drive, in a safe deposit box, water/fireproof safe, or with relatives in the city where you’ll be evacuating.

• In a password-protected online file repository or on the file directory of your family’s personal web site.  This way you can retrieve them from any Internet-enabled computer.

• Upload them to your iMemories account.  This way they’re not only safe, but you can share with family and friends.

• On You Tube or another internet video site.  This is great place to save an extra copy of your videos. Just be sure to uncheck the public viewing option or password protect the videos for your and your family’s eyes only.  But this really shouldn’t be a long term solution, or your only solution.  As much as we all love Internet sharing sites, you actually have no control over them.  If the company were to go out of business, or if their servers were to crash, you could lose all of your data without any warning.

• And while we’re on the subject of saving all of your important videos for decades to come, the next time you’re in the market for a new video camera or a digital camera that shoots video, make sure that you choose one with built in Wi-Fi, that uploads all of your new videos directly to your PC, laptop, iCloud, Dropbox or other online filing repository.   

High Tech Toys

Here are some of our favorite high-tech tools and toys to help you get all of your favorite photos, music, home videos, movies – and anything else that can be stored digitally – backed up, stored and accessible.  Wherever you are.  Whatever is going on around you.  24/7. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020

Anker PowerCore 5000 Portable Charger

Axis Self-Powered Safety Hub

Canon PowerShot Wi-Fi Enabled ELPH 190 Digital Camera

ClearClick Video to Digital Converter

Epson Perfection V600 Photo, Film, & Document Scanner

ez Share WiFi SD Card

Fireproof Document Bags

Sentry Fireproof/Waterproof  Lateral File Cabinet

SentrySafe Fireproof and Waterproof Safe

HP Photo Printer All-in-One Wireless Envy 7120

ION Audio Premier LP Turntable Vinyl Record Player

Kodak P570 Personal Photo Scanner

Magnavox VHS to DVD Combo Recorder

Reshow Cassette Player  MP3 Converter

Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook

SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Sony 4K HD Video Camcorder

Sony HX400V Compact Digital Camera

VuPoint Handheld Magic Wand Portable Scanner

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff organized, backed up and together, pick up a copy of our books “Back It Up” and “Write It Down” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

 

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

 

How To Save Your Vinyl Albums & Cassettes Onto Your Computer

Updated 9/28/2021

How Much is Your Music Collection Worth? 

An even better question is, how much is it worth to you? 

People would rather part with their high school yearbooks than their music. 

It’s special.  Intensely personal.  Truly the soundtrack to our lives. 

That’s why it’s so important to copy and archive your music the RIGHT way. 

The other day I walked into a store and wasn’t paying much attention to anything but finding the item I had stopped in for.  All of a sudden a song began to play on the store’s radio.  I hadn’t even heard what was playing before, but now, my entire mood changed.  It was “Hooked On A Feeling”, which will be forever known as the Dancing Baby song from “Ally McBeal”.  Not only did the music have my attention, but I immediately got a picture of that ridiculous dancing baby in my mind and had a huge smile on my face.  So did half of the people in the store. What is it about music that can bring you such immediate, overwhelming emotions?  It  transports you the place you were when you first heard it or always listened to that song. 

And it’s not just the Ooogachucka of the dancing baby, but it’s so many songs, like the theme from the Dancing Waters show at Disneyland Hotel, where we went so many evenings when I was growing up in Orange County.

The hard part about protecting the music that we’ve amassed over the years isn’t collecting it, it’s making sure that our soundtracks are there for us to listen to and enjoy for years to come. 

Just think about the types of music that you probably have in your home right now.  You probably have MP3s that you’ve downloaded from iTunes or other sites for your iPod or MP3 player.  Then, there’s your collection of CDs that you did or did not get around to ripping onto your computer and turning into MP3s.  If you’re over 30, you probably have quite a few cassettes hanging around and you probably even have some vinyl albums or 8 tracks as well that are either yours or have been handed down to you by family members.

Except for the MP3s and, with a little work, the CDs, none of those things are exactly on speaking terms with your computer.  And if you’re like most people, the MP3s are probably all over your computer, in a bunch of different folders.  That doesn’t include the music you’ve downloaded to your phone or to your tablet that you haven’t gotten around to backing up onto your PC or Mac.   And chances are, you and your family members have spent quite a lot of money on those downloaded songs, those CDs, cassettes and whatever else you have your music on.

Losing them, whether physically in a fire or flood, or digitally on a crashed cellphone or computer, would be a nightmare.   People put so much money into their music collections, but very few ever think to back it up!

So let’s gather that music collection of yours and back it up.  Not only will you be able to find your songs when you want them, but you’ll finally be able to hear that amazing jazz solo you have on vinyl on your iPhone or Samsung Galaxy!

Take Action! 

1. Here CDs, Here Cassettes.   Where Are Your Albums?

Grab a pencil and paper and jot down the types of music you have that you want to secure and their current location.

Using the list you just compiled, locate and gather all of the CDs, cassettes and vinyl albums that you want to secure and set them aside for a moment.

2. What About The Music That’s Already Digital?

Do you have MP3 or other digital music files?

First grab your MP3 player, your cell phone, your iPad or tablets and make sure all of those music files are downloaded to your computer desktop now.

• Create one new folder on your computer desktop and name it “Backup Music (dd/mm/yy)” with today’s date.

• Locate all of the digital music on your hard drive that you want to keep safe.  Leave the original files where they are on your computer, but copy each one and place the copies in that new Backup folder.

3. Time To Deal With The Albums & CDs…

Although all of your music is important, some means more to you than others.  Take a few moments to look at your CDs, cassettes and vinyl albums, and separate them into two different piles.

• In the first pile, place music that you’ll need to copy and save in a digital format, to keep them safe.

• In the second pile, place music that you:

• Already have in digital format and could easily find if the one you’re holding was harmed or destroyed.

• Have numerous other copies of the music in other locations.  (be sure that this is actually so before you decide not to copy them)

• Simply don’t care enough about to keep it disaster safe.

• You can go ahead and put the music in the second pile away.

4. Convert Your CDs to MP3s

You can convert CDs right on your computer, using your computer’s music software.  For a PC, that would be Windows Media Player.  Just put the CD into your computer and the software will automatically pop up.  Follow the instructions to “rip” your CD.

When your songs are ripped, take your CD out and save the new MP3 files to the music folder on your computer.  We’ll back those up to keep them safe in a few minutes.  But don’t forget to add those new songs to your phone iPad or MP3 player!

5. Convert Your Cassettes & Albums to MP3s

Here are a few easy ways we’ve found to convert your cassettes or albums to MP3s.

There are several vinyl album to MP3 recorders available including the ION Audio Premier LP Turntable Vinyl Record Player.  The nice thing about that one is that it converts cassettes and vinyl to CD or to MP3s.  And if you only have cassettes to convert, there is the Reshow Cassette Player  MP3 Converter.

Once you’ve saved copies of your cassettes and vinyl albums, save them to the regular music folder on your computer, to your new backup folder and don’t forget to put your favorites on your smartphone or MP3 player.

And while you’re at it, how about helping mom, dad, grandma or grandpa preserve their old albums while you’re at it.  An MP3 player or new iPhone X or Samsung Galaxy full of their favorite songs would make a GREAT gift!

6. Save Them To Your Computer

Download the new MP3 files to your computer desktop, placing them in a brand new folder.  When you’re finished, make one copy of that complete folder.  Place the original folder in with the other digital music files on your computer.  Then place the copy of the folder into the backup folder you created earlier.

If you don’t have access to a converter or don’t own a computer, then have a relative or friend convert them and store them for you. 

And while you’re at it, how about helping mom, dad, grandma or grandpa preserve their old albums.  A brand new smartphone or MP3 player full of their favorite albums would make a GREAT gift!

7. And Then Archive The Back Up Copies

Since we’ve been talking about preserving your music, once you’ve got it all backed up, it only makes sense to keep it safe and sound. 

So save a copy of your Backup Music folder onto a flash drive or a portable hard drive and place it in at least two secure, damage-proof locations, away from home for safekeeping. 

Here are a few suggestions on places to put it:

• In a watertight Plastic Evacuation Bin. 

• In a safe deposit box in your own city.

• In a water/fireproof safe in your own city.

• In a safe deposit in a pre-determined evacuation location

• In a password protected file on Dropbox, iCloud, OneDrive or family web site.

High Tech Toys

Here are some of our favorite high-tech tools and toys to help you get all of your favorite photos, music, home videos, movies – and anything else that can be stored digitally – backed up, stored and accessible.  Wherever you are.  Whatever is going on around you.  24/7. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020

Anker PowerCore 5000 Portable Charger

Axis Self-Powered Safety Hub

Canon PowerShot Wi-Fi Enabled ELPH 190 Digital Camera

ClearClick Video to Digital Converter

Epson Perfection V600 Photo, Film, & Document Scanner

ez Share WiFi SD Card

Fireproof Document Bags

Sentry Fireproof/Waterproof  Lateral File Cabinet

SentrySafe Fireproof and Waterproof Safe

HP Photo Printer All-in-One Wireless Envy 7120

ION Audio Premier LP Turntable Vinyl Record Player

Kodak P570 Personal Photo Scanner

Magnavox VHS to DVD Combo Recorder

Reshow Cassette Player  MP3 Converter

Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook

SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Sony 4K HD Video Camcorder

Sony HX400V Compact Digital Camera

VuPoint Handheld Magic Wand Portable Scanner

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff organized, backed up and together, pick up a copy of our books “Back It Up” and “Write It Down” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

How To Preserve Your Family History

Updated 9/28/2021

Every family has a history keeper. 

Sometimes it’s the eldest daughter or the most responsible aunt and sometimes it’s simply the person with the biggest house.  But in every family throughout the centuries, the task of keeping the family history alive usually falls to one person. 

It doesn’t even matter if that person is particularly good at it.  Whether they use a basement or an attic, there’s always one person whose home is piled with photo albums, birth certificates, marriage certificates, newspaper clippings and Civil War muskets.  

And for centuries this made sense.  Families didn’t move a lot, and photos and keepsakes – well it was so difficult to make copies of them or move them without them falling to pieces – that it just made sense to leave them be, until one of the kids who was “interested in those things”, came by to investigate where they came from. 

And history wasn’t always relegated to photos and muskets.  It was also passed down from generation to generation through stories and legends by people who had heard them so many times, they could simply sit down next to a fire and regale everyone with Uncle Frank’s escapades during the war or the time Aunt Sophie saved her entire family from ruin.

But in last few decades all of that has changed.  Television and the internet have taken the place of listening to our elders share their stories.  In fact those elders are probably too busy to do it.  They’re all off starting a blog or out volunteering in the community.  Family history now consists of fading ten year old video tapes or Facebook photos of last month’s birthday bash.

Which is probably the reason services like Ancestry.com are flourishing.   We all want to know where we came from.  Not just the last two generations but decades and centuries ago.  And with places like Ancestry.com linking us with a past that makes our own history spring to life, genealogy is suddenly cool again.

And that leads us right back to the history keepers.  Back in the recesses of those attics and basements are pieces of our history – and every day they’re falling to pieces.  The photos are curling and yellowing.  The documents are fading, the newspapers and Family Bibles are turning to pulp and the christening outfit is being consumed by moths.

I can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard the same thing.  “Aunt Sadie had a huge house so she kept all the family albums.  We never thought about whether they were safe or not, until the night her house burned down or her basement flooded.  And then suddenly, two hundred years of history was a soggy, unsalvageable mass of lumpy paper.”  

So who is the best person to be the keeper of the history in your family?  There’s only one logical answer to that question.

Everyone!  It’s time for every person in every family to start sharing the load and sharing the history.

Don’t just appoint one family member to do it.  It’s not practical and it’s certainly not fair.  What about getting together and making a day of it?  Gather all of the family photos from everyone homes and have a scanning party.  You can share memories while you scan and then when you’re done, each person gets a copy of all of the photos on a nicely labeled DVD.  Do the same thing with the family videos or Super8 movies.  One group can be scanning the photographs and archiving them, while another group transfers the videos and films onto DVDs.

Have you ever thought of doing an oral history of your family?  Years ago, families didn’t have sound on their 8 mm or Super8 movies, and never had the chance to hear what their great or great-great grandparents sounded like.   It’s such an honor and such an opportunity to be able to capture all of the people we love on video now so that we can share them with generations to come. Not only does it bring history to life for everyone, but it shows the entire journey of who we are as a family and how that has made us the individuals we are today.

When Spike Lee was on NBC’s “Who Do You Think You Are,” he told a touching story about his grandmother.  Evidently she was a wonderful storyteller and lived way into her nineties.  Even though he’s a filmmaker and had all of the equipment right there at his fingertips, he just never got around to getting her or her stories on film.  And then she passed away, and he lost that opportunity. 

He had tears in his eyes when he told the story on the show, and today, not getting her on film is one of his biggest regrets.  Maybe he just didn’t want to think that some time she might no longer be with them.  So take Spike Lee’s advice.  Grab a video camera and get those relatives and their stories on video for posterity.  Then anytime you or your children want to hear Grandma or Great-Grandpa and visit with them for a bit, all you have to do is pop in the video and they and their stories will spring to life.

If you have a people in your family who are great at research, consider getting a membership for Ancestry.com and putting them hot on the trail of your forefathers and mothers.  If you’ve never been out there, you’d be amazed the treasures you can find, like photos, censuses, war records and steamship records.  In fact, we found out that we’re actually related to an amazing woman who led the Red Cross into the 20^th Century!

But when you unearth all that information on Ancestry.com, save each and every piece.  Archive it on your own computer and then save it to your family tree on Ancestry.com, and give access to that tree and documents to your family so THEY can save the document and tree on their own computers.  This way each member of your family will have an entire history for each generation to come, without relying on the water-tightness of Aunt Sophie’s basement, or the crash resistance of one person’s computer hard drive.

We were discussing ways to keep family history and vital documents save with Steve Leveen, founder of Levenger, who is a great fan of fine books and libraries.  He told us that, people in library circles have an acronym that helps them preserve important documents.  It’s LOCKSS –Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe.   The Library at Alexandria burned three times – believe it or not, one of those times was on purpose!  But it still survived, because they learned not to keep everything in a centralized location.  Centralizing things in one place makes them susceptible to damage.

And what if the relative who is currently the keeper of the history won’t let you take the family photos home to scan them?  Not to worry.  Grab a portable wand scanner, like the one we like best, the VuPoint Hand Scanner.   They’re small, rechargeable and can scan any flat surface, including a photo right in the frame.  Just gather a couple of friendly family members, knock on Aunt Sophie’s door, whip out your scanner and start capturing all that family history.  Once she sees her prized photos being downloaded to your laptop, where they’ll be safe for years to come, she’ll come around.  And if she doesn’t?  Well, you’ve got your digital copies of her photos, along with a batch of her delicious cookies for the trip home.

Take Action! 

