Updated Sep. 22, 2019. Originally published Mar. 26, 2013.
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Why You Need a Home Inventory
The most obvious purpose for a home inventory is for insurance purposes. In case of a natural disaster or theft, you’ll be able to identify what’s missing, and prove what is yours. How extensive you want to get with this is up to you. At an absolute minimum, you’ll probably want to have a record of any large or expensive electronics, appliances, and jewelry, with notes of their model and serial numbers, or appraisals (in the case of jewelry).
How to Do It
Personally, I find the idea of inventorying my home’s contents rather overwhelming. An easy way to be sure you have something as proof of ownership is to walk through your home with a video camera, recording an overview of what’s present, and zooming in/explaining for further detail when you get to the “big stuff.” It’s probably good to have a written record, though, and that can get to be a bit more tedious.
STEP 1: Make a list of all of the big things that are most important for you to inventory.
STEP 2: Find the information you need to record with them — model numbers, serial numbers, receipts, etc. Photograph them if/as necessary.
STEP 3: Choose a method for recording/storing this information, and set up a plan for creating an inventory of the rest of your house.
You probably don’t want to do this all at once! But go ahead and schedule some blocks of time to do various sections of your home.
Where to Keep It
Your home inventory records should be kept wherever you decided to keep your important documents.
STEP 4: Put these records where they go!
STEP 5: Add to your routine list a time to check on approximately an annual basis whether anything in your inventory needs updating.
Resources:
(I have no personal experience with these, unless otherwise noted, so do your due diligence.)
- home inventory worksheet from Real Simple (links to PDF)
- free printable home inventory worksheets (and more information about inventorying your stuff)
- home inventory spreadsheet for Excel
- LibraryThing (This I do use — it’s great for keeping track of your books. I love it.)
If you’re just stumbling across this, please click here for the other posts in the series.
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