How to Protect Your Keepsakes from a Flood

Often, the most precious items that we own are also the most irreplaceable. Valuable keepsakes help us remember the important memories in our lives, whether they’re vintage photos or priceless antiques that relatives passed down through generations.

In an instant, however, a natural disaster—such as a flood—can wash them away without a care, and you’ll lose decades’ worth of memories. Before it’s too late, learn how to protect your keepsakes from a flood if your house is in a flood-prone area.

Keep Your House Clean

After you’ve lived in your home for so long, it is difficult to imagine cleaning it and downsizing your collections of stuff. Maintaining a clean house is important for protecting your valuables from the unthinkable—knowing where everything is at any given time will help you know if something goes missing.

If your house is too cluttered to clean on your own, have your home care assistant, friends, or family members help you undertake the project. You may need a professional cleaning company to clean your home for you quickly.

Once you have a clean slate, take inventory of your most beloved belongings. Create an organized chart or list and keep it somewhere safe, so you can double-check it if a flood ever impacts your home.

Digitize Photos, Film, and Documents

Physical media formats may disappear in a flood, but digital versions of those same memories can last forever—especially if you store them on cloud storage. Cloud storage keeps your files in your personal online space, which prevents them from washing away, like if you had stored them on a flash drive, CD, or computer.

Because you never know when a flood can strike, you must digitize your media sooner rather than later to avoid losing your fragile photos. You may need help from a child or grandchild to ensure that everything is easily accessible to you. All your favorite keepsakes will have digital copies in case you ever lose the originals.

Pick a Safe Place to Store Keepsakes

Finally, the best way to protect your keepsakes from a flood is to keep them high and dry wherever you store them. Don’t stow them away in your damp, cold basement where they’re the most at risk of flood damage—keep them in a closet upstairs where it’s dry. Higher floors are less likely to flood, making them ideal for precious memorabilia. Utilize shelves, storage bins, and acid-free photobooks to keep things tidy.

A flood is disastrous for your home, but you don’t have to lose generations’ worth of antiquities and memories to the damage. Take small steps now to protect your keepsakes, and you can focus on the big picture if water ever makes its way inside the house.