1. First, Grab What You Have

Grab a pencil and paper and jot down the types of family history documentation you currently have in your home.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• Family Photos

• Family Tree

• Relatives’ Birth/Marriage/Death Certificates

• Land Titles/Deeds

• Family History Documents

• Census Records

• Relatives’ Videos/Interviews/Oral Histories on tape

• Anything else related to the history of your family

Using the list you just compiled, locate and gather all of those documents.  If necessary, divide them into separate files for each family surname.

2. Next Scan & Archive

Are any of the family history documents or photos you located already on computer?   If so, copy the documents (leaving the originals where they are on your computer) to a new folder called Family History Backup.

Scan all of the paper documents you gathered  at 300dpi or higher and save them to your computer.  When you’re finished, make a copy of those documents and put them in your Family History Backup folder.

If you don’t have a computer, see if you can find someone to scan and save the documents for you.  If that’s not possible, then have high quality copies made at your local copy shop.

3.  The Family Tree

If you want to take your family history up a notch – or if you’re the historian in your family – we suggest using Ancestry.com or their Family Tree Maker software to create your own Family Tree.

If you haven’t been on Ancestry.com yet, you’ll be amazed at the amount of information, photos, historical documents and census data that’s waiting for you.  And once you’ve created your family’s tree you can share all of your information with other family members.

4.  Finding The Other Pieces To The Puzzle

Once you begin preserving your family history, you might just have to go and grab pieces of it from grandmas, grandpas, aunts, uncles and anyone else you can find who has boxes of it in their attic or basement.  Those boxes were fine when no one ever moved and historical documents could only be saved in boxes tied up with ribbon.  But now that we can actually preserve documents either by storing them in acid free containers, albums or scanning them, there is no longer any reason to make Great Aunt Sophie the sole preservationist in the family.

Not only is it unfair to Aunt Sophie to have all of that pressure, but if something should happen to her home, the memories of an entire family will disappear.  That actually happened to one side of our family.  Just two weeks before we located the aunt who was the keeper of the records, her basement, bone dry for thirty years, suddenly flooded from a winter storm and along with it went all traces of the Sullivan family photos and history.

5. Getting The Real Story – On Video

Are there people in your family that you want your grandchildren and great grandchildren to meet years from now?  Don’t just rely on a photo or someone’s memory to tell the story.  Put them on video.

Fire up the video camera and get your favorite relatives to tell their favorite stories or prepare the family’s favorite cake or pie  on camera.  Then save the videos on DVD in multiple locations to preserve another piece of your family’s memories.

6. Fixing Those Faded Photos

One last bit of advice. Once you have all of your photos or documents scanned and saved, look through and find any that are damaged, faded or yellowed. There are so many great photo software programs out there, like Adobe Photoshop Elements. But one scanner stands out among all the others in the marketplace, for color correction, right in the scanner.

It’s the Epson Perfection line of scanners, with Epson’s Easy Photo Fix software. Do you have any of those photos from the seventies and eighties that ended up a muddled brown-orange mess? This is the only easy solution we have found to restoring then back to their natural color. All you have to do is use the Auto Fix setting on the scanner and then scan your seventies photos. The scanner corrects the color while it scans. Truly amazing! Even if you have to touch them up a bit with Photoshop Elements afterwards, using the Epson scanner will save you hours if not days of manual color correction, that probably wouldn’t come out have as great as they do on the scanner.

High Tech Toys

Here are some of our favorite high-tech tools and toys to help you get all of your favorite photos, music, home videos, movies – and anything else that can be stored digitally – backed up, stored and accessible.  Wherever you are.  Whatever is going on around you.  24/7. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020

Anker PowerCore 5000 Portable Charger

Axis Self-Powered Safety Hub

Canon PowerShot Wi-Fi Enabled ELPH 190 Digital Camera

ClearClick Video to Digital Converter

Epson Perfection V600 Photo, Film, & Document Scanner

ez Share WiFi SD Card

Fireproof Document Bags

Sentry Fireproof/Waterproof  Lateral File Cabinet

SentrySafe Fireproof and Waterproof Safe

HP Photo Printer All-in-One Wireless Envy 7120

ION Audio Premier LP Turntable Vinyl Record Player

Kodak P570 Personal Photo Scanner

Magnavox VHS to DVD Combo Recorder

Reshow Cassette Player  MP3 Converter

Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook

SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Sony 4K HD Video Camcorder

Sony HX400V Compact Digital Camera

VuPoint Handheld Magic Wand Portable Scanner

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff organized, backed up and together, pick up a copy of our books “Back It Up” and “Write It Down” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

How To Back Up Your Print Photos

Updated 9/28/21

I don’t know about you, but the worst part about watching coverage of any hurricane or wildfire, is the look on people’s faces as they pick through the rubble of their homes, trying to find the things they love.  

Even one photo of their wedding or of their children, can mean the difference between being with or without their cherished memories. 

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — it’s definitely time to make everything we love safe and sound.

Here are our top tips, tools & high tech toys that will get all your favorite photos scanned, stored and accessible quickly and easily. 

Have you been through your family photo album lately? 

How are your pictures doing? 

Are they bright and colorful or faded and lifeless? 

Have you taken the time to scan them or is the print you’re holding, the only one of its kind?

The one thing that makes photos harder to archive than other keepsakes, is that we’re so used to seeing them hanging around the house, that we forget to take them off the wall and scan them for safekeeping.  

Before we get to saving you current pictures, how would you like to make sure all of your future photos are safe and protected before they even leave your camera?

Simple!  The next time you buy a camera, make sure it’s Wi-Fi enabled, like one of my personal favorites, the Sony HX400V Compact Digital Camera.  Every picture you snap goes right to your computer or to the Cloud automagically without you having to remember to do it manually.  And it has a spectacular Optical Zoom to boot!   And if you’re not in the market for a new camera, get a Wi-Fi memory card like the ez Share WiFi SD Card that turns most regular digital cameras into Wi-Fi.

Backing Up Your Photos

The good news is, there are so many different printers and scanners and flash drives and hard drives, you can see your favorite family photos any time and anywhere you want. 

In this section, we’ll be dealing with prints – basically anything that is a physical photo, whether it’s in a frame, in an album or lurking in the back of a kitchen or desk drawer — and get them into a digital format. 

If you have a lot of photos around the house, you’ll probably need some help dealing with all of your pictures.  Why not declare one day “scanning day”.  Invite a bunch of good friends over to help, and if you have as much fun as we think you will, next time have them bring over their own photos to scan.  Don’t forget to recruit your kids. They’ll have a great time helping.

1. Oh Photos? Where Are You?

First, locate and gather all of your physical photos.

Don’t forget to look for all your albums, photos in drawers or files, framed and hanging on the walls or sitting on your bookshelf.  

2. Quick Start

Although all of your pictures are important, some mean more to you than others. 

Before you start sorting all your pictures, find the ten or twelve pictures you love the most and back them up first, using the “How To Scan Your Photos” directions below.

Not only will your favorite shots be safe and sound, but you’ll already know what you’re doing when you tackle the rest of them!

3. Sorting All Your Photos

Separate your photos into two different piles.

In Pile 1, place photos that you want to copy and save in a digital format, for safekeeping.

In Pile 2, place photos that you:

• Already have in digital format and could easily recopy if the one you’re holding was harmed or destroyed.

• Have numerous copies of in other locations.  Check to make sure that this is actually true, before you decide not to scan them.

• Simply don’t care enough about to keep it disaster safe.

The next time you have a second, put the photos in the second pile back where you found them.

4. Scan Away!

Using our scanning tips below, scan all of the photos in Pile 1 and save them to your computer.

If you already have digital photos on your computer, save the new scans to a new folder within your photos folder. 

For example, ScannedPrintPhotos, so you’ll know at a glance that these are copies of your old print photos. 

5. Make Sure You Back Up ALL Your Photos To At Least 3 Locations

Once you’ve finished scanning, copy the folder on your computer that contains all of your photos — the digital ones and print ones you just scanned — and save it with a different name, like Photo Archive Backup, with today’s date.  

Place the copy of your backup folder in at least three different locations.  Here are a few suggestions of safe places to store them:

• On a flash drive or portable hard drive, and take them with you during evacuation on a key ring or in your plastic evacuation bin.

• On a flash drive or portable hard drive, in a safe deposit box or water/fireproof safe in your own city.

• On a flash drive or portable hard drive, in a safe deposit box, water/fireproof safe, or with relatives in the city where you would evacuate to in an emergency.

• In a password-protected online file repository like OneDrive, iCloud or Dropbox, or on the file directory of your personal web site.  This way, you can retrieve them from any web enabled computer.

You can also save a copy of your photos on a web-based service like Amazon Photos.  But this shouldn’t be your only solution, since you have no control over the site & could lose your photos without any warning.

How To Scan Your Photos

There are several great ways to scan and preserve your photos.

And the nice thing about it, is that once it’s scanned, you can share it with family and friends or correct faded color, repair damage or otherwise restore old photographs.

You can scan your photos with your all-in-one printer, a regular scanner (all it does is scan), a portable wand scanner that you swipe over your photos one or several at a time, or a photo scanner, with a built-in feeder that protects and guides photos or slides through the scanner, for an extra layer of protection.

Here are some of our favorites.

HP Envy 7120 All-in-One Wireless Photo Printer  

Most printers available now are all-in-one printers, that scan as well as print.  This one is especially easy to use as a regular or photo printer and is compact enough to put on your desk.  Not only can you scan and print high resolution photos directly on to acid free photo paper, but it’s also a wireless printer with HP ePrint, which means that you can send photos directly to your printer from your smartphone or tablet.

Portable Wand Scanners

Portable wand scanners, like the VuPoint Magic Wand Scanner, have come a long way.  They run on batteries or are rechargeable and save anything you scan onto an SD card.  From there, you can download the scans/photos directly to your computer via a USB cord, or you can pop the SD card out of the scanner and pop it into your computer to archive your scans.

The best part about having a portable wand scanner is that you can scan photos, documents, and even things like marriage certificates or historical documents by swiping the scanner over it, instead of having to feed them through your scanner one at a time. 

It’s especially good, for scanning photos at relative’s homes.  If Aunt Sadie doesn’t want her favorite photos the leaving her house, just take the scanner over and scan the ones you want.   If you’re dealing with a fragile photo, you can even scan it right in the frame. 

Or if you have delicate photos in a photo album – have you ever tried to peel photos out of an album without damaging them – you can simply open the book and sweep the scanner over the page. 

From there, all you have to do is open the scanned page and crop the photos apart, saving each one as a separate photo.  Photos archived, originals safeguarded!

Kodak P570 Personal Photo Scanner  

This portable scanner not only expertly scans photos, but it has a special attachment that scans slides and negatives, turning them into full size, high-quality photos.

We found some slides that someone had given us, and since we never used slides ourselves, we didn’t have the equipment to look at them. 

With the Kodak Scanner, all we did was feed the slide into the scanner and suddenly we had full color, beautiful photos that looked like they were processed last week.  Absolutely amazing!

If you don’t have access to a scanner, then have a relative or friend scan them for you, or go to a copy shop like Fed Ex-Kinko’s to have them scanned.  While you’re there, print color copies of your favorite photos on non-acid paper.  This will ensure that they will last longer and will fade less as they age.

Now that you know what you’re doing, scan all the loose prints that you want to preserve, then save the scans to your computer to back them up.

Once you have all of your photos or documents scanned and saved, look through and find any that are damaged, faded or yellowed.

There are so many great photo software programs out there, like Adobe Photoshop Elements. But one scanner stands out among all the others in the marketplace, for color correction, right in the scanner.

It’s the Epson Perfection line of scanners, with Epson’s Easy Photo Fix software. Do you have any of those photos from the seventies and eighties that ended up a muddled brown-orange mess? This is the only easy solution we have found to restoring then back to their natural color. All you have to do is use the Auto Fix setting on the scanner and then scan your seventies photos. The scanner corrects the color while it scans.

Even if you have to touch them up a bit with Photoshop Elements afterwards, using the Epson scanner will save you hours if not days of manual color correction, that probably wouldn’t come out have as great as they do on the scanner.

High Tech Toys

Here are some of our favorite high-tech tools and toys to help you get all of your favorite photos, music, home videos, movies – and anything else that can be stored digitally – backed up, stored and accessible.  Wherever you are.  Whatever is going on around you.  24/7. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020

Anker PowerCore 5000 Portable Charger

Axis Self-Powered Safety Hub

Canon PowerShot Wi-Fi Enabled ELPH 190 Digital Camera

ClearClick Video to Digital Converter

Epson Perfection V600 Photo, Film, & Document Scanner

ez Share WiFi SD Card

Fireproof Document Bags

Sentry Fireproof/Waterproof  Lateral File Cabinet

SentrySafe Fireproof and Waterproof Safe

HP Photo Printer All-in-One Wireless Envy 7120

ION Audio Premier LP Turntable Vinyl Record Player

Kodak P570 Personal Photo Scanner

Magnavox VHS to DVD Combo Recorder

Reshow Cassette Player  MP3 Converter

Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook

SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Sony 4K HD Video Camcorder

Sony HX400V Compact Digital Camera

VuPoint Handheld Magic Wand Portable Scanner

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff backed up and together, pick up a copy of our book “Back It Up” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Back It Up
I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Get Ready For A Tsunami

Updated 9/28/2021

How To Get Ready For A Tsunami

There once was a man who was so afraid of earthquakes that he did everything he possibly could to prepare for one.  He had water, food, and first aid kits lining the walls of his ocean front home.  He had his bookcases and cabinets bolted to the wall.  Everyone in his home knew where to run and where to hide when “the big one” eventually hit.

Then one morning the big one came.  He and his family ran into the spots they had practiced, into doorways, under the heavy tables.  It seemed like an eternity before the rumbling stopped.  Everyone just looked at each other, scared but smiling.  They’d done it!  They were okay.  They had food, they had shelter – this wasn’t so bad.

The man rushed to the door followed by his family.  The sun was shining, and they were thrilled to be alive.  Then one of the kids heard a strange roar.  Seconds later they could all hear it.  And then they saw it.  A ten-foot wave was headed right at them.  They ran up the street, up the hill as fast as they could.  They made it to the top just in time to watch the water swallow up their neighborhood, their home and with it, all their supplies.  The man looked at his wife and said,  “That was strange.  I never saw it coming.”

The moral of the story?  Just because you’re ready for what you think might happen, it doesn’t mean you’re ready for something you would never expect in a million years.    Tsunamis are exactly that type of event — especially if you live in the western United States or anywhere in the Pacific Ring Of Fire.  In other words earthquake country.

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having an up to date Evacuation Plan and Get Back To Life Plan is the perfect way to keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

So what’s the best way to prepare for a tsunami?

