my "big duffle bag" is a Craftsman plastic wheeled tool chest with collapsible handle...somewhat waterproof....place to sit if necessary...upper tray for small, high value items... interior space....bungee for 5 gal bucket of freeze dried entrees and Sawyer filter, and sleeping bag... stop at the gun safe for some cash and a blaster, grab the meds...the GHB permanently resides in the Explorer...copies of papers on a thumb drive...

hope it's never needed

I wonder about 'important papers' being a hard paper copy,seems like an invitation for Identity theft.

Maybe an encrypted thumb drive would be better?

Risk of identity theft is a risk I'd be willing to take in a survival situation. I would prefer to have both a hard copy and an encrypted flash drive. I like to plan for not having access to computers, printers, etc. Anyway, for identification, the original, not a copy, is often required.

I was thinking more along lines of a theft in normal times,why lay it out for em in one easy snatch?

Evacuation for wild fires and power outages not so much in the PNW, but we do live a half mile from the confluence of I-90 and I-405, so evacuation for a crashed ammonia tanker and associated toxic cloud is a possibility. For that kind of Get Out situation its just people, animals and wallets, in the car roll up windows and drive perpendicular to the prevailing winds, and return when the cloud has dispersed.

I do apply the big duffle concept though - I keep a wheeled tote containing 2 sleeping bags, cold and wet weather clothing and shoes etc for family members near the back door off our bedroom, if we're shaken out of a burning or collapsing house in the middle of the night we evacuate through that door and drag the tote outside, and put on some clothes. On top of that tote are two other go bags, one with FA supplies and one with overnight supplies - tent, camp stove, food etc - basically a 72 hour kit intended for backyard or nearby open space deployment (the elementary school around the corner is where the neighborhood can expect to live in tents in the event of a major quake).

For a long time folks in the EM field told us to prepare to evacuate our homes in 1 hour - for what or to where I have no idea. No one in EM has every answered those questions for us here in the PNW context, so I take evacuation as more of an aspirational, 'if you're prepared to do this you're prepared for most anything' kind of thing. So I am mostly prepared to throw people animals food and preps in a vehicle and go in an hour. It makes abundant sense if you live where wild fires can get you though.

Once a year (tax time) I evaluate our personal records and store important originals in the safe deposit box, important account numbers on a list, and some scanned copies - these go on a dedicated USB thumb drive with Windows Bitlocker encryption. That stays on my key ring, with a mirror copy on a cheaper $4.99 unencrypted usb in the safe deposit box (e.g. in case bitlocker can't be recovered - unlikely on an annual basis, but possible if I don't touch the usb for many years).

My failure or fall down - family photos. I haven't scanned and backed all these up yet, although its on my perennial to-do list. Its a massive job, and if a fire took our house tomorrow we'd lose a lot of memories. I've seen that on the faces of countless fire victims who have lost everything, it hurts a lot to lose your family photos. At some point I'll get started on the scanning, and put my photos and memorabilia on redundant USB sticks in the safe deposit box. Otherwise we're not very materialistic people - it can all go, either by theft or disaster. I keep some special momentos in the safe deposit box, autographed baseballs and a few awards etc that mean something to me. $150 per year to rent the safe deposit box provides a whole lot of peace of mind and relative security.

When in normal times the import documents binder should be in your fireproof safe.
When in normal times you go to work, school, shopping, whatever and your important documents stay home. Not just theft but what if the house catches fire, or the drug addict down the street drives into it (happened to my house), you want that binder and anything else valuable to be in a safe place. A secondary advantage of the safe and the valuables being in it is they stay organized should you be faced with the bug out situation. Simply open safe, grab the kit and go. No running around the house gathering the items.
I then keep my not as valuable bug out gear next to the safe so.