Know your stuff, have a home inventory

TAKING A HOME INVENTORY create a room-by-room inventory of your personal possessions. Having an up-to-date home inventory will help you:

• Purchase enough insurance to replace the things you own.
• Get your insurance claims settled faster.
• Substantiate losses for your income tax return.

You can always simply make a list in a notebook and save receipts and photos in a file.

Getting Started

If you have been setting up a household, starting a home inventory can be relatively simple. You could even attach recent wedding registries to substantiate new possessions. But, if you have been living in a house for many years, this task may seem daunting. If you set aside an afternoon and get your entire household involved, it can be an enjoyable experience. It is much easier to document your possessions before you suffer a loss from a fire, hurricane, burglary or other disaster.

Big Ticket Items, Make note of expensive items, such as jewelry, furs, and collectibles. Valuable items may need separate insurance. But, don't forget more commonplace items such as toys, CD's and clothing.

Taking Photographs, Along with the written information, consider adding photographs of your possessions, which can be done easily with a digital camera. Those with film cameras can scan print photographs or have their film developer save the images to a disk. You can always simply store your print photographs with a copy of your inventory.

Videotape It, Walk through your house or apartment videotaping the contents. Remember to open draws and closets. One advantage of videotape is that you can narrate what you are filming