Next to earthquakes, tsunamis are probably the second most difficult type of disaster to prepare for, because you usually don’t get a lot of warning when one is about to strike.  Since tsunamis are usually set off by earthquakes, the earthquake itself provides the warning that a tsunami might be imminent.  But that’s only if the tsunami strikes the same area as the original earthquake.  In Japan for example, the earthquake struck and the tsunami followed later.  In other instances, an earthquake struck one area of the world while the tsunami went the other direction striking people who never felt the earthquake.   And when they do strike, they usually hit so quickly and with so much force (like the tsunami in Thailand) that people in it’s wake have no time to do anything but run for their lives.

Even though some countries have tsunami warning systems in place, they still aren’t that reliable.  So the best way to prepare your important documents, files, information and keepsakes for a tsunami is to make sure that your earthquake preparation is up to date.  We have a few great blog posts right here like preparing for an earthquake and How to Earthquake Proof Your Bedroom.

Besides knowing where your tsunami evacuation routes are and how to use them, the most important part of preparing for a tsunami is having everything you need for an evacuation:

At your fingertips

or

Already in your evacuation location

So how do we prepare for tsunamis?  We always follow the…

Three Step Approach

The First Step, is to make sure that you have your earthquake survival gear and know how to secure your home and personal safety when an earthquake or tsunami strikes.

The Second Step, is to make sure that you’re able to grab everything you need – necessities, keepsakes, vital information – and leave for a safer location, in less than ten minutes. It’s a lot easier than it sounds. All you need is to do is to take the necessary steps now, to ensure you have access to all the items and information that will help you get back to living your normal life, as quickly and easily as possible.  You’ll also want to make sure that the things that are most vital to you — your important papers, financial and insurance information, treasured photos, videos and music and scannable keepsakes are backed up onto a portable hard drive and stored in a safe deposit box or safe, in the town where you will go during evacuation.   That way it will be safe, sound and waiting for you when you arrive.

The Third Step is to make sure that you have a pre-written plan of what you’ll do and where you’ll go when a disaster strikes, including a plan for how you’ll get back to your normal life, once the disaster is over.

If you live in an area where a tsunami might strike, you absolutely need an Evacuation Plan and a Get Back To Life Plan.  If you don’t know the tsunami evacuation routes in your area, call your local fire department for this information immediately and do one or two trial runs finding and using the evacuation route to ensure that you know where you’re going, without a wall of water in close pursuit.  And while you’re at it, make sure you also ask them where the emergency shelters are in your area in case  you suddenly need one.  You always need to know where you’re going and what you and your family would do if your area becomes uninhabitable.   If necessary make a plan with other relatives or neighbors to evacuate together and share transportation and costs.

Even if your home is safe from rising flood waters and away from the areas predicted to feel the heaviest impact of the storm, your neighborhood and city might still without power or basic city services for a few days — or a few weeks.  Just as survivors of Hurricane Isaac and Hurricane Katrina!  Telephone and/or cell service may also be down.   Not only does that mean you won’t have light, but you also won’t have power for computers or televisions and radios. Grocery and drug stores won’t be able to ring up purchases, ATMs won’t work, garage door openers might not function. Name any tool or convenience we rely on in this world and chances are it’s powered by electricity.

We aren’t going to get into the details of how to turn off your gas, when to boil water or a list of items to have on hand for an earthquake, because there are literally hundreds of sources for that information.  In fact here are a few of our favorite guides and videos:

Tsunami Guide/Checklist    Tsunami Preparedness from NOAA    

You should also create or update your evacuation checklist, detailing the items that you and your family would need if you were unable to live in your home for three or more days. This includes all of your necessities, prescriptions, vital documents (or access to them on portable hard drives, online or in out of area safe deposit boxes), keepsakes, personal and professional contacts, ID and basic medical history and anything else that your family will need while evacuated.

We want you to think about something.

Think about the coverage of the last few tsunamis and earthquakes you saw on CNN.  Remember the faces of the people in the midst of the quake zone or the eye of the storm?

They looked shell-shocked, terrified, lost. Most of those people, were at least moderately prepared for a disaster. Those in earthquake country most likely had stockpiled some food and water, those in hurricane country might even have evacuated and done everything their local news and emergency authorities told them to do. And yet, after the disaster, they were standing there, scared and helpless, because their homes, the people they loved, and basically their entire lives have been destroyed to the point that their own existence was now unrecognizable. All of those people, rich and poor, young and old — they all had one thing in common. They had NO idea where to go and what to do from here.   That’s exactly what happened to families in Japan after their earthquake and tsunami.  If you’d like to read more about that, take a look at Living In A Cardboard House.

And THAT – knowing what to do and where to go after the disaster, is step three.   The most important step of all.

Facing a disaster without giving yourself a plan to recover from it, is like trying to build a house with no blueprint and no tools!

Having two plans can make all the difference in getting you through those first few days and weeks after a disaster strikes.

What are the plans?  They are the Family Evacuation Plan and the Get Back To Life Plan — the same plans that we’ve built into our book Keep Everything You Love Safe. 

The evacuation plan starts with one question.  If you were at home or at work and suddenly had to evacuate your home, or your general area, where would you go?

As you think about the locations you’ll use for your evacuation, consider, the people traveling with you, how you’ll get there (car, bus, plane), any pets traveling with you and whether those locations will actually work for you – for instance are they close to stores or services your family might need, like pharmacies, clothing, banks and doctors.

We suggest that people have three different locations in mind, to give you different types of locations and choices depending on the circumstances. As you create your plan, write everything down in detail. If you have to use this plan, you and the people you love are probably going to be in panic mode and following an easy to understand plan, will help calm and focus you.

Write down the people who will be traveling with you, and any special instructions you’ll need to gather everyone together, in case a disaster or emergency occurs while you’re all away from home. Name the location that you and your family will use to meet up with each other and the location you will be evacuating to, if you cannot live in your home, but your immediate area is still safe. Include the address of the location, contact phone, email address and directions.

Next choose a location (writing down the details, address and contact information) that your family will use if you not only need to evacuate your home, but your immediate area or city. This might happen during a moderate hurricane or a tornado. Your third location is out of state, for a serious, widely destructive emergency like the Japan or Chile Earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Colorado Wildfires, or other disaster that will make your entire region uninhabitable.

You will also include these locations on your emergency wallet card and your family’s wallet cards. Now, no matter what the disaster, even a fire or local emergency, you and your family will now know where and how to gather, and who will be responsible for what, so you can quickly reunite and travel on to your emergency location together. If you like, you can also give a card to the person you chose to be your out-of-area contact as well.  Don’t forget to give yourself other tools that you can use in an emergency, like GPS enabled watches to help you and your family pin down your precise locations.  Here is one of the best articles we’ve ever seen on choosing the best GPS enabled watch for your particular needs.

Will you have any pets traveling with you? Be sure to fill out the pet section, so that you will have all the information you need for them, like the name and numbers for the veterinarian, their licenses, and names/numbers of kennels in the location you are evacuating to and any prescriptions or special instructions you’ll need until you return home.

Your Get Back To Life Plan

The worst part of any disaster, short of losing a loved one, is the possibility that the home you love and care for and everything in it would be damaged beyond repair. That is what your Get Back To Life Plan is all about.

Imagine that you and your family have survived a tsunami, but had to leave your area because it is uninhabitable.

You’re in your evacuation location two days after the flood. The phone rings. It’s a good friend of yours, who has just toured your neighborhood and is calling to tell you that your home is badly damaged and he doubts that you will be able to live in it for several months, if ever again.

After you and your family hold each other for a while and talk, you finally feel strong enough to open your GYST Notebook. There you find your Get Back To Life Plan and begin making calls to your insurance agent, your contractor and your boss. You call the local real estate agent in your evacuation city and ask her to begin looking for temporary housing, register your children in the local school, and begin calling the contacts you need (that you jotted down just in case), to help you settle in. Getting settled is easier than you thought, since you have copies of all of the vital documents you need, like your birth certificates and property deeds in a safe deposit box at the local bank. It takes some time, but with hard work and a lot of courage, you and your family are back to living in a matter of weeks.

Now imagine the same scenario, the same phone call, holding your family, talking and then realizing that you have no plan and no clue how to get back to living your life. It’s CNN coverage all over again. The best part of this little scenario is that it hasn’t happened to you and that you have time right now, to make sure no matter what ever occurs in your area, you and your family will be prepared.

If you don’t have a copy of our Get Back To Life Plan yet, just download it here.  

Take a few minutes to think about the following questions:

• How will we handle our bank accounts, paying our monthly bills and receiving our paychecks? How much emergency cash do we  need to have, while traveling?

• What are our credit card limits and toll free numbers for emergency increases?

• How will we work? Will we work remotely or have to look for new positions? What people or contacts can we call about temporary or permanent jobs?

• How will we handle our medical, dental and prescription needs while in the new location? What doctors and dentists can we use while there?

• How long can we stay in our evacuation location?      If we need to remain evacuated longer, where will we go/stay? Who will our real estate contacts be, if we need to find new permanent or temporary housing?

• How are we going to secure the property or vehicles we had to leave behind?

• How will we take care of our pets, during the evacuation and until we find new permanent housing?

• How will we handle our transportation needs? What contacts will we need to purchase or lease vehicles?

• How will we handle our daycare needs? How will we handle getting our children into school if necessary? What schools or contacts will we need, to enroll them in a new school in a temporary or new location?

• How will we handle any special needs in our family?

Once you’ve answered the questions, get your family together to work out any potential problems you have uncovered and then draft your plan. And don’t forget to compile a list of real estate agents, financial contacts and jobs, schools, doctors and other professionals or information that you might need to establish yourself in the new city temporarily or permanently.

Starting over is never easy, especially when it happens because of a disaster or other life changing emergency. But taking a few hours now to think through and draft a plan, will give you and your family the direction, information and support that you need, to get through not only the first hours and days after a disaster, but the first steps back to living the life you’ve worked so hard to build.

High Tech Toys

Here are some high-tech toys are designed to help you get the information you need, keepsakes you treasure and people you love, through life’s little and not so little disasters and easily as possible.  In other words, toys that are just waiting to smooth out life’s little speed bumps.

9 Inch Portable Digital TV

Amazon Gift Card

Artix Power Bank Water Resistant Backpack

BenjiLock By Hampton

Casio Men’s GA-100 XL Series G-Shock

Coleman Multi-Panel LED Lantern

Complete Earthquake Bag Emergency Kit

Doc Spartan Combat Ready Ointment

Eton Ultimate AM/FM/NOAA Radio Smartphone Charger

Garmin Drive 61 USA LMT-S GPS Navigator System

Goal Zero Yeti 150 Portable Power Station

Gold Tigerking Digital Security Safe

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

Jackery External Battery Charger

LuminAID PackLite 2-in-1 Phone Charger Lanterns

Nanoflow X – Lifeline Dry Bag

Quakehold Museum Wax

Quakehold Straps

SanDisk 500GB Extreme Portable External Hard Drive

SignalVault RFID Blocking Credit Debit Card Protector

Spin Power  Electric Charging Station

Sprigs Unisex Banjees 2 Pocket Wrist Wallet

Swiss+Tech ST81005 Auto Emergency Escape Tool

Tigerking Digital Security Safe

Tile Mate & Slim 4-Pack

WeMo Smartphone Connected Electrical Outlets

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff backed up and together, pick up a copy of our book “Ready In 10” or “Keep Everything You Love Safe” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

How To Earthquake Proof Your Bedroom

Updated 9/28/21

Even though Melanie grew up in Southern California, when she actually felt an earthquake for the first time, she didn’t know what to do first. 

And if you’ve ever gone through an earthquake you know what she means.  Our first “real” shaker was the Whittier quake and it was so strong it had me pinned to the bed.  That’s why it’s so important to have the things you need at your fingertips, before the quake strikes. 

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having ways to keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you, is more important than ever.

One of the reasons that earthquakes are so hard to prepare for is that they tend to happen very early in the morning.  Imagine being shaken out of a sound sleep, only to realize that your bed, your walls and your floor are all moving in opposite directions, while you helplessly try to remember the first item on your disaster checklist.

Which is why Melanie was running around pulling thing after thing out of her closet yelling, “WHERE ARE MY EARTHQUAKE CLOTHES???!!!”

Of course, a few minutes later she realized she didn’t even need to leave her house the whole wardrobe thing ended up being a non-issue.  What she was really looking for was a way to regain a sense of control.  Her way of doing that just happened to be fashion.

Which is why Melanie was running around pulling thing after thing out of her closet yelling, “WHERE ARE MY EARTHQUAKE CLOTHES???!!!”

As longtime residents of Southern California we know how hard people work to get their offices, their homes and their garages ready for an earthquake.  But since most earthquakes happen in the wee hours of the morning, people don’t have their basic supplies where they need to be.   Their bedroom.

So let’s take care of that right now. 

There are two things to keep in mind while making your bedroom earthquake safe.    

Safety and Communication

Safety 

Make your bedroom as safe as possible, during and after an earthquake, by storing earthquake and first aid supplies near your bed and anchoring items and furniture that might fall or break.

Your Emergency Kit  

First, get a sturdy metal or heavy plastic box to hold your basic emergency supplies.  Make sure that it closes well and is heavy enough to stay where you put it, even during intense shaking.

Put it directly under your bed, so that you can grab it easily without having to get out of the bed.

In this box, place:

A whistle, a few protein bars, a few bottles of water, a small flashlight, small emergency radio, a first aid kit and a portable charger that will give you extra battery life for cell phones.  The rest of your supplies – whatever you feel would be necessary for you and your family – can go into the closet beneath your earthquake clothes. 

Next to the box, place a pair of rubber-soled shoes for you and your spouse.  If you have kids, their shoes and a small flashlight should go under their beds.   

The instant an earthquake wakes you – especially if it’s one that causes a lot of damage – put your shoes on before you get out of bed.  There might be broken glass or debris on the floor.  That goes double if you have to leave your home.  Outside you could encounter rocks, pieces of brick from chimneys or downed power lines.

The Closet

Choose a generic earthquake outfit.  If it’s cold out, jeans and a sweatshirt or warm sweater, plus a warm jacket and socks.  If it’s warmer, jeans, light layers and a light jacket and socks.  If you have to leave your home, you won’t necessarily get back in for hours or days.  Store that outfit together at the end of your closet nearest to your bed, so you can grab the clothes and put them on without wasting time thinking about it.   As much as we love you Melanie, this is no time for high fashion!

Right below your earthquake clothes, place a small box with the rest of your earthquake supplies.  

This should include a hand-crank or battery powered radio, a larger flashlight, extra batteries, a few more bottles of water, high calorie or high protein food that will stay fresh for a year, a can opener (the one we love opens cans without leaving sharp edges ), a small stash of cash, and if you have one, a portable television with an antenna.  One other thing you can include is a small generator.  

If anyone in your family needs glasses, contact lenses or prescription drugs, throw those in as well.  If they or you need refrigerated insulin, consider buying a small portable refrigerator for your bedroom.   Even if the electricity goes out, the refrigerator will remain cold enough for a few hours, until you can get help.   Then place a reminder on your calendar every few months, to recycle the perishable items in your kit with fresh items.

