Prevention and organization are key to make life easier. Learn more about the benefits of a home inventory list, how to create one and even download our free template. You can use and edit as however you want!
Why do I need a home inventory?
If you have home insurance you need to take control of your belongings. A home inventory list makes it easier during the claim process for you and your insurance company.
Throughout our lives, we’ve bought and saved many things and most of the time we’ve never remember all the valuables we have and accumulated. This makes harder during the claim process.
Be honest, after a natural disaster or something similar, could you remember a list of all your damaged belongings? Perhaps you couldn’t and it’s pretty normal. That’s why it’s important to work on your home inventory right now. Why wait?
A home inventory list is a great resource when you are shopping for your home insurance. It could help you purchase a policy that fits what you need instead of what you think you need.
Benefits of doing a home inventory for insurance:
Organize your belongings
Make the claim process easier
Make clear what things need to be covered by your insurance
It helps you when you shop for home insurance for the first time. You can evaluate and have a better idea of what needs to be covered. No need to add all that additional coverage.
What things need to be on the list?
A standard home insurance policy cover your personal belongings that include furniture, clothes, electronic devices, and other personal items.
Consider purchase a special policy to cover items like jewelry, silverware, furs and expensive things like these.
Include basic information:
Type of item
Model
Where you bought it
Date of purchase
Purchase price
Where the item is located
You can add photos
How can I do my home inventory list?
1. Start room by room
Write what you have in each area of your house: kitchen, room, living room, dining room and so on.
2. Add belongings that your policy covers
It doesn’t make sense adding everything you have in your house, keep in mind what your policy cover and take it as a guide. Write all those valuable things and nevermind useful things.
3. Generalize the same kind of stuff
Things like clothes or some furniture you can generalize and group them in the same field. Example:
5 dresses
8 pair of shoes
4. Take photos
Capture how your belongings look, Take an overall picture of each room. Organize and clean each area before taking a picture for your insurance. Make sure they can see clearly what you have.
5. Attached proof of purchases
Purchase contracts, sales receipts or bills helps you prove you’re the owner and the value of the products.
Take advantage of online and offline resources
When you finish your home inventory list keep it in a safe place. What’s the point to get it if you couldn’t find it when you need it? Save you list on a cloud, if you got email likely you have free access to cloud storage. Outlook cloud, Google Drive, Dropbox, Media Fire and more…
Home inventory apps are available for iOS and Android, most of them aren’t free, though.
Home Inventory
BluePlum Home Inventory
Nest Egg
MyStuff
Good news! You don’t need to pay for a home inventory creator! Download our home inventory list template for free- edit and save right in your cloud storage. Let’s get your personal belongings organized!