As a property owner, you need to know all the items you have in your house to make home insurance or renters insurance filing easