What Would You Take with You from Your Burning House?



Robert Holden is asking people a simple question: what would you take with you if your house was burning down? The limitations create "a conflict between what's practical, valuable and sentimental." Pictured above is the selection by photographer Porter Hovey. Why the shuttlecock? Hovey explains that's is actually a Christmas ornament:

A nice reminder of where I’m from — people never realize how cosmopolitan Kansas City really is. From an aerial view, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art looks like a gigantic badminton court with gigantic shuttlecocks scattered about on the lawn. The Nelson also has one of the best collections photography there is in the world. It always inspires me.


What would you take with you?

http://the-burning-house.com/ via Nerdcore

This doesn't "a conflict between" anything. This creates a window into the soul about what is critically important. The first thing I'm taking out of my burning house is me... Now to the the psych majors analyze that.
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Unfortunately I have first hand experience in this--I had to leave my place in about 15 minutes when it flooded late last year. I quickly moved a few valuables to high ground (SLR camera), packed some clothes in a bag, grabbed my passport, birth certificate, home insurance and HOA info, point and shoot camera, and phone charger. Killed the power and got out just as about 2 inches or rapidly rising water had filled the whole place. Not a fun night--I still haven't been able to move back in 5 months later.
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The fire.

(With apologies to Terry Pratchett.)

Serious answer: once I'm sure my family is safe, i grab the go-bag from my office and sweep as many books from the shelf above into it as i can. Then before i leave I pull the hard disk from the hotswap bay in the server.

Yes, I've thought about this...
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I have a lockbox that, while it can withstand one hour of fire/water, does have a nice handle and is always accessible. Got my passport, insurance papers, and a few mementos of past coworkers and friends. Pretty light, as well. It's not something like a cellphone (I would try that, too) or my laptop(s), or my cat (always first), but does represent a lot of me. I worked hard for some of the things in the lockbox, but other things are just a bit sentimental, which goes against my usually-utilitarian-only, form-follows-function personality. They've got to be really important to get past my sentimentalitymeter.
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MrsO and I get out ASAP. I hope the cat uses her cat doors. If I have time I'd grab my Mac Mini to save all the data and photos I have on it. Oh, and I'd probably grab my fire proof safe box. I really would not want to test it with my valuable documents.
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My house burned to the ground when I was 17, so I have a bit of experience. Believe me, after that I learned that none of these "things" matter whatsoever. And that experience also enabled me to leave all my "things" behind many times since that day.

My mother reacted wisely. She grabbed a coat for everyone in the family (it was January), and her purse, which contained car keys. Believe me, car keys are important, because we could move the cars away from the house ...and then we used the microbus to corral all the dogs and puppies in until we could figure out where to take them. Mom didn't have keys to MY car, so we had to push it out of the way. What a hassle.

We lost all my baby pictures. Since I've had kids, I always printed out two copies, and gave one copy away. Now that pictures are digital, I email them to relatives, or store them online, so they can be recovered.

My family has a fire plan. Get out, leave the door open for the pets; they will take care of themselves. I love my pets, but I refuse to allow my children to waste time looking for them. We have a meeting place so we can know who is where. I have a file box that will be the first thing I grab after getting the kids out of a burning house. It has the irreplaceable documents, like my daughters' overseas documents and citizenship papers.
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I keep my camera in the camera bag, along with some photo negatives, my binoculars, a wildlife guide my grandpa gave me years ago, my great-grandma's engagement ring, and some DS games I would be sad to lose, but never play much any more. Then I have my DS, games I actually play, phone and iPod (which pretty much is the only remnant I have left of my music collection) in my purse, which stays next to the camera bag. That's about it. The only really valuable jewlery I own (other than the ring) is my ammolite necklace, which I wear. Then it's just scoop up the dogs, the bags and go.
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The cat, the laptop, keys already clipped to purse, shoes and weather appropriate jacket, camera if readily available.

Having a laptop makes it much easier, because it's all the important papers and numbers, as well as old letters and photos.

My spouse might also grab one guitar, if possible.

We've been through a lot of alarms at various apartments. The cat goes under the sofa and freezes, so we know how to get him.
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Hmm, I frequently think of this, and realize more an more that should my house burn down, I doubtfully will have time to get any items (bad organization). My first goal, of course is to get my family out safely, then pets (sorry animals).
After that - a box with important documents (although that's fire proof, so screw it). Definitely mortgage papers and photographs. If its winter - blankets and shoes for my little son. Maybe a toy of his.

If I can though, I will carry my PC out. Good idea about the car keys actually! Ill grab those along as well.
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I've actually had to make this decision while living in SW Baltimore when a row a few doors down was on fire and we had to go; just in case.
Its amazing how fast you can:
-get a cat in a carrier
-unplug a desktop from everything
-find that box of your prized 80s punk 7" vinyl that you got at shows
-get the guns in their hard cases
-dig the firebox of documents, passport, etc out of the closet

I think all in under 3 minutes. Its great incentive when you look out your front door and flames are shooting 12 feet out your neighbors windows.
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Our dogs would follow us out. So I'd get the cat.
I love all of my "things" but there really isn't any one thing that I can think of that I MUST save other than my husband and my pets. My poor fish would die though which would be heartbreaking :(
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* Take the fire away. Problem solved.
* Failing that, take other people away.
* Beforehand, store copies of important documents at a separate location.
* Store important computer files at another location.
* Store a videotape of your entire house, for insurance purposes.
* I'm tired of making this list.
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someone beat me to saying "the fire" and even cited the same person :( I'm slow.

In actuality? Assuming my wife is out of the house I'm getting my dog. No way am I letting Scruffy burn.
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Sounds like some of you guys are just spur-of-the-moment packing! No tangible items are worth any risk.
My main concern are my pets-especially the caged ones. I'll be breaking windows and tossing guinea pigs like grenades. And I'd take my hubby of course :)
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In order:
My kids.
My computers.
My cellphone.

If I had pets (currently looking), they would come after the kids and before the computers.

Everything else is replaceable. I know, I know, the computers and cellphone are replaceable, but the information I have stored isn't.
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