Hasta La Ideas

California-based professional organizer Jeri Dansky tipped us off to the fantastic website The Burning House. From the website’s “About Us” section:

If your house was burning, what would you take with you? It’s a conflict between what’s practical, valuable and sentimental. What you would take reflects your interests, background and priorities. Think of it as an interview condensed into one question.

Participants then take a picture of what items they would gather together from their homes and explain the contents with a brief description. From reading the site, I’ve discovered the items also say a lot about a person’s relationship with his or her stuff. After thinking about the question for a few hours, I was surprised by how short my list was:

Assuming my husband was able to make it out on his own, these are the only things I would try to take with me:

• My son (not pictured, but represented by his favorite stuffed animal)
• My purse, containing phone, wallet, and keys, and
• My cat, Charlie (who refused to pose for the camera)

All my cherished photographs and letters have been digitally scanned and backed up online, my computer is also regularly backed up so I wouldn’t lose my writing or research if I didn’t take it with me, my entire music collection is on my phone, I can treat my coffee addiction with a latte from Starbucks, and all the rest of the stuff in the house can be replaced. Sure, I’d miss a few things and be sad about losing the stuff that went up in flames, but I’d survive.

What would you take with you if your home were burning? More importantly, what have you done to protect these items so you actually could save them in a disaster situation? Share your list and strategies in the comments.

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