Displaced From Your Home? A Calm, Practical First-Week Checklist

The first week out of your home is pure adrenaline, and adrenaline makes for expensive, disorganized decisions. This is the calm version — the order to do things in, so nothing critical slips while you're overwhelmed. Garr: the one thing you most often see displaced families forget in week one — add it as a callout.

Day 1–2: Safety and immediate shelter

• Account for everyone, including pets.
• Secure tonight's shelter — family, a hotel, or emergency assistance. Don't commit long-term yet.
• Grab essentials if it's safe — medications, documents, chargers, a few days of clothes.

Day 2–3: Open the claim, start the paper trail

• Call your insurer and open the claim. Ask specifically about Additional Living Expenses and your lodging cap.
• Photograph the damage thoroughly before anything is cleaned up.
• Start a receipt folder and note your normal spending baseline — this is the backbone of your ALE documentation.

Day 3–7: Line up stable housing

• Get a repair timeline from a restoration contractor — it decides everything.
• Match housing to the timeline. Weeks → a hotel is fine. Months → choose a lower monthly cost that stretches your coverage.
• Keep the family together. Stability — same schools, pets included — is what gets everyone through a long displacement.

The mindset that helps

You can't fix the house this week, but you can avoid the two mistakes that cost the most: overspending before you know your cap, and booking week-to-week instead of choosing housing for the whole displacement. For a multi-month timeline, an on-site RV on your own property keeps everyone stable. Start with the temporary housing guide, or tell us your situation on the request page.