Furniture

Make sure all of the cabinets, pictures, mirrors, televisions and anything else breakable in your bedroom are anchored down, so they don’t turn into earthquake driven torpedoes that can harm you or your family.   Carol Burnett had a close call during the Northridge Quake when a television flew off her bookcase and landed on her bed. Even though she always laid on that side, that night she had trouble sleeping and switched to the other side of the bed! 

The best things we’ve found to anchor furniture and breakable objects without harming them is Quakehold. Quakehold straps secure furniture like bookcases while blending right into your decor.

Do you have breakable figurines, picture frames or glass keepsakes in bookcases or on dressers?  If so, anchor the bottom of the keepsake to the surface with Quakehold Museum Wax.  It holds items securely to a surface without harming either.  And if it’s in a bookcase, be sure to affix the keepsake to the back of the bookcase as well for extra safety.

If you have the space, move a heavy piece of furniture into your bedroom that you and your spouse can use for shelter during a quake.  A heavy table or a desk you can both fit under is ideal.

Communication

Make sure you can easily connect with the world around you, from your bedroom.

After an earthquake, if the electricity is still on, turn on the TV or radio, so you’ll have a friendly voice there in the room with you and you won’t feel isolated or alone.  Besides true Angelenos always bet on how big the earthquake was and never go back to bed until they hear Dr. Kate Hutton’s report on the preliminary magnitude from Cal Tech, so they can see who won the bet.

Keep one cell phone in the room with you at night, where you can easily reach it.  And get into the habit of plugging it into the charger like the Spin Power Electric Charging Station  when you get home in the evening so it will always be ready to go whenever you need it.

You’re probably wondering why we mentioned putting a whistle in your emergency kit.  When the Northridge earthquake hit, many apartment residents were trapped in their bedrooms and had to be rescued. 

A whistle can help you communicate your location to rescue teams.  That and a cell phone with GPS are both are a good idea.

If you have a landline phone, keep it.  Cell phones are great, but the chances of cell towers being down after an earthquake are much more likely than phone lines being inoperable.  And even if they’re up and running, cell traffic, tweeting, Instagram and texting skyrocket after an earthquake, overwhelming the circuits. 

Give yourself as many alternate ways of communicating as possible.  Preferably a smartphone, satellite phone, landline phone and a notebook, iPad, or tablet with Wi-Fi access.

Don’t forget, that if you need to check on local friends or relatives, it’s usually easier to call long distance numbers, than local numbers after an earthquake.  It’s smart to appoint an out of town contact for all of your family members to check in with, until your communications within the quake zone return to normal.

Taking a few minutes to make your room earthquake friendly now, can make all the difference when you really need it.

High Tech Toys

Here are some high-tech toys are designed to help you get the information you need, keepsakes you treasure and people you love, through life’s little and not so little disasters and easily as possible.  In other words, toys that are just waiting to smooth out life’s little speed bumps.

9 Inch Portable Digital TV

Amazon Gift Card

Artix Power Bank Water Resistant Backpack

BenjiLock By Hampton

Casio Men’s GA-100 XL Series G-Shock

Coleman Multi-Panel LED Lantern

Complete Earthquake Bag Emergency Kit

Doc Spartan Combat Ready Ointment

Eton Ultimate AM/FM/NOAA Radio Smartphone Charger

Garmin Drive 61 USA LMT-S GPS Navigator System

Goal Zero Yeti 150 Portable Power Station

Gold Tigerking Digital Security Safe

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

Jackery External Battery Charger

LuminAID PackLite 2-in-1 Phone Charger Lanterns

Nanoflow X – Lifeline Dry Bag

Quakehold Museum Wax

Quakehold Straps

SanDisk 500GB Extreme Portable External Hard Drive

SignalVault RFID Blocking Credit Debit Card Protector

Spin Power  Electric Charging Station

Sprigs Unisex Banjees 2 Pocket Wrist Wallet

Swiss+Tech ST81005 Auto Emergency Escape Tool

Tigerking Digital Security Safe

Tile Mate & Slim 4-Pack

WeMo Smartphone Connected Electrical Outlets

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff backed up and together, pick up a copy of our book “Ready In 10” or “Keep Everything You Love Safe” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Ready In 10 | 10 Steps. 10 Days. Ready For Almost Anything.

This cutting-edge system is designed to help you get the information you need, keepsakes you treasure and people you love, through life’s little and not so little disasters. In one piece. So you can get back to living your normal life, as quickly and painlessly as possible. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

 

How To Organize Your Digital Life

How To Organize Your Digital Life gives a place to record all of your passwords, account information and even emergency instructions, along with secure ways to access them remotely, putting your social media life and your business life exactly where it belongs. At your fingertips. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Back Up Your Digital Photos

 

Updated 9/28/21

With digital photography as inexpensive and easy as it is today, chances are that you have more photos of your family, friends and the special moments of your life than ever before. 

If you’re like most people, all of those photos are sitting on your computer, in a bunch of different folders.

Or worse, hundreds of them are sitting in your camera, just waiting to be accidentally erased.  And what about your regular print photos – the kind you have in photo albums or frames?  At least the digital photos have a chance of being copied and backed up in a few different locations.  But if those one-of-a-kind family photos are destroyed, they’re gone forever. Digital or print, all it takes is one fire, flood, fried hard drive, or hacked Facebook account and all of those memories are gone, along with a huge piece of your family’s history.  Before we start backing up your current photos, here are a few tips on ways to safeguard all the photos you’ll be taking in the future.

Do you regularly take pictures with your phone?  If you do, how often do you download them to your computer for printing or safekeeping? 

Everyone should get into the habit of downloading their new pictures and videos to their PC, laptop, portable hard drive or flash drive every few days. 

Dropbox is a great tool for this.  It’s a free application/web based file box that syncs up the photos and documents on your smartphone or tablet with your computer.   All you have to do is set up and download their app on your iPhone, Android, tablet, iPad or iPod Touch.  Then save your new photos to your Dropbox folder and they’ll be waiting for you at home on your computer.

Now that you’ve got your smartphone photos under control, how about your digital camera?  Exactly how many photos are on your SD card right now?  Yeah, that’s what we thought.   So before you get started, be sure to download all of the pictures from your cameras.  And while you’re at it, download any videos lurking on your video camera too.  We’ll take care of those in another blog post.

Take Action! 

Your Mission: If You Choose to Accept It…

…is to make all of your treasured photos completely accessible during a disaster, emergency evacuation, computer or Internet meltdown. Just follow the steps below to locate all of your important photos, scan or copy them, and store them in at least three secure, damage-proof locations.

1.  Grab Your Cameras

If you’re like most people, your digital photos are in one of two places – sitting on your computer, in a bunch of different folders.  Or worse, sitting in your phone or your camera, just waiting to be accidentally erased.

So if you have any photos on your cameras or phones, go get them now and download them to your computer, saving them to the folder where you normally store them.

2.  Ready For Backup

Since you’re already on your computer, let’s back up all of your digital photos.

• Create one new folder on your computer desktop and name it Backup Photos (dd/mm/yy) with today’s date.

• Locate all of the digital photos that you want to keep safe.  Leave the original files where they are on your computer, but copy each one and place the copies in your new Backup folder.

If you need instructions on copying and moving files and folders on your computer, you’ll find them on our post How To Back Up Your Data.

When you’re through copying and pasting your folders into the Backup Folder, make sure that there is a copy of your folders in the original location as well as the new location.

 

3.  How To Get Your Digital Photos To Download Themselves

By the way, if you regularly have trouble remembering to download your pictures from your phone and camera, here ere are two things you can do that will really help.  For your phone, go right now and install the Dropbox app.  It’s a free app that will send every photo you take with your phone directly to your computer.

As for your camera, simply get a Wi-Fi enabled camera or a smart memory card for your old camera.  Snap a photo and it arrives on your computer.  No muss, no fuss.

4.  Safely Storing Digital Photos

Where and how you decide to secure and store your photos is up to you.  But here are a few ideas.  If your photos are digital, you can place them:

• On a flash drive or portable hard drive, and take them with you during evacuation on a key ring or in your plastic evacuation bin.

• Place the flash drive or portable hard drive, in a safe deposit box or water/fireproof safe in your own city.

• Place the flash drive or portable hard drive, in a safe deposit box, water/fireproof safe, or with relatives in the city where you’ll be evacuating.

• Place the photos on a password-protected online file box like iCloud or on the file directory of your family’s personal web site.  This way, you can retrieve them from any Internet-enabled computer.

You can also save an extra copy of your photos on Amazon Photos or another internet photo service.  But this really shouldn’t be your long-term solution, or only solution.   As much as we all love Internet sharing sites, you actually have no control over them.  If the company were to go out of business, or if their servers were to crash, you could lose all of your lose data without any warning.  If you really want to keep photos on a secure site that you can share with your family, try iMemories.com.  Not only do they have great servers with outstanding redundant backup capability, but they can even put your photos on DVD for you, providing an extra layer of safety.

5.  Safely Storing Photo Prints

Now that your digital photos are safe and sound, what about your print photos?  Do they need to be archived too?  Then take a minute or two while you’re thinking about it and read our post.

If your print photos are already in order here are a few ideas to safeguard them.  Try placing them in:

• In a safe deposit box or water/fireproof safe in your own city.

• In a safe deposit box, water/fireproof safe, or with relatives in the city where you’ll be evacuating.

• In your watertight Plastic Evacuation Bin. Only place the photos that you actually need to have with you, in this bin.  If you’ll also have access to copies of photos in your safe deposit box, then don’t take any copies with you that you would worry about, if lost.

If you live in a location with frequent disasters, like hurricane or tornado country, you should probably consider a permanent solution to safeguard your photo prints, like putting your photos in acid free boxes inside a watertight Rubbermaid bins, or glass containers, and then placing them at least a foot or two off the ground, whenever your cherished photos might be in danger.  For example an impending hurricane, flooding or even the arrival of tiny, curious grandchildren.  If you are in a location where flooding can occur, store your photos in the driest place, at least a foot or two above any previous water marks.

Depending on the situation it might even be a good idea to move those bins to a storage space or to a friend’s or relative’s home for safekeeping until the situation passes.

High Tech Toys

Here are some of our favorite high-tech tools and toys to help you get all of your favorite photos, music, home videos, movies – and anything else that can be stored digitally – backed up, stored and accessible.  Wherever you are.  Whatever is going on around you.  24/7. 

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020

Anker PowerCore 5000 Portable Charger

Axis Self-Powered Safety Hub

Canon PowerShot Wi-Fi Enabled ELPH 190 Digital Camera

ClearClick Video to Digital Converter

Epson Perfection V600 Photo, Film, & Document Scanner

ez Share WiFi SD Card

Fireproof Document Bags

Sentry Fireproof/Waterproof  Lateral File Cabinet

SentrySafe Fireproof and Waterproof Safe

HP Photo Printer All-in-One Wireless Envy 7120

ION Audio Premier LP Turntable Vinyl Record Player

Kodak P570 Personal Photo Scanner

Magnavox VHS to DVD Combo Recorder

Reshow Cassette Player  MP3 Converter

Rocketbook Smart Reusable Notebook

SanDisk 32GB Connect Wireless Stick Flash Drive

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Sony 4K HD Video Camcorder

Sony HX400V Compact Digital Camera

VuPoint Handheld Magic Wand Portable Scanner

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff organized, backed up and together, pick up a copy of our books “Back It Up” and “Write It Down” in paperback or via instant download.  Or if you’re ready to get EVERY area of your life straightened up, grab a copy of our book Keep Everything You Love Safe.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

 

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

 

How To Make A Home Inventory

Updated 9/28/21

Close your eyes for a moment.  Picture the room you’re sitting in, in your mind.

Picture each item, focusing especially on the items that mean the most to you or have the most monetary value. When you’re done open your eyes.   Did you miss anything?   If you’re like most people, no matter how certain you were that you remembered everything, you still missed a lot of things that you would want to replace. 

And even if you did pretty well, do you know off the top of your head what items were still under warranty, what was insured and for how much?   In other words, if this hadn’t been an exercise, but an insurance agent or a police officer writing down a list of your valuables after a burglary or a hurricane, would you have been happy with the list you made?

I didn’t think so. 

Memory is a wonderful thing, but it can be affected by many factors, like stress, trauma and fatigue – exactly the things that happen during an emergency.  That’s why putting together a list of your treasured or valued objects while they’re sitting in your living room and still in great condition is a MUCH better idea.

And while we’re at it, that reminds me of something else we all have to deal with.  I don’t know about you, but to us, it seems like there’s a new cellphone, computer, or gadget of some kind out in the stores every day.  

Every time you decide to buy a new one, it comes with more cords and manuals than anyone has room to store.  And if you decided to spring for the protection plan too, that hits the mailbox a few days later.  With just a few new toys, you can easily end up with a folder full of paper.

Who can keep up with that?

YOU can!  And very easily, too.  In the Action Steps below, we’re going to create a Home Inventory.  Just go through the steps, and decide room by room what items to include.  In fact if you have kids or grandkids in the house, this is a great project for them.  Once you decide which items to include, send them off on a scavenger hunt, list in hand along with a digital and video camera and have them take photos of each item.  Then when they’re done, enter each item along with its information into our downloadable Home Inventory Form, and you’re done.  

Take Action  

1. Download Our Home Inventory List

Click here to grab a copy of our Home Inventory Form,  or if you already own our book Keep Everything You Love Safe, you’ll find copies in the book and in the downloadable forms.

2. Grab Your Cameras & A Pencil

Go get your video camera, your digital camera, your list and a pencil and begin walking through each room of your home.  Start with the living room, usually home to the most expensive electronic equipment.

3. Document All the Info You Can Find

For each valued item, (electronics, furniture, cars, art, jewelry or any other items that would be expensive to replace or repair),  fill in a short description, the manufacturer, serial number and any other information you know about it.

If you have a copy of your warranty information, or original purchase receipts for any of the valued items, note the information on them on the Home Inventory List, then put those documents on the side until Step 6.

4. Your Chance To Play Spielberg

As you stop at each item, take a digital photo of it, to show its current condition.  If the item is damaged in a disaster, you’ll have proof of the item’s original condition to give to the claims adjuster. It will also remind you what the item looked like, if it ever needs to be replaced

5. Spielberg Revisited

Once you’re finished with the room, grab your video camera and do a quick video tour.  At the beginning of the videotape, clearly state today’s date and the room you’re photographing.  And while you’re taping, be sure to show the general condition of the room as well as your valued items.

6. Paperwork, paperwork

Gather all of the warranties, protection plans, certificates of insurance, provenance papers and receipts that you have found, and put them in the same location.  It doesn’t matter whether it is a file folder or a section inside your safe.  Just make sure that every time you purchase a new item that comes with any of this paperwork, that you put it in the same place.

7. Now for safekeeping…

Print, scan or make three copies of the Home Inventory List, the walking tour photos, the video and the warranties, receipts and other documents that you located earlier and store them in at least three secure, damage-proof locations.   That way if one or two of the locations are inaccessible, you’ll still be able to grab the information you need.

