The house is on FIRE, you can save 5 items - what are they?

The first time I thought about this was when my parents' oh my Gosh the chips kitchen caught fire (hot oil on the stove), it was mostly smoke and water damage - through the entire house. They had to move out for six weeks.

Then two years ago we were 400kms away from our farm and received a phone call from a 20' something neighbour (apparently his GF was fire captain's daughter) - reporting that a fire was heading perilously close to our property... not really but that wasn't the message relayed.

I was physically sick with worry devastated at the thought of coming home to find everything gone.
Thankfully, the grass fire was extinguished and it never came close.

In the recent Blue Mountains bush fires friends of friends lost EVERYTHING ! Away on holidays , their daughter was lucky to get out .They did retrieve a few things from the ash and rubble.

They are still standing and have almost rebuilt. We talked about it - then our friend who backs onto bushland said he was going to build a fireproof room for his vintage bikes in case they went up in smoke.

We still didn't make changes to tighten our act ... the prompt today challenged me to spend time not just thinking about our important things but doing something. (The assumption with the prompt - is that our family’s safety is the first priority - children and pets are already safe - and basic needs will be covered)

1. My Laptop and iPad because it has all our boys photos mostly.
2. Album of wedding and other photos (pre digital era) - heirloom portraits of hubby's grandparents and our twins portraits/ keepsakes )
3. Charlotte's ashes and memory box.
4. Our Wedding certificate / birth certificates etc
5. My hand bag containing hopefully wallet, one set of car keys, phone and tissues.
   
   As I went through this prompt it challenged me not only identify our 'important' things - out of an entire home, shed and shipping container  ; what 'things' mean the most and why ?

Also ..

• Are we prepared with a fire plan in case of an emergency. NO

• When will we put in practice ways to keep safe those things now and ready to retrieve if necessary ? GO GO GO !

• The excess of things that I have that couldn't be saved or less important stuff. Stop holding onto crap from 24yrs of marriage and beyond!

• How can we more easily part with things that didn’t make the 'important' list...de-clutter !

• Seriously most important things weren’t all that important after all - as long as the family was safe !

Personally while I get that objects can be replaced , I'd struggle not to take a single thing. Even all our books ...

What do you hold dear ?

What consumer-able item couldn't be left to go up in smoke ?

 ♥

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