Ah…the PCS binder…
Some love it, some find it unnecessary. I for one find it to be vital every single time I have moved.
For those of you not familiar with a PCS binder, it is basically a large binder that contains all important documents needed before, during and after your move. These are items you wouldn’t want to be packed by accident, stolen or lost. This can be helpful also to keep your sanity! Who doesn’t want that?!
This is NOT a complicated post. I won’t overwhelm you with a ton of information or fancy fluff. Some people really do cool personalized things with their binders, and I someday may make that happen, but for now, I keep it very simple and functional and it has worked well for us over the last 6 years.
With the hustle and bustle of PCS season upon us (and trust me, I get it since I am currently in the middle of it), I wanted to take a quick moment and FINALLY post what I consider to be vital items to have in a PCS binder and why.
Important (non-negotiable) Items
First, let’s chat about what I consider to be vital for a good PCS binder. These are the items that I believe you should ALWAYS include in your binder no matter where you usually keep them every day. This is also a running list. Depending on your situation, you may choose to include more, or some of these items may not be applicable to you. Use your best judgement on that!
- 2 Copies of official orders
- Copy of paperwork from DPS/Mil.com
- Copies of birth and/or marriage certificates, SS cards
- Copies of lease/mortgage documents
- Copies/Originals of Wills/Final documents
- Titles of vehicles (along with shipping info if OCONUS and shipping a vehicle)
- Copy of medical records (digital or paper) and vaccine records
- Weight tickets and receipts
Option Items
These are the items that I include in my binder, but they are not as vital as the above mentioned items. And this is where the personalization REALLY comes into play. For example, I always include jump drives of our wedding, engagement, family and newborn photos. I personally like having “hard copies” of those on me. But some may want to simple store them on the cloud and call it a day. A PCS binder is ALL ABOUT YOU and your families needs/priorities in this area.
- Flash Drives/Portable Hard drives of documents and photos
- Copies of confirmations of reservations for during the PCS
- Printed map of route (Who knows if your phone dies, gets lost, smashed, etc)
- Written info (name, numbers and addresses) of emergency contacts (Same reasoning as above)
- Special photos/documents you don’t want ruined, lost or stolen
- School information for the new district (if applicable) and assessment results
- Color-coding paper (more on this in a moment)
As you can see, these are not applicable for everyone and since there is limited space in your binder, make sure to prioritize what you include so everything is still easy to locate.
How to organize:
For these items, I use document holders in my 3 inch, three-ring zippered binder and make sure to label them so they are easy to find. When I am looking for an item, this helps me to access them quickly and to keep like-items put together.
I also utilize zipper pouches to keep smaller items all together. I would hate to lose things like SS, jump drives with important photos, etc.
And finally, don’t get too caught up in the frills. I would love to tell you that having a pretty cover for each folder makes it better (and it may for many!), but my binder has been through many moves, get tossed around during the move itself and still is holding its own. This was a life saver for us time and time again.
Real Quick….
Color coordinating! Tell me I am not the only one??!
I like to make things easier for everyone (especially me) both on the origin side of a PCS and the destination. This is my favorite, and frankly the most effective, way to do this. Its really simple too. Remember when I mentioned how I like to group items together? This is one of the main reasons why.
I take a blank sheet of paper, write down all the rooms at our destination. If you don’t know the exact rooms, make your best guess. Then I assign a color duct tape to each room and place it on this paper. I keep the rolls and take them with me all over the rooms while packing. I make sure to place the color I choose on the box going to that room. Kitchen boxes get Yellow, Garage/Storage boxes get red, etc.
When we get to our destination, I place this “master sheet” on the front door and I place a piece of the colored tape on the good frame of the corresponding room. This makes it SOOOO much easier for the crazy unloading of the truck and everything can get to the room you wants it in SO MUCH quicker. Nice right?!
How do YOU organize your important documents? Are there any items I may be missing that I haven’t thought of?