And that’s it!  Just follow the steps and you’re done.  No more having to remember every single thing in your house.  Just be sure to update your list every six months.  Or if you watch a lot of QVC or HSN, every three months…

High Tech Toys

Here are some high-tech toys are designed to help you get the information you need, keepsakes you treasure and people you love, through life’s little and not so little disasters and easily as possible.  In other words, toys that are just waiting to smooth out life’s little speed bumps.

9 Inch Portable Digital TV

Amazon Gift Card

Artix Power Bank Water Resistant Backpack

BenjiLock By Hampton

Casio Men’s GA-100 XL Series G-Shock

Coleman Multi-Panel LED Lantern

Complete Earthquake Bag Emergency Kit

Doc Spartan Combat Ready Ointment

Eton Ultimate AM/FM/NOAA Radio Smartphone Charger

Garmin Drive 61 USA LMT-S GPS Navigator System

Goal Zero Yeti 150 Portable Power Station

Gold Tigerking Digital Security Safe

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

Jackery External Battery Charger

LuminAID PackLite 2-in-1 Phone Charger Lanterns

Nanoflow X – Lifeline Dry Bag

Quakehold Museum Wax

Quakehold Straps

SanDisk 500GB Extreme Portable External Hard Drive

SignalVault RFID Blocking Credit Debit Card Protector

Spin Power  Electric Charging Station

Sprigs Unisex Banjees 2 Pocket Wrist Wallet

Swiss+Tech ST81005 Auto Emergency Escape Tool

Tigerking Digital Security Safe

Tile Mate & Slim 4-Pack

WeMo Smartphone Connected Electrical Outlets

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on getting your stuff backed up and together, pick up a copy of our book “Ready In 10” or “Keep Everything You Love Safe” in paperback or via instant download.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

Updated On 9/28/21

In the days after September 11th, two thousand, one hundred children were left stranded in daycare.

Why?

Because their parents didn’t fill out one of the fields on their daycare emergency contact cards.

 “Who should we contact if you are not able to pick up your child?”

How could something so basic, strand two thousand children on one of the scariest days in American history?

Fear

The inability or refusal to take two minutes to think through what might happen, if they and their spouse were unable to reach their child.  The ridiculous thing is, it doesn’t even have to take a real emergency for this to happen.  You could be stuck on the freeway, or trapped in an airplane you were certain would arrive on time.

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having emergency contact cards are the perfect way to keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

So take a few moments to think about it.  And please, please don’t just jot down the first name that pops into your head!

Imagine that you have an accident or get in the middle of a transportation nightmare and you and your spouse are unable to pick up your child from school that afternoon.  Or for two or three days.  Who would you want taking care of him?

You need someone who knows your child extremely well.  Someone who would be able to calm her down and would have the energy to care for her.  Someone who knows what she likes and dislikes.  And, in case of extreme emergency like September 11^th, it would really help to have someone with the ability, brains and fortitude to help locate you or your spouse, if overburdened emergency personnel weren’t able to help.

That’s the kind of thought you need to put into emergency planning, especially where your children are concerned.

Medical History

Now what about your child’s medical history?  Some schools or day care centers don’t even provide a card for medical history, or the one they provide might be so sparse that it would be useless in a true medical emergency.  Don’t forget that you can simply create your own medical history card and see that it’s stored with your child’s records.  That way you can be sure that the information you would want emergency personnel to have in an emergency, will be right at their fingertips.

If you have a copy of our book Keep Everything You Love Safe, you’ll find Medical History Forms for you and your kids in the back of the book.  If not, you can download a copy of our Children’s Medical Form here.

So grab your form and let’s get started.

Before you begin filling in the form get a piece of paper and gather everything you have for each child on his or her own sheet.  You’ll need to include a list of chronic conditions, allergies, medications and vitamins that they have or currently are taking along with dosage.  Include a list of all of your child’s health providers including specialists, dentists and any other professional who sees your child on a regular basis.

Now take a moment to sit by yourself in a quiet place where you won’t be disturbed.   Close your eyes and imagine each of your children individually, with a moderate injury, like a broken ankle.  You’re sitting in the emergency room with him.

The doctor – someone you’ve never seen before and who doesn’t know your child’s unique medical or emotional needs – walks through the door.  What would you tell the doctor about your them?  What do you need her to know?

Child by child, jot down all of the things that just went through your mind.  Old injuries, allergies, surgeries, anything you think is important.   Then do the exercise again, imagining that this had been a serious injury.  Is there anything else that you would need to tell the doctor or surgeon caring for your child?  Anything that might help save his or her life?

Again, jot down any additional things that went through your mind for each of your children.

At the end of our forms, we include a few other questions about your child.   Things that a nurse or physician might need to know to help calm your child down while treating her, until you’re able to be at the hospital   So include a brief section on your child’s likes and dislikes, what calms her down, favorite foods or toys or anything else that might help.   No matter how old your child is, kids tend to regress a bit when they’re hurting or frightened, so the information you provide here can go a long way towards keeping them calm and helping the medical team give them the treatment they need until you arrive at the hospital.

Since children don’t carry wallets or driver’s licenses, make sure that they have ID cards with current emergency contact information in a few different locations, like in a backpack or tucked into a cell phone or an iPod.   And don’t forget to put an ICE Contact (in case of emergency contact) to your children’s iPhones or smartphones.  You can find out how to do that right here on our blog.

Taking the steps to ensure your child’s information now, will help keep him safer while giving you a little more peace of mind.  Talk about a win-win!

High Tech Toys

Here are the coolest ways we can find to keep everyone you love safe and connected.  Smart phones, smart watches, smart flash drives that beam data where you need it and a car accessory that diagnoses your engine on the go.  You’re welcome.

Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone

Apple Air Pods

Apple Watch Series 3  

Apple/iTunes Gift Card

Autobrain GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone  

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

BlueCosmo Inmarsat IsatPhone

Samsung Galaxy Note 20

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Large, Black

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy Fold Z2

IPhone 12 Pro Max

IPhone SE

IPod Touch

Jitterbug Flip Phone

The Ridge Slim RFID Front Pocket Wallet

Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case

Red Parrot Smartphone Case

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

As great as the emergency cards you just created are, we have even more things in our book “The ICE My Phone Kit” along with step by step directions for ICEing iPhones, Galaxies, regular androids and even phones that are, shall we say, not all that smart.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

Updated 9/28/2021

What if I told you that you could put an ICE Contact on your iPhone with everything it needs to have in it to save your life, in minutes?

Would you grab your phone and go for it?  Of course you would! 

Here’s how to do it!

iPhones are always getting better and Apple’s newest effort at keeping customers safe — Medical ID — is amazing.  But as much as we LOVE it, there are two reasons you still need to make a regular ICE Contact. 

1. You can put an unlimited amount of vital information into a regular contact.

 

2. Hospitals are used to looking for ICE Contacts rather than Medical ID and if you don’t have a regular one, they might miss it.

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having an ICE contact is the perfect way to keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

Here’s what you’ll need:

All of the contact info for your two (or more) emergency contacts.

• A list of your allergies.

• A list of your medical conditions/recent surgeries

• The contact information for your main physician(s)

• Any other information you would like an ER to know about you.

Grab your phone and let’s get started!

1. Put the word ICE, all capitals, in the First Name field. Don’t type anything else in this field!

 

2. Put your ICE Contact’s full name and relationship to you in the Company field, ie John Smith – Husband.

 

3. Type in every phone number you have for your contact.

 

4. Type in all of your contact’s email addresses — again, every last one.

 

5. Type in all of your contact’s social media handles/user names. You never know what will be up and running in an emergency. Many people have reached loved ones on Facebook and Twitter, when cell phone and landline service was down.

 

6. All of your own allergies, medications and medical history go in the notes section. Even better capitalize the words ALLERGIES, MEDICATIONS etc to ensure that they’re seen. 

 

7. Add your physician’s names and phone numbers in the notes section and if you like, a link to your own Medical History Form. If you don’t have one, you can borrow one of ours.

 

8. Is your contact in different locations on different days? Add that in the notes section as well.

 

9. And finally, never put your social security number or insurance member number into your ICE Contact. You can add the name of your insurance company and customer service number, but the actual numbers can wait until later.

And now, let’s make your ICE info even easier to find, by setting up your iPhone’s Medical ID.  

Don’t forget that you can fill in your ICE Contact on your Mac or iPad.  Not only is it easier to type on a larger screen, but once you save it to your contacts, it will sync with iCloud and appear right on your phone.

What Is Medical ID?

Medical ID, a part of the Apple Health App, not only gives you a place to put your emergency medical information, but it puts a link to that information right on the front of your phone, where it can be viewed by a hospital even if your phone is password locked. 

You’ll find it on most iPhones (iPhone 6 and up) using iOS 8 and higher.   If your phone is older and doesn’t have Medical ID, you can just leave your ICE Contact the way it is.

On your home screen click on the Health App – it’s the one with the heart on it.  This will take you to the Dashboard page of the Health App.  On the bottom right of the screen, you’ll see the Medical ID icon.  Click on it. 

On the Medical ID screen, click on the red link that says Create Medical ID.

The most important part of the Medical ID screen is at the top.  It’s the On/Off Switch that shows a link to your emergency information on the home screen of your phone even when it’s password-locked. 

Before you do anything else, switch this to the ON position.  It will turn green like the graphic below.

By the way, none of the information in your Medical ID is shared with any of the other apps on your phone.

Enter All Of Your Information

Put all the information you possibly can into your Medical ID.

As you can see it already has fields for your birth date, medical conditions, allergies, current medications and other information.  There are two sections that you need to pay special attention to – Medical Notes and Add Emergency Contact.

After you finish filling in the regular fields, use the Notes Section to list anything that didn’t fit into them, like the names and phone numbers of your physicians and healthcare providers and contact information for your Insurance Company.  Again, don’t add any sensitive personal information like a social security number, insurance member ID number or financial information.  

You can also place a link to your Medical History Form in the Notes Section to give emergency personnel to quick access to your medical history until your emergency contact arrives at the hospital.

Add Your Emergency Contact

When you click on Medical ID’s Add Emergency Contact button, it will show you a list of your contacts, so you can choose the people you’d like to add to your Medical ID.  That’s why we had you set up your ICE Contacts first. 

Go ahead and click on the button and choose your first ICE Contact. 

If you have additional ICE Contacts (a smart idea, in case your first contact is unreachable), then click on the Add Emergency Contact field again to add as many additional people as you would like.

Want to save time turning your husband or wife’s contact into an ICE Contact?  Simple!  Just tap & hold the contact you want to use, choose share and email it to yourself. Then open it in your email, make the changes from above to turn it into an ICE Contact and save it to your contacts as ICE.

That’s all there is to it!

While you’re here, be sure to check out our other posts like How To Put An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy, Android or Window’s Phone (you’ll find the links below), to learn EVERYTHING you need to know about ICEing nearly any type of phone.

And don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on your spouse’s and kid’s phones, iPods and other devices too, along with each other’s contact information, so you can all get in touch with each other quickly in an emergency.

And when your phone is ready to keep you safe, remember to keep it safe with a sturdy (and beautiful!) new case like this one, or this one.

Having an ICE contact and Medical ID is an awesome way keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

High Tech Toys

Here are the coolest ways we can find to keep everyone you love safe and connected.  Smart phones, smart watches, smart flash drives that beam data where you need it and a car accessory that diagnoses your engine on the go.  You’re welcome.

Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone

Apple Air Pods

Apple Watch Series 3  

Apple/iTunes Gift Card

Autobrain GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone  

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

BlueCosmo Inmarsat IsatPhone

Samsung Galaxy Note 20

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Large, Black

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy Fold Z2

IPhone 12 Pro Max

IPhone SE

IPod Touch

Jitterbug Flip Phone

The Ridge Slim RFID Front Pocket Wallet

Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case

Red Parrot Smartphone Case

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

As amazing as this ICE Contact is, we have high-powered, fully loaded versions in our book “The ICE My Phone Kit” along with step by step directions for ICEing iPhones, Galaxies, regular androids and even phones that are, shall we say, not all that smart.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

Can’t Set Foot In Your Loved One’s Hospital Room?

Updated 3/22/2021

How To Stay Connected With The People You Love, Even If You’re Not Allowed In Their Hospital Room

What can you do to keep someone you love as safe and connected as possible if they end up in the hospital in the middle of the pandemic?

A lot more than you think…

The minute we wrote and enacted three Next of Kin laws to protect hospital patients, people began asking us what they can do to keep the people they love safe while they’re in the hospital.

Usually our advice is pretty straightforward.

Go to the hospital with them and don’t ever leave them alone.  Just pitch a tent at their bedside and get comfortable.

Laura and Jan Greenwald, After WAY Too Much Experience With The Subject

Okay, there’s a little more to it than that.  But THAT was before Coronavirus reared its ugly head.

Now every hospital here in the U.S. and around the world, has a new mandate to keep everyone as safe as possible.

No visitors.  No family.  No argument.

Now what?

The good news is that with some easy to use tools and tips you can keep your loved one and her medical staff safely at arm’s length while keeping a pulse on her and her condition.

Here are some easy ways to stay in constant communication with your loved one and his medical team, even if you can’t set foot in the hospital.

On The Phone

This is probably the easiest way to keep in touch with your patient. Even if he or she can’t speak, a member of the medical staff can always put the phone up to their ear or put the call on speaker so you can talk to them

I don’t have to tell you what a difference hearing a familiar voice on the phone can make for someone who is critically ill, unconscious or unresponsive. After my Grandma’s stroke, the moment she heard Mom’s and my voices on the phone, her eyes snapped open and she came out of her coma.  Enough said. 

FaceTime | Skype | Webex | Zoom

Video calls are a great way to stay in touch with anyone in the hospital.

One of the worst things about not being able to be at someone’s bedside, is not being able to see them and have them see you. FaceTime, Skype, Webex and Zoom solve that problem.  Remember, many COVID -19 patients have to be on a ventilator for at least part of their treatment, which renders them unable to speak. But a video call – quick and easy for any staff member to do – gives both of you the real time contact you need to see each other and to see exactly what’s going on.

If you want to use FaceTime or Skype, be sure to write down the user names or passwords you’ll need on your Information Central page, so you and the medical staff will have them handy.  And don’t forget to make sure the app is working on both of your smartphones or devices like our favorites the Samsung Galaxy and iPhone, before you send your loved one’s phone with him to the hospital. 

Texting

Is your loved one is awake and able to use his or her smartphone, but not able to carry on a long conversation?  Then texting is a great alternative.  The whole family texting little updates, well wishes, pictures, videos and even jokes can really make the day of someone stuck in bed.

Texts can also be read back to him once he’s awake and able to listen. Some phones like iPhones also let you send an audio or video text which is a great way to send love to or from the hospital or help relieve boredom during recovery.  

Social Media 

When you have to communicate fast, don’t forget Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They all have instant messaging, so if you need to reach busy family members quickly, they might just spot a direct message faster than a missed call or text. 

