First, if you are in an impacted area, repairing your home to livable standards comes first. And this article does not address those concerns. This article is for those that, with all of the praying and distress, managed to survive the storm pretty much intact.

1. Whether you evacuated or not, almost everyone lost power and food safety needs to be evaluated. It's safest to throw EVERYTHING in the freezer or refrigerator away but not always affordable. There are articles out that specify exactly what could be saved or must be discarded but it's simple to say anything that is questionable—throw it out. Mayonnaise, meats, fish, most cheeses, prepared foods, macaroni …throw out. Things like ketchup, mustard, barbeque sauce may be salvageable. Butter, which can sit out on the counter, can possibly be saved.  Use the rule: When in doubt, throw it out.
2. Garbage pick up has been delayed so while you may decide to throw out those food items, it's best to leave them where they are until right before your garbage is being picked up. Putting them in the garbage too early will create rotting food, attracting animals and you might possibly come out the next morning having to clean up a big mess if wild animals broke open your garbage containers. Even just as bad is if you left that garbage can in your garage overnight with all of the food rotting. If you have the patience, leave everything in the refrigerator/freezer and clean it out right before the garbage man is coming.
3. Lawn Debris seems to be picked up separately from the other garbage. Pile it up, keeping it out of traffic and just ignore it until services can be restored enough to pick it up.
4. Vital records were of a major concern for many of us. Many were boxed and put up high. Many were put in our suitcases as we evacuated. Take time to return them to their rightful files. Even better, scan them and have them in an online file folder prior to returning the originals to their original place. This included insurance documents, passports, health records, etc. Having an online copy, and keeping that updated might be a good idea for the future anyway.
5. Cash…did you take a lot of cash out of the bank as suggested? If so, do you still have it in your wallet or have you returned it back to the bank? This wasn't free money and may be required for your monthly expenses. Make sure and return it to where you normally keep it, rather than having it in your wallet.
6. Photographs, or other items of value. After expecting we might have 12 feet of water, all of my old photos that I could find were stored high in the garage…just in case. Take them back down, and put them where they are. But I looked at all of those and thought it might be time to start procrastinating, organize them, scan them and get them more accessible. Also throw out all of these blurry shots that you just threw in the boxes because you could 'kind of' make out who was in them. Be more critical about what photos you're going to keep. OR, just put them back where they were so they don't get moldy sitting in a garage with no air conditioning.
7. Home inspection. Walk around your home, check it carefully that there wasn't any damage, no matter how small that should be addressed. I'm not talking about things large enough for insurance claims, but smaller items- loose fencing, or electrical, broken branches…anything that should be repaired or adjusted based on any bad storm.
8. Last, PATIENCE. We can mostly all congratulate ourselves for the patience we've shown so far. It's much easier once the Air Conditioning is on but still there are a lot of adjustments needed in our neighborhood to get it back to 'normal'. And even if we're okay now, many of our neighbors are not. Community involvement, or just keeping aware of when someone else could use your help would be a big step towards all of us getting back to normal.

Sue Reynolds is a local Real Estate Broker at Archer Realty, located in Palm Harbor, Florida.