No, not the mental kind of memories. The physical kind, such as your precious photos, albums, yearbooks, old videos, important documents, and so on. Their loss can be quite devastating and heartbreaking.

I know. You see, years ago, my house caught on fire. Culprit: old wiring. Don’t worry, there were no causalities or fatalities. We and the family dog made it out just in time. The fire was quite brutal, though. It consumed a few rooms across two floors, one of which was my large bedroom-slash-office. About 75% of my possessions went up with the smoke, including family photos, many artworks, two bookcases full of books, yearbooks, and important documents. As I watched the fire, I instantly regretted that I didn’t take pictures of my artworks or scan the photos/books and save them all to the external drive or cloud.

Since then, I’ve become a strong proponent of converting memories to digital and preserving or archiving them. Let my experience be a valuable lesson to you. I encourage you to consider scanning or digitally photographing your vital documents and belongings, then save them on the cloud. And-or in an external drive placed in a fireproof safe.

If you want to scan your family photos or albums but you don’t have the time or patience to do it, please think of us blue cats. In addition to scanning services, we even do photo restoration!

Bonus lesson: While we were dealing with the insurance agent to be reimbursed for the loss of our possessions, he asked us if we by any chance had photographs and inventory lists of our belongings. When we said no, the agent said that if we had those pictures and inventory lists, we likely would have received more in insurance money. Use this knowledge! There are apps and websites out there that show you how to take proper inventory. Or even better, talk to your insurance agent because they may have their own policies on what the photographs and inventory lists should contain.

—Tabby