Games 

If your family or friends play group games like Words With Friends online, be sure to tuck this login in your loved ones contacts so they’ll have it with them if they want to stay connected.   It’s a great way to keep some normalcy during those times when everything else seems to be spiraling out of control. 

White Board

When you have a chance to talk to the nurses taking care of your loved one, ask them if they would take a moment to jot down a few updates about your patient on the whiteboard in her room.  Any improvements that she’s made, how they feel her day went, or even what she had for lunch.   Then when they call to give you an update (preferably twice a day) you won’t just get a medical rundown.  They’ll be able to give you a quick status along with a personal update.  

Playlists

If you have time, put together a playlist of power songs, relaxing songs and just plain favorites for your love one to listen to during rough times and recovery.  You can also assemble a list of favorite movies that can be streamed along with the name of the streaming service you use, so it’s easy for a hospital staff member to help your loved one to find her favorites.

Other Ways To Stay In Touch

There is no one more inventive than a family desperate to communicate with someone they love.  We’ve all heard stories all the way through the pandemic about people using walkie-talkies and baby monitors outside their husband’s or mom’s hospital window to be with them, so they won’t be alone.  

Some temporary makeshift hospitals might not even have phones at their patient’s bedsides.  So whatever way you find to stay in communication with sick loved ones – don’t ever let anyone – a hospital, doctor, nurse, first responder – anyone – tell you that you won’t be able to communicate with the person you love.   You just have to figure out HOW to make it happen.

The most important thing to remember is that the person you love is not alone.  You’re only a FaceTime (or call or text or Tweet) away.

For a book’s worth of tips and tools on keeping the people you love safe while hospitalized during Coronavirus, pick up a copy of our book Alone Together in paperback or instant download.

Alone Together | The Book Inspired By The Pandemic

Protect The People You Love, Even If You Can’t Set Foot In Their Hospital Room.  In just weeks, COVID-19 changed the rules at every hospital in the world.  No visitors.  No family.  No argument.  Now what?  What can YOU do to keep someone you love as safe and connected as possible if they end up in the hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic?  A lot more than you think.   Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone!  At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On An Apple Watch

Updated On 3/1/21

Wondering how to set up your Medical ID or ICE Contact on your new #AppleWatch?

As long as you have your iPhone handy, it couldn’t be easier. One of the best things about the Apple Watch is that whatever information you put on your iPhone syncs up perfectly with your watch.  Which is great news when you’re setting up your ICE Contact and Medical ID.  There’s nothing worse than trying to type on a tiny little screen, right?  If you’ve already set up your ICE Contacts and Medical ID on your iPhone, you’re already set.  All you or a hospital has to do is press and hold the side button on your watch.

The Medical ID slide button will appear.  Just tap it and you’ll see your Medical ID information.  Scroll down to emergency contacts, to view any ICE Contacts you added to the Medical ID on your iPhone.

If you happen to be a medical professional or a first responder, this is a great way to find an unconscious patient’s medical and emergency information.

But what if you haven’t set up your ICE Contacts and Medical ID on your iPhone yet? Not to worry!  Here’s how to do it the RIGHT way, in just a few minutes.

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts and Medical ID On Your iPhone

As much as we love Apple’s Medical ID, there are two reasons you still need to make a regular ICE Contact, to use along with it. 

Number 1:  You can put an unlimited amount of vital information into a regular contact.

Number 2:  Hospitals are used to looking for ICE Contacts rather than Medical ID and if you don’t have a regular one, they might miss it.

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having an ICE contact is an awesome way keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

Below, you’ll find everything you need not only to set up your Medical ID the RIGHT way, but the ICE Contacts that go along with it. 

First grab the information you’ll need:

All of the contact info for your two (or more) emergency contacts.

• A list of your allergies.

• A list of your medical conditions/recent surgeries

• The contact information for your main physician(s)

• Any other information you would like an ER to know about you.

Grab your phone and let’s get started!

1. Put the word ICE, all capitals, in the First Name field. Don’t type anything else in this field!

2. Put your ICE Contact’s full name and relationship to you in the Company field, ie John Smith – Husband.

3. Type in every phone number you have for your contact.

4. Type in all of your contact’s email addresses — again, every last one.

5. Type in all of your contact’s social media handles/user names. You never know what will be up and running in an emergency. Many people have reached loved ones on Facebook and Twitter, when cell phone and landline service was down.

6. All of your own allergies, medications and medical history go in the notes section. Even better capitalize the words ALLERGIES, MEDICATIONS etc to ensure that they’re seen. 

7. Add your physician’s names and phone numbers in the notes section and if you like, a link to your own Medical History Form. If you don’t have one, you can borrow one of ours.

8. Is your contact in different locations on different days? Add that in the notes section as well.

9. Instead of their photo, add an ICE Contact Graphic to the contact to make it stand out. Go to our Free Resource Page to find one you love.

10. And finally, never put your social security number or insurance member number into your ICE Contact. You can add the name of your insurance company and customer service number, but the actual numbers can wait until later.

And now, let’s make your ICE info even easier to find, by setting up your iPhone’s Medical ID.  

Don’t forget that you can fill in your ICE Contact on your Mac or iPad.  Not only is it easier to type on a larger screen, but once you save it to your contacts, it will sync with iCloud and appear right on your phone.

What Is Medical ID?

Medical ID, a part of the Apple Health App, not only gives you a place to put your emergency medical information, but it puts a link to that information right on the front of your phone, where it can be viewed by a hospital even if your phone is password locked. 

You’ll find it on most iPhones (iPhone 6 and up) using iOS 8 and higher.   If your phone is older and doesn’t have Medical ID, you can just leave your ICE Contact the way it is.

On your home screen click on the Health App – it’s the one with the heart on it.  This will take you to the Dashboard page of the Health App.  On the bottom right of the screen, you’ll see the Medical ID icon.  Click on it. 

On the Medical ID screen, click on the red link that says Create Medical ID.

The most important part of the Medical ID screen is at the top.  It’s the On/Off Switch that shows a link to your emergency information on the home screen of your phone even when it’s password-locked. 

Before you do anything else, switch this to the ON position.  It will turn green like the graphic below.

By the way, none of the information in your Medical ID is shared with any of the other apps on your phone.

Enter All Of Your Information

Put all the information you possibly can into your Medical ID.

As you can see it already has fields for your birth date, medical conditions, allergies, current medications and other information.  There are two sections that you need to pay special attention to – Medical Notes and Add Emergency Contact.

After you finish filling in the regular fields, use the Notes Section to list anything that didn’t fit into them, like the names and phone numbers of your physicians and healthcare providers and contact information for your Insurance Company.  Again, don’t add any sensitive personal information like a social security number, insurance member ID number or financial information.  

You can also place a link to your Medical History Form in the Notes Section to give emergency personnel to quick access to your medical history until your emergency contact arrives at the hospital.

Add Your Emergency Contact

When you click on Medical ID’s Add Emergency Contact button, it will show you a list of your contacts, so you can choose the people you’d like to add to your Medical ID.  That’s why we had you set up your ICE Contacts first. 

Go ahead and click on the button and choose your first ICE Contact. 

If you have additional ICE Contacts (a smart idea, in case your first contact is unreachable), then click on the Add Emergency Contact field again to add as many additional people as you would like.

Want to save time turning your husband or wife’s contact into an ICE Contact?  Simple!  Just tap & hold the contact you want to use, choose share and email it to yourself. Then open it in your email, make the changes from above to turn it into an ICE Contact and save it to your contacts as ICE.

That’s all there is to it!

While you’re here, be sure to check out our other posts like How To Put An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy, Android or Window’s Phone (you’ll find the links below), to learn EVERYTHING you need to know about ICEing nearly any type of phone.

And don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on your spouse’s and kid’s phones too, along with each other’s contact information, so you can get in touch with each other quickly and easily.

Having an ICE contact and Medical ID is an awesome way keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

How To Find Your Patient’s Emergency Contacts On An iPhone

Updated On 2/28/21

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information and ICE Contacts On An iPhone  

As emergency physicians, nurses, paramedics, police officers and other first responders know, there’s nothing worse than staring down at a critically ill patient who can’t answer of your questions.  Who can’t tell you who they are, what medications they’re taking or one thing about their medical history. 

Or can they?  What if your patient had something in their pocket that could tell you all the critical information you need to save their life?   

They do. 

It’s their iPhone. 

But how do you find all that information, especially if they password protect their phone? It’s a lot easier than you think! 

Here’s how to do it. 

What Am I Looking For? 

You’re looking for their Medical ID or their ICE/Emergency Contacts. 

Pick up your patient’s phone and look at the screen.  You might have to click the round home button or power button to wake it up.  If the phone is off, just hold the power button for a few seconds to turn it on.

Does the phone screen look like picture 1, 2 or 3 below? 

#1 Password Protected With Medical ID 

Most new iPhones have an emergency link called Medical ID, which displays the owner’s medical information and emergency contacts, even if the phone is password protected. 

Locate Medical Information & Emergency Contacts 

Tap the word EMERGENCY on the lower left side of the screen. Then on the next screen, tap MEDICAL ID.  

This will open Medical ID.

Not only will you be able to see any medical history or information that your patient has entered, but you’ll be able to see their ICE/Emergency Contacts at the bottom of the Medical ID screen.

Locate Patient’s Name And Contact Information

Didn’t find anything helpful?  Let’s try and find your patient’s name and contact information.

Look at the screen, hold down the home button and say the following words in this order.

“Who does this iPhone belong to?” 

Siri should respond with your patient’s name and any basic contact information that he or she entered on the phone. 

Locate Patient’s Next Of Kin 

If you weren’t able to find the information you need, here are a few ideas that might help.  

#2 Password Protected iPhone Without Medical ID

Locate Medical Information  

If you see a password screen but don’t see the word EMERGENCY, the iPhone is a little older than most.  It won’t have Medical ID, but it might still have an ICE Contact.  

Locate ICE/Emergency Contacts 

Just press and hold down the  Main Home Button — the big round button on the bottom of the phone — to access Siri.  Then say the following words in this order. 

“Siri, Contacts ICE”.    

If the phone has an ICE contact, Siri should display it for you.

Locate Patient’s Name And Contact Information 

If Siri doesn’t bring anything up, press and hold down the  Main Home Button, and say the following words in this order. 

“Who does this iPhone belong to?” 

Siri should respond with your patient’s name and any basic contact information the he or she entered on the phone. 

Locate Patient’s Next Of Kin 

If you weren’t able to find the information you need, here are a few ideas that might help.  

#3 Not Password Protected

Locate Medical Information 

If the phone isn’t password protected, all you have to do is look for Medical ID or through the phone’s Contacts yourself.  

The quickest way to find it, is to ask Siri.  Swipe the arrow near the bottom of the screen from left to right, to open the home screen. 

Look at the screen and say the following words in this order:  

“Hey Siri, open Medical ID”.  

If Siri responds, check the Medical ID for the information you need.

If nothing happens, Siri probably isn’t switched on.  But you can still find the Medical ID by finding and opening the Apple Health App. 

Locate and click on the App’s Icon.  It’s the one with the Heart (SEE BELOW) and then click on Medical ID. 

Not only will you be able to see any medical history or information that your patient has entered, but you’ll be able to see their ICE/Emergency Contacts at the bottom of the Medical ID screen.

Locate ICE/Emergency Contacts 

Nothing helpful in the Medical ID?  

Time to look at the phone’s Contacts to see if you can find your patient’s ICE contacts or the name of their spouse, relatives or close friends. 

Tap the Phone icon and then tap on Contacts. 

The first contact on the list is usually the owner of the phone, so be sure to look there if you need to find your patient’s name or personal contact information.

Then scroll the rest of the phone/contacts to try and locate your patient’s spouse, parents, relatives or close friends.  

Locate Patient’s Next Of Kin 

If you weren’t able to find the information you need, here are a few ideas that might help.  

How To Find Medical ID On An Apple Watch 

Password Protected 

Locate Medical Information & Emergency Contacts 

Pick up the watch and look at the screen.  If it’s password protected, press and hold the side button (the crown on the watch) drag the Medical ID slider to the right.  

Once you open the Medical ID scroll to the bottom (by turning the side button/crown) to read the information.  Your patient’s emergency Contact should be listed towards the bottom of the Medical ID. 

To call a contact, touch the contact’s name from the list to call them.  If their iPhone isn’t nearby, you’ll have to call the contact number from another phone.   

Not Password Protected 

Locate Medical Information 

If the Apple Watch isn’t password protected, look at the screen and say the following words in this order:  

“Hey Siri, open Medical ID”.  

Locate ICE/Emergency Contacts 

Nothing helpful in the Medical ID?  Time to look at the phone’s Contacts to see if you can find your patient’s ICE Contacts or the name of their spouse, relatives or close friends. 

On the Home screen find and tap the Phone app.  

Now tap Contacts.  To look through the contacts, turning the side button/crown to scroll them. 

If you’re a healthcare professional or a first responder…

Remember these instructions the next time you encounter an unconscious patient with an iPhone. 

While you’re here, take a moment to check out  How To Put An ICE Contact On Your iPhone, or How To Put And ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy to learn how to set up a fully loaded, life saving ICE Contact on your own phone in two minutes or less.  

And don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on your spouse’s and kid’s phones too, along with each other’s contact information, so you can get in touch with each other quickly and easily.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

The Two Minutes That Can Save Your Life

Updated On 3/2/21

In 2020 due to COVID 19, millions of people ended up in the hospital, many in critical condition, who never in their wildest imaginations thought they would be going there. Many were separated from their spouses, children, friends and family who may very well be in another hospital, or who they might never see again.

The thing they have in common is that the doctors and nurses caring for them don’t know them personally. They don’t know what prescriptions they are taking, what they might be allergic to, or what hidden medical conditions might be lurking.

No one could have predicted how severely the pandemic would affect the world or how long it would continue.   But what you can prevent, is lack of information. If you don’t have an ICE Contact on your own iPhone, your spouses and kid’s phone, please stop what you’re doing and go to these links on our blog RIGHT NOW. This is the quick version for iPhone and for the Samsung Galaxy.

You can also find full ICE Contact instructions for every popular phone, smart and flip alike, in our book At Your Fingertips at this link.

Need copies for your group, company or organization? Leave a comment below and we’ll be in touch.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

 

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

The Two Minute ICE Contact for Samsung Galaxy

What if I told you that you could put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy with everything it needs to have in it to save your life, in 2 MINUTES FLAT?

Would you grab your phone and go for it?  Of course you would!  In fact, even if you already have an ICE Contact on your smartphone, I guarantee that you’re probably missing a few key things.

Last week we showed you how to do a 2 Minute ICE Contact on your iPhone, so we thought this week, we’d switch things up so owners of Samsung Galaxy’s could get in on the fun.  So what are you waiting for?  Grab your phone and let’s get started!

