---
title: 'You Have a House, Your Friends Have a House, You May Lose Yours, But They''ll Put You Up for a Time: Fix Things Up Now'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-fix-things-up-now-bombed-out-1939/
description: Four stacked panels show a red house, a blue house, the red house as a bombed ruin, and the blue house again, each with a banner line.
section: Collection
---

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3. You Have a House, Your Friends Have a House, You May Lose Yours, But

[![You Have a House, Your Friends Have a House, You May Lose Yours, But They'll Put You Up for a Time: Fix Things Up Now, 1939](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-fix-things-up-now-bombed-out-1939.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-fix-things-up-now-bombed-out-1939.jpg)

# You Have a House, Your Friends Have a House, You May Lose Yours, But They'll Put You Up for a Time: Fix Things Up Now

Four stacked panels show a red house, a blue house, the red house as a bombed ruin, and the blue house again, each with a banner line. The ruined house is the fear cue, and the closing text turns it into an instruction to arrange lodging with friends in advance and notes a temporary lodging allowance.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
YOU HAVE A HOUSE
YOUR FRIENDS HAVE A HOUSE
YOU MAY LOSE YOURS
BUT THEY'LL PUT YOU UP FOR A TIME

Arrange now with friends or relatives
in another part of the town to go to
them if you are bombed out—and for them
to come to you if they are bombed out.
Your friends can apply for a temporary
lodging allowance if they put you up.

FIX THINGS UP NOW

ISSUED BY THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH

PRINTED FOR H.M. STATIONERY OFFICE BY LOWE & BRYDONE PRINTERS LTD, LONDON, N.W.10.  51- 2131
```

[← Fight the Moth - It's the moth grub that does the damage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-fight-the-moth-board-of-trade-1939/) [Follow His Example: Never talk to anybody about your load or destination →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-follow-his-example-careless-talk-1939/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)