If you ever have trouble finding your glasses, wallet, or keys, it’s even harder after an earthquake, but you’ll need them more than ever. So watch where you put them—your medicines, too—every day and every night.

This is off-topic but it might be useful to someone. The recent Chino Hills earthquake has re-awakened California to reality. I lived in Southern California for 13 years. The magnitude 7.3 (or 7.6, depending on your source) Landers earthquake in 1992 was just 25 miles from our family’s home at the time in Big Bear City. Depending again on your source, it was either the most powerful earthquake in the continental U.S. in the last one hundred years, or it was at least tied for that honor. You may not remember this earthquake because that region is sparsely populated, there were few injuries, and it was overshadowed in the news very soon afterward by Hurricane Andrew. My family certainly remembers it.

Even more memorable, though, was the 6.4 (or 6.7) aftershock three hours later. This one was centered very near our home. We had somehow suffered no damage from the Landers quake, but this second one shook almost everything out of our cupboards and off our shelves. One of our neighbors was trapped for a while under a fallen bookshelf. There were so many broken plates on our kitchen floor I had to clear a path through them all with a snow shovel. Our masonry chimney cracked badly; some of our neighbors’ chimneys fell right through their roofs and into their living rooms. A local hardware store changed its business model for a few weeks: instead of selling paint and fasteners and other assorted goods, they charged tourists a nice fee to peek at the mess it made when it all got tossed on the floor.

Which brings me to a piece of earthquake advice I never heard in all my years in California. A big earthquake will totally scramble your possessions. Do you ever have trouble finding your wallet, keys, and glasses? Think of looking for them under your fallen bookshelf, instead of on top where you think you left them. Think of scrabbling through piles of stuff to find them while aftershocks are making you wish you weren’t even indoors. Think of the shape your glasses will be in when you finally find them.

Because of aftershocks, our house was a significant hazard zone until we could get our cracked chimney safely taken down. We were homeless for a week, with only as many of our possessions as we were able to dash in for and grab in a hurry. Think of being forced out of your home with no keys to get in your car for shelter or mobility, or not having any cash or credit cards with you.

Thankfully, we were able to find what we absolutely had to find, but we were lucky. So here’s my extra preparedness advice for anyone who lives in or travels to an earthquake zone

You will really need your glasses, your wallet, your medicines, and your keys, and you’re going to want them right now as you’re running out of the house.

So keep track of them.

When you go to bed every night, put them where you know you’ll be able to find them easily—even after your house has gone through a blender.