Recently, I had a friend whose home was burglarized
while they were away. The thief did not take much, mainly jewelry and
electronics; however, my friend had a hard time remembering all the items in
her jewelry box and their value. She
commented how difficult it was to pick out what was missing and provide
information to the insurance company.
In a time of stress or disaster, having a home inventory can be very helpful.
It does take time to create, but it will aide in recovery of stolen items by
the police and/or replacement by insurance after a natural disaster. There are several
ways to approach a home inventory: 1. write everything down you own, 2.photograph
or film all your possessions, or 3.a combination of the first two with a little
extra.
Insurance
policies and the companies that write them want to see documentation for your
claims. Having a home inventory will not only speed up the
process, but it will also authenticate your possession claims.
Please
note, if you have a large collection or items of great expense, a regular home
insurance policy may not cover those items. For instance,
most insurance companies write a standard home policy to cover theft or damage
of the entire contents with a maximum cap on certain items. Electronics cap out
at approximately $2,500. If you were to have a large expense of electronics in
your home (maybe you like to DJ on the side!), you would need to obtain a rider
or a personal articles policy. I won’t get into the nitty gritty of those
policies as your insurance provider will be able to address any questions.
Typically, I like to make a record using Excel for
books and DVDs in our home. I also like to keep a list of all electronic serial
numbers and their descriptions. If I take pictures, I can import them into my
inventory record to have everything in one location. For any collections we
have, I do the same.
In addition to a written inventory, I walk through
the home each year snapping close-up photographs of every room, making sure to
include the date/time stamp. I take zoomed out pictures of the entire room for
reference, as well.
If we’ve made a big purchase in the past, I hold onto the receipts for financial documentation.
However, with the online paper trail we all have today, your bank or credit
card statements would be of great use to document actual item cost.
Once you’ve got everything pertinent listed and photographed,
make sure to keep it safe. I keep an
electronic record on my computer, on an SD card in a safe, and as an online
document. If I’ve printed photographs, they go into the safe with the SD card.
Be sure to update
your inventory yearly. I like to do mine at the end of Spring Cleaning,
which ensures not documenting items I have donated or sold during the cleaning
process. Keeping up to date records is very important. If you spent hours one
year building a home inventory and fail to add your purchases the following
year, should a natural disaster occur, you may not be able to claim your newest
purchases.
Creating a home inventory may seem like a great task
at hand, but it will help note what you have in your home and be a security net
should anything happen in the future.
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