Do I really need to do an inventory of my belongings?

It seems to be a lot of work to go through my entire home and make a list of everything.   Why do I need to do this? 

The easiest way to answer you is to tell you what I do and why?

I simply go through my home about once every year and take pictures of everything.  I open the drawers in the dressers, closets, washroom cabinets, kitchen cabinets, storage rooms, storage shed, garage etc.   Everything gets  photographed. 

I don't have collections of any significance.  If you are a collector you should lay everything out and photo them making sure you get a clear shot of the items you have in your collection.  Collectibles are an important topic and will be covered under a separate blog as to how they are insured and what you have to do to make sure you have proper coverage for them.  I have seen people with more than 500 discs and tapes.  If the only way to get an accurate value is to inventory them you certainly want to consider doing so. 

 More important stuff like computers, guns, electronics, I make sure I get a picture of the brand name in the photo.  Many times I will take a photo of the serial # if it easy to get at.   I especially take time to photograph stuff that is hard to see or value like jewellery, art, antiques, and expensive clothes.

When I am done I will have between 150 and 200 photos.  My camera is a cheap Kodak Playsport with 5MP resolution.  I then take those photos and put them on the net in two or three places so that I can access them if I ever need to do so.  If my house burns down and I only have them on my computer I would lose them and this exercise would have no meaning. 

I do not take an inventory and price out everything because my home is insured for $410,000 and I have a total of $900,000 to apply to the home and belongings and additional living expenses.  I know that I will never exceed the total amount of coverage under my policy even if I had a complete and total loss.  Those who feel they would exceed their insurance limits may want to price out everything to make sure they have adequate insurance. 

If your home burns to the ground your adjuster is going to insist that you provide an inventory of everything in your home.  I feel that, with the aid of the photographs, I can make a very accurate inventory in a short period of time.  Sure, there may be the odd item I miss but I doubt if it would be anything important.  They are going to replace the stuff I put on that list or pay me the actual cash value of the items if I don't want to replace.  If the adjuster questions anything - here's the pictures - have fun.

The other time you may need them is on smaller claims like a break and enter.  The adjuster wants receipts - you can't find them - here's a picture.   A picture is generally excepted by adjusters as proof you owned the items in question and he can verify the quality of them for replacement purposes.

Who wants to spend time after a claim agonizing over whether he has forgotten anything on the list.  You can't keep going back months later saying "I forgot about this" and reopen your claim.  Adjusters are reasonable but once you sign the claims form you are pretty much ending the ability of adding stuff after the fact.  You want to be confident that you got everything reasonably possible on the list.  The pictures will help you get it done quickly and accurately. 

Here is a Blank Inventory List  you can use to get the job done.