The Burning House Question
theburninghouse.com asks the question "If your house was burning, what would you take with you?" and illustrates people's answers with photos.
When I first checked it out, my reaction was to wonder how many of those people would get trapped in their burning house while they collected their favourite clothes and memorabilia. In my defense, if there were a fire in the house I live in, and I were in my room when I noticed it, chances are the fire would be between me and the door, so I should better hurry.
What I would grab, assuming I don't panic:
- My handbag (usually includes my driver's license and car papers, purse with money, bank account card, and cash, and my mobile phone)
- External harddrive (backups of writing and documents, photos, scanned drawings/paintings, and websites.
- Keys
- Some or other jacket hanging on my door, depending on season.
Those are things that are usually out in the open and easily grab-able.
In a situation where I had a bit more time, I'd unplug my laptop and take that with me. (I would NOT want to take the time for unplugging it from the network, power and any periphery that might at the moment be connected if a fire might cut me off from leaving the house.)
The cardboard box with photos, or at least grab the "historical" stuff from up top (a few photos from when my mother was a kid or earlier; her grandfather's military passport from the First World War)
My camera?
If I had a bit more time to consider, and still could carry something (big ifs), I might get the original painting by Ursula Vernon with its frame, and/or the folder with my relatively big drawings/paintings.
Though I guess the file folders with the bank and insurance papers might be more sensible? I'm not sure. Those seem more replacable.