1.  Put the word ICE, all capitals, in the First Name field.

2.  Put your ICE Contact’s first and last name in the Last Name field.

3.  Type in all of your contact’s phone numbers.  EVERY one that you have for them

4. Type in all of your contact’s email addresses — again, every last one.

5. Type in all of your contact’s social media handles/user names in the website section of your contact.  You never know what will be working in an emergency.  Many people have reached loved ones on Facebook and Twitter, when cell phone and landline service was down.

6. If you don’t have a field for Relationship, add one by adding new field and choosing the one called, oddly enough, Relationship.  Then choose or enter the way that this contact is related to you.

7. Your own allergies, medications and medical history go in the notes section.  Even better capitalize the words ALLERGIES, MEDICATIONS etc to ensure that they’re seen.

8.  You can also add your physician’s names and phone numbers in the notes section and if you like, a link to your own medical history form.  If you don’t have one, you can borrow one of ours.

9.  Is your contact in different locations on different days?  Add that in the notes section as well.

10. Instead of their photo, add an ICE Contact Graphic to the contact to make it stand out.  Here are a few to choose from.

11.  And finally, never, ever put your social security number or insurance member number into your ICE Contact.  You may put the name of your insurance company and their customer service number in if you like, but as long as your emergency contact comes to the hospital and can provide that information, it’s probably not necessary.

And there you have it.  One fully loaded ICE Contact.  Two Minutes.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our other posts like How To Put and ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy or How To Put An ICE Contact On Your iPhone, or  to learn EVERYTHING you need to know about ICEing your phone. 

And while you’re feeling proactive, don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on your spouse’s and kid’s phones too, along with each other’s contact information.   

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together! We’ll talk later…

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone 6

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

 

How to Protect Your Family Photos From Natural Disasters

Updated 3/7/21

Nothing is worse than watching a victim of the latest disaster digging through the timbers of her home looking for the things she loves most: favorite photos.

The worst part is this type of loss is so easy to prevent! Why are we so good at backing up our smartphone pictures – including the one of yesterday’s lunch – five different ways? But the photos we love most are hanging on the wall unprotected!

• Before hurricane, tornado, wildfire or volcano season catches you unprepared, grab your photos off the walls and scan them at home or at your local copy shop.

• Back up the scans to several different locations in and out of your home, including your PC, digital cameras, portable hard drive, safe deposit box and the cloud. That way if anything ever happens, all you have to do is reprint your favorites and hang them up on your new wall.

Want more tips to keep your family safe?

Over 1.3 million families across the globe have learned how to keep everything and everyone they love safe and sound through our books We’re on a mission to get our books out to donate 200,000 free downloadable copies of our books, Back It Up and Keep Everything You Love Safe.  Pick up your copies today, then help us spread the word on social media.

And while you’re at it, be sure to check out other tips on one of my favorite content sites 30Seconds.com.

 

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog

Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

 

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

 

How Satellite Phones Can Keep You Connected To Your Business & Family

Updated On 9/28/21

To us, one of the worst things that all of the recent disasters had in common, was that they left millions of people — millions of families — disconnected from everything that they needed not only to survive, but to recover. 

And with the way the world has been the last few years — from hurricanes to wildfires, tornadoes and oh yeah, COVID — having an ICE contact is the perfect way to keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

Natural disasters can strike at any time, leaving you and your family stranded without the ability to do something as simple as make a phone call.  Over the last few years, the United States has experienced wildfires in California, tornadoes throughout the Gulf Coast, flooding near rivers and devastation caused by hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico.  While physical essentials like food, water and shelter are often limited during disasters, communications are often overlooked as an emergency resource.  In the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, Puerto Rico experienced an outage of their land-based networks that are used for landlines and cell phone usage.  First responders relied on satellite communications in order to coordinate relief efforts, and afflicted families were able to connect with their loved ones using satellite phones.

In a disaster, there is a risk that telephone lines may fail quickly – and those that don’t can be overloaded with users attempting to place calls.  Satellite communications may become the only alternative as your ‘cellular tower in the sky’.  Iridium provides satellite connectivity with its network of 66 Low-Earth orbit (LEO) satellites that brings reliable service to anyone throughout the world.  Satellite connectivity is a critical emergency resource and backup communications source that allows you, your family, and colleagues to stay safe, aware and connected during a crisis. 

Is There One Phone That Stands Out From The Others?

As a matter of fact there is.  Iridium.  Iridium is the only provider that offers truly global coverage for mobile satellite devices.  Some providers have large stationary satellites placed in space over 22,000 miles away in Geostationary Orbit (GEO).  Given the distance away from Earth, satellite providers with LEO constellations, like Iridium, tend to experience lower latency on phone calls and provide coverage in areas that cannot be served by GEO constellations.  For example, if you’re stranded in a mountainous area, you may struggle to have a clear line of sight between your satellite phone and a GEO satellite.  With LEO satellites, terrain blockages resolve themselves as the satellites move overhead.

Iridium’s network of 66 LEO satellites continually orbiting the earth supplies clear and reliable communications no matter where you are.  Iridium offers easy-to-use satellite phones and devices that can quickly connect you to the Iridium network, and allow you to place calls during a crisis, especially when cellular connectivity is unavailable. 

How Do I Choose A Satellite Device?

Another benefit of a LEO network is the compact and mobile products associated with it.  For example, Iridium GO!® is a small ‘modem’ that connects your smartphone to the Iridium satellite network.  Simply load the Iridium GO! mobile application to your smartphone, connect it to the Iridium network and place a call.  Iridium GO! provides multiple options to stay in touch. You can check email, send a text, update your social media accounts or send an SOS message when in need.   

The Iridium satellite phone, called Iridium Extreme®, is suitable for users on the move. It has a rugged design that can withstand harsh conditions, and features an SOS-button for emergency situations. The SOS button  automatically dials the GEOS emergency response center, a part of the International Emergency Response Coordination Center (IERCC), providing a connection to a live support representative.  The SOS-functionality requires users to register online in order to initiate this emergency response service, and once pushed, the SOS button will send location data for response coordination with local public authorities. The button is programmable so corporations or organizations can have emergency calls routed to their internal response center if needed.

How Do I Use A Satellite Device?

An Iridium satellite phone is nearly as easy to use as a regular phone. However, here are some tips to keep you connected at all times. When using your satellite device, it is important that you ensure the device has been fully charged.  When placing a call from a satellite phone, make sure you have a clear view of the sky in order to connect to the network.  To place a call, simply dial 001 (US country code) followed by the phone number.

Having an emergency plan is a necessity in any household.  Ensuring you have a guaranteed and reliable communication source that works with you wherever you go is the best way to stay safe and connected during a disaster.  When preparing for a disaster, be sure to include an Iridium #SatellitePhone and #HotSpot in your emergency kit.  

High Tech Toys

Here are the coolest ways we can find to keep everyone you love safe and connected.  Smart phones, smart watches, smart flash drives that beam data where you need it and a car accessory that diagnoses your engine on the go.  You’re welcome.

Anker PowerConf Bluetooth Speakerphone

Apple Air Pods

Apple Watch Series 3  

Apple/iTunes Gift Card

Autobrain GPS Tracker for Vehicles

Iridium Extreme Satellite Phone  

Iridium GO! Satellite Phone Wi-Fi Hotspot

BlueCosmo Inmarsat IsatPhone

Samsung Galaxy Note 20

Samsung Gear Fit2 Smartwatch Large, Black

SanDisk 32GB iXpand Flash Drive for iPhone and iPad

Galaxy Fold Z2

IPhone 12 Pro Max

IPhone SE

IPod Touch

Jitterbug Flip Phone

The Ridge Slim RFID Front Pocket Wallet

Tulips In The Breeze Smartphone Case

Red Parrot Smartphone Case

The COVID pandemic has created a new list of toys that people can’t do without — including some very cool high-tech solutions to unexpected challenges.  Like staying healthy and working from home!  Here are some of our favorites.

Cubii Pro Seated Under Desk Elliptical Machine

I’m Smiling On The Inside Face Masks

iHealth No-Touch Forehead Thermometer

iProvèn Wrist Blood Pressure Monitor

KODAK Luma 150 Pocket Projector

No-Touch Door Opener, Button Pusher Tool

Owlet Smart Sock 2 Baby Monitor

PhoneSoap 3 UV Smartphone Sanitizer

Sony Tie-Clip-Style Omnidirectional Microphone

Total Gym APEX G5 Total Body Strength Training

Zacurate Fingertip Pulse Oximeter

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

The Importance Of A Reliable Plan

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

Updated On 3/2/21

What if I told you that you could put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy with everything it needs to have in it to save your life, in only 2 minutes?

In fact, even if you already have an ICE Contact on your regular Samsung Galaxy or Samsung Galaxy Note, I guarantee that you’re probably missing a few key pieces of information.

And with the way the world has been lately from hurricanes and wildfires to Coronavirus it’s more important than ever! Having an ICE contact is an awesome way keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you.

So what are you waiting for?  Grab your phone and let’s get started!

1  Put the word ICE, all capitals, in the First Name field.

2  Put your ICE Contact’s first and last name in the Last Name field.

3 Type in each and every one of your contact’s phone numbers.  

4 Type in all of your contact’s email addresses — again, every one you have for them.

5  Type in all of your contact’s social media handles/user names in the “Website” section of your contact.  You never know what type of communications will be working in an emergency.

Many people have reached loved ones on Facebook and Twitter, when cell phone and landline service was down.

6  If you don’t already have a field on your phone for Relationship, you can add one by tapping “Add New Field” and choosing the one called, “Relationship”.  Now you can choose Spouse, Friend, Parent — however this particular contact is related to you.

7  Your own allergies, medications and medical history go in the notes section.  Even better capitalize the words ALLERGIES, MEDICATIONS etc. to ensure that they’re seen.

8   You can also add your physician’s names and phone numbers in the notes section and if you like, a link to your own medical history form.  If you don’t have one, you can download one of ours. 

9   Is your contact in different locations on different days?  Add that in the notes section as well.

10   And finally, never, ever put your social security number or insurance member number into your ICE Contact.  You may put the name of your insurance company and their customer service number into the Notes section if you like, but as long as your emergency contact can provide that information when he or she gets to the hospital, it’s probably not necessary.

And by the way, when you set up your Medical ID in your iPhone, don’t forget that in an emergency, you can have your phone share the information in your Medical ID with physicians and first responders. In Health, click on your profile, then tap Medical ID, then Edit and turn on “Share During Emergency Call”.

And there you have it.  One fully loaded ICE Contact.  Two Minutes.

While you’re feeling proactive, don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on your spouse’s and kid’s phones too, along with each other’s contact information.

As amazing as our 2 Minute ICE Contact is, we have a high-powered, fully loaded version in our book “The ICE My Phone Kit” along with step by step directions for ICEing other phones like the IPhone 11, regular Androids and even phones that are, shall we say, not all that smart.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

How To Keep Your Holiday Photos Safe

Updated 3/7/21

Do you remember that commercial with all of the pictures standing inside some guy’s camera, all squished together like they were riding on a subway car at rush hour?  They’d all jockey for position hoping that they wouldn’t be the picture that would get deleted to make room for whatever the camera owner wanted to take a picture of next.  It was hysterical!  Unless you’re the picture that gets deleted.  Or the owner of the camera who has to decide which of his favorite pictures to deleted so he can take another.

So how many photos are YOU going to take this Christmas or Hanukkah?

The picture of your toddler opening up her first tricycle?

The shot of your husband nearly knocking over the TV trying to put the star on the tree?

And how many of them will still be around for you to enjoy next year?

Not so funny, is it?  

There are two things that put every picture you take, in jeopardy.  The first is not taking the time to download the pictures you’ve already taken, onto your computer for safekeeping.   The second, is not being prepared to capture that once-in-a-lifetime photo whenever it happens.

Here are two simple steps, you can take that will completely eliminate the danger of losing this year’s special memories.

1) Do not, do not, do not use anything but a regular digital or video camera to take photos during the holidays.  Don’t grab the cell phone to snap the picture of the entire family including 101 year old Grandpa Charlie around the Christmas table.  Very few cell phones have enough megapixels to grab a good enough picture for the family to keep and share.  It might be convenient, but you know as well as I do that you’re going to get a blurry or fuzzy shot instead of what you really want.  And even you do manage to snap a Mona Lisa, you’re going to forget to email it to yourself, so don’t even think about it!

2) Instead, choose your best digital camera and keep it at your side throughout the holidays.  Keep it charged, or even better keep an extra battery charged as well.  And while you’re at it, keep an extra SD card ready to swap out, just in case your Hanukkah dinner ends up being photo-intensive than you thought.  To add an additional level of safety, draft another relative to do exactly the same thing so that you’ll get full coverage of every event.  Then you can get together when the holidays are over, compare your work and send the best photos to all of your relatives on a CD.   Now that’s a holiday to remember.

3) Don’t let the memory card on your camera get so full that you have to start deleting pictures!   In fact don’t let it get anywhere near full.   At the end of every evening make yourself take five minutes to download that day’s photos to your computer.  Make sure you already have the USB cable next to your computer before you leave for the evening so you won’t have any excuses when you get back home.  Get your kids or your husband to promise not to let you go to bed without downloading them, even if you have to leave the camera on the bed as a reminder.

4) If you’re really bad at remembering to download your photos to your computer, then watch the video above.  The secret is to let the your camera or phone do the downloading for you.  How?  Buy a wireless camera like the Canon Power Shot. Wi-Fi digital cameras automatically connect to the Wi-Fi connection in your home to upload your photos from your camera to your computer, without you having to lift a finger.  If you don’t have a wireless camera or don’t want to purchase a new one, get an Eye-Fi card.  Eye-Fi is an SD card with a built-in wireless connection that will do exactly the same thing.  We’ll get into more details about it in another blog post, but you can be in Italy sipping espresso at a sidewalk café with a Wi-Fi connection and your photos will begin appearing on your computer back home, safe and sound until you get return.

This year, don’t leave your photos to chance.  Take a moment to take these two simple steps and before you know it, you’ll be enjoying this year’s holiday photos.  While you’re putting up the ornaments next year.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog
Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are

 

If I Need Help Tags Provide Life Saving Information For People With Autism

This week we’re honored to have a guest post from Erin Wilson, founder of the non-profit organization If I Need Help and creator of an entire line of If I Need Help wearable QR codes for people with Autism.  Here’s Erin’s story…

My son Jay who has severe Autism was lost at school before and another time at an amusement park.  Thankfully, he was quickly found.  Studies report that wandering is the only cause of death due to Autism and that roughly half of people who have Autism wander from safe places.  The majority being people who have low or nonverbal ability.  My husband and I wanted to create a way to let people who see our son if he is lost to know that he is a person who needs help and then tell them how to help him.  So we started a Non Profit named If I Need Help making personal wearable QR codes, when scanned or manually entered it links to a live profile that can be edited in real time. The code can be printed out with the free membership. Also the Emergency Q&A can be filled in at the Caregiver’s leisure and emailed to first responders during a crisis.

We offer many different ways to wear the code:  patches, pins, clips, keychains, custom iD tags for shoes or necklaces, seat belt alerts and ID cards.  Custom Temporary tats will be out soon.  This way of identification and information is now also helping people with mental illness, memory care or with physical conditions in which they may need help during critical situations. Please go to IfiNeedHelp.org to learn more.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together! We’ll talk later…

Introducing… The ICE My Phone Kit!

Buy Paperback Edition $14.99         Buy Downloadable Edition $5

More Amazing Things You Can Do In 5 Minutes Or Less

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Smartphone

How To Download and Back Up Your Digital Photos

How To Fill Out Your Kid’s Emergency Contact Card

_________________________________________________

The Book Inspired By The Blog. The Backup Plan 3.0

The Backup Plan 3.0, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible.  Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order.  This special Bonus Edition includes 7 downloadable Bonus Books.  Paperback Edition $24.99   Buy now at Amazon.com  Downloadable PDF Edition $8.00  Buy Now       Read more about it

Bulk orders & customization available for your company/organization. Contact us for more details.

No one will ever forget the footage from Superstorm Sandy of family after family searching through the wreckage of their homes for their keepsakes, only to find their most cherished possessions completely ruined. Don’t let this tragedy happen to YOUR parents. In this book you’ll learn how to help them back up their photos, videos, vinyl albums & address books, how to record and safeguard their vital information, medical history and vital documents. $12.95 Buy now at Amazon.com Read more about it

 

Raise Money & Save Lives!  Free Customized Editions of our books make a great fundraiser for your organization, company, or an extra stream of income for you.  

Your Business Continuity Plan May Be Missing Something…  Like your employees, for instance?  If your city is struck by a tornado, earthquake or other disaster, it isn’t just your company that will be affected – so will your employees.  That’s why you need to make sure they’re as prepared for an emergency as YOU are.  Don’t worry! We’ve got you covered.  Read More About It

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Free Resources

The Two Minute ICE Contact

Updated On 3/1/21

What if I told you that you could put an ICE Contact on your iPhone with everything it needs to have in it to save your life, in only 2 minutes?

Would you grab your phone and go for it?  Of course you would!  In fact, even if you already have an ICE Contact on your iPhone, I guarantee that you’re  missing a few key things.

And with the way the world has been the last few years — hurricanes, wildfires, tornadoes and COVID — it’s more important than ever!   Having an ICE contact is an awesome way keep your family safe and connected no matter WHAT is happening around you. 

Whether you have an IPhone SE, IPhone 11, Apple Watch, or a brand new IPhone 12 Pro Max, here is a quick and easy way to put a basic ICE Contact on your phone in just 2 minutes.

Before You Begin… 

If you password lock your phone, you’ll also need to set up the Medical ID on your iPhone.

It’s the only way that a hospital will be able to view your ICE Contact while you’re phone is locked.

So once you’ve finished your ICE Contact, set up the Medical ID on your phone, by clicking on the Health App (that’s the app with the heart that comes pre-loaded onto your phone). Then attach your ICE Contact(s) to the Medical ID so they’ll be easy for an emergency room to spot.  If you need detailed instructions on setting up your Medical ID you can find them in our book “At Your Fingertips“.

Grab your phone and let’s get started!

1 Put the word ICE, all capitals, in the First Name field.

2 Put your ICE Contact’s full name and relationship to you in the Company field.

3  Type in each and every one of your contact’s phone numbers.  

4 Type in all of your contact’s email addresses — again, every one you have for them.

5 Type in all of your contact’s social media handles/user names in the “Website” section of your contact.  

You never know what type of communications will be working in an emergency.  Many people have reached loved ones on Facebook and Twitter, when cell phone and landline service was down.

6 Your own allergies, medications and medical history go in the notes section.  Even better capitalize the words ALLERGIES, MEDICATIONS etc, to ensure that they’re seen.

7  You can also add your physician’s names and phone numbers in the notes section and if you like, a link to your own medical history form. If you don’t have one, you can download one of ours. 

8  Is your contact in different locations on different days?  Add that in the notes section as well.

9  And finally, never, ever put your social security number or insurance member number into your ICE Contact.  You may put the name of your insurance company and their customer service number into the Notes section if you like, but as long as your emergency contact can provide that information when he or she gets to the hospital, it’s probably not necessary.

If you’d also like to add your ICE Contact to your Apple watch, just make sure your contacts are synched with your iPhone and it will show up on your watch’s contacts as well.  To add it to your Health ID on both your iPhone and your Apple Watch, check out one of our other blog posts. 

And there you have it.  One fully loaded ICE Contact.  Two Minutes.

While you’re feeling proactive, don’t forget to put ICE Contacts on your spouse’s and kid’s phones too, along with each other’s contact information.

As amazing as our 2 Minute ICE Contact is, we have a high-powered, fully loaded version in our book “The ICE My Phone Kit” along with step by step directions for ICEing other phones like Samsung Galaxy, regular Androids and even phones that are, shall we say, not all that smart.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

The ICE My Phone Kit

Did you know your smartphone can save your life? It can also save your spouse’s life, your kid’s lives and the lives of everyone you love! The secret is letting your phone do the talking for you in an emergency. How? With ICE, your in case of emergency contact. In “The ICE My Phone Kit” you’ll find step by step directions for ICEing, iPhones, Galaxies, regular Androids, Windows and even flip phones. Paperback Or Instant Download

At Your Fingertips | Make Your Smartphone Even Smarter

What if I told you, there was something you have with you right now, that can give you the support, information & ability you need to keep everyone and everything you love safe and sound, PLUS the power to gather your family in seconds no matter where they are. What is it? It’s your smartphone! At Your Fingertips is an easy to read, easy to use guide that turns your smartphone into your very own life preserver. Paperback Or Instant Download

How To Set Up Your ICE Contacts

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your iPhone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Samsung Galaxy Phone

How To Set Up An ICE Contact On Your Android Smartphone

How To Put An ICE Contact & Medical ID On Your Apple Watch

How To Set Up Your Medical ID & ICE Contact On The iPhone

How to put an ICE Contact on your Samsung Galaxy Lock Screen

Can I Put An ICE Contact On A Password Protected iPhone?

How To Find Your Patient’s Medical Information & ICE Contacts On An iPhone.

Cómo Colocar Un En Caso de Contacto de Emergencia En Su Teléfono Celular

Why Are ICE Contacts So Important?

Create An ICE Contact In 2 Minutes

The Two Things You should NEVER put in your ICE Contact

Don’t Carry A Wallet? Here are 20 Places To Put Your Emergency Wallet Card

Keep The People You Love Safe

How To Keep Your Medical History At Your Fingertips

How To Create A Family Evacuation Plan

How To Fill Out Your Child’s Emergency Contact Card

As Amazon Associates we earn commissions from qualifying purchases made from product links.

How To Back Up Your Parent’s Print Photos

Updated 3/7/21

How To Back Up Your Parent’s Printed Photos 

I don’t know about you, but the worst part about watching coverage of earthquakes — like the quakes in Ecuador and Japan — is the look on victim’s faces as they pick through the rubble of their homes, trying to find a photo of their wedding or of their children.  

In today’s world, now that we have smartphones, taking photos has become a daily event.  If one gets harmed or destroyed, we just print out another copy.  Not true though for old family photos that are hanging on the wall, or worse, stuck like glue inside a yellowed photo album.  

And where will you find most of those old photos?  At your parent’s and grandparent’s house — where unfortunately one-of-a-kind can mean just that.  One copy and that’s it! What a horrible thing it would be for them or for you to be left without the pictures you treasure the most, especially when keeping them safe and sound is so easy.

So give this post a quick read, grab the tools you need for the job and let’s get Mom and Dad’s photos and cameras squared away once and for all!

As you know, there are two types of photos.  The first are photo prints – basically anything that is a physical photo, whether it’s in a frame, in an album or lurking in the back of a kitchen or desk drawer.  In order to archive those photos, you’ll need to scan them and get them into a digital format so that they can be put on a computer or portable hard drive.  That’s what we’ll be dealing with in this article.  The second type of photo is a digital photo – which we help you back up and archive in another post.  

One thing that makes print photos harder to archive than other keepsakes is the simple fact that we get so used to seeing our favorite photos hanging around the house, that we don’t always think to take them off the wall and scan them for safekeeping.  

So your first task is to locate all of your parent’s physical photos.  Don’t forget to look for all the albums, photos in drawers or files and those hanging in frames on the walls or sitting on the bookshelf.   Then you’ll decide which of those photos you want to archive for safekeeping.  After that, we’ll get them scanned.  

If there are a lot of photos around the house, you’ll probably need some help dealing with all of your pictures.  Why not declare one day “scanning day”.  Invite a bunch of good friends over to help, and if you have as much fun as we think you will, next time have them bring over their own photos to scan.  Do you have kids?  That’s even better – they’ll have a great time helping.

1. Grab a pencil and paper

…and go around the house jotting down all the non-digital photos or photo collections you want to secure and their current location.

2. Gather all of the photos that you located.

Although all of your photos are important, some mean more to your parents than others.

Take a few moments to look at the photo albums, prints and framed photos and separate them into two different piles.

• In the first pile, place photos that you want to copy and save in a digital format, for safekeeping.

• In the second pile, place photos that you:

  • Already have in digital format and could easily recopy if the one you’re holding was harmed or destroyed.

  • Have numerous other copies of the photo in other locations. Check to make sure that this is actually true, before you decide not to scan them.

  • Simply don’t care enough about to keep it disaster safe.

• You can go ahead and put the photos in the second pile back where you found them.

3. Scan Away!

Take the photos in the first pile, scan each one and download it to your computer, placing them in a brand new folder. When you’re finished, make one copy of that complete folder.  Place the original folder in with the other digital photos on your computer.  Then place the copy of the folder into the backup folder you created earlier.

If you already have digital photos on your computer, save these scanned photos to a new folder within your photos folder.  For example, ScannedPrintPhotos, so you’ll know at a glance which photos are the ones you scanned.

4. Make Sure You Back Up ALL Your Photos To At Least Three Locations

Once you have finished scanning, copy that folder containing all of your photos — the digital ones and the ones you just scanned and save it with a different name, like Photo Archive Backup, with today’s date.   Place a copy of your backup folder in at least three different locations.  Here are a few suggestions of safe places to store them:

•On a flash drive or portable hard drive, and take them with you during evacuation on a key ring or in your plastic evacuation bin.

•On a flash drive or portable hard drive, in a safe deposit box or water/fireproof safe in your own city.

•On a flash drive or portable hard drive, in a safe deposit box, water/fireproof safe, or with relatives in the city where you’ll be evacuating.

•In a password-protected online file repository or on the file directory of your family’s personal web site.  This way, you can retrieve them from any Internet-enabled computer.

•You can also save an extra copy of your photos on Flickr or another internet photo service.  But this really shouldn’t be your long-term solution or only solution, since you have no control over these sites and could lose all of your data without any warning.

•If you really want to keep photos on a secure site that you can share with your family, try iMemories.com.  Not only do they have great servers with outstanding redundant backup capability, but they can even put your photos on DVD for you, providing an extra layer of safety.

If you need more help scanning your photos — or if you have delicate or color challenged photos that need a bit more attention, here are a few tips.

How To Scan Your Photos

There are several great ways to scan your photos.  Just to clarify, a scanner is different than a copy machine, because a scanner makes an exact digital copy of a photo.  It’s a world of difference from a photo copy, which is usually pretty bad.  In many cases a scan of a photo is better than the original.  And the nice thing about them is that once you scan a photo, you can save it onto your computer, share it with family and friends or use photo software to correct faded color, repair damage or otherwise restore old photographs.

Most printers available now are three or four in one printers, that scan as well as print.  You can also scan your photos with a dedicated flatbed scanner (all it does is scan).

Or you can scan your photos with a portable wand scanner, as we mentioned earlier.  Portable wand scanners, like the VuPoint Wand Scanner, have come a long way.  They run on batteries or are rechargeable and save anything you scan onto an SD card.  From there, you can download the scans/photos directly to your computer, via a USB cord, or you can pop the SD card out of the scanner and pop it into your computer to archive your scans.

The best part about having a portable wand scanner is that you can scan photos, documents, even things like marriage certificates or historical documents by swiping the scanner over it, instead of having to take all of those documents home and putting them, one at a time, through your scanner.  It’s especially good, like we said, for scanning photos at relative’s homes.  If they don’t want the photo leaving the house, just take the scanner over and scan the photos you want.   Amazingly, if you’re dealing with a fragile photo, you can even scan it right in the frame.  Or if you have delicate photos in a photo album – have you ever tried to peel photos out of an album without damaging them – you can simply open the book and sweep the scanner over the page.  Then all you have to do is open the scanned page and crop the photos apart, saving each one as a separate photo.  Photos archived, originals safeguarded!

One other scanner we wanted to mention is one that stands out among all the others in the marketplace, for color correction. It’s the Epson Perfection line of scanners, with Epson’s Easy Photo Fix software.   There are several models on Amazon.com.  Do you have any of those photos from the seventies and eighties that ended up a muddled brown-orange mess?   All you have to do is use the Auto Fix setting on the scanner and then scan your seventies photos.  The scanner corrects the color while it scans.  Truly amazing!  

If you don’t have access to a scanner, then have a relative or friend scan them for you.  Scanning is by far the cheapest and most effective way of safeguarding your important photos.  If you can’t get them scanned, go to a copy shop like Fed Ex-Kinko’s and have copies made of all your photos, using non-acid paper.  This will ensure that they will last longer and will fade less as they age.

Now that you know what you’re doing, scan all the loose prints that you want to preserve.  The higher the dpi the better the quality, so use 300 or 600 on your oldest, most treasured photos.  Then save the scans to your computer to back them up.

Have Fun Getting Your Stuff Together!

Back It Up

I don’t know about you, but the most important keepsakes in our house are our old family photos, followed closely by our home movies and music. But grabbing piles of photo albums and all your picture frames off the walls is pretty hard to do when you’re running out the door! With Back It Up, you’ll learn quick, easy steps to back up your print/digital photos, home movies, music (including vinyl & cassettes) and save them in multiple, disaster proof locations. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep Everything You Love Safe | The Book Inspired By The Blog
Keep Everything You Love Safe, is filled with quick, easy, 5 minute steps you can take right now, to get everything that’s important to you organized, safe, sound and accessible. Each section covers a different area, from backing up and fixing family photos, home movies and music, to vital documents, medical and financial information and even getting your digital life in order. Paperback Or Instant Download

Keep The Stuff You Love Safe

How To Save Your Treasured Voice Mail Messages

How To Save Your Home Movies And Videos

How To Archive Your Digital Photos

How To Archive Your Print Photos

How To Make A Home Inventory

How To Get Your Financial Life In Order

How To Preserve Your Family History

How To Back Up Your Facebook Friends List

Turn Your Smartphone Into A Mobile Command Center

How To Backup Your Music, MP3s And Vinyl Albums

How To Access Your Money No Matter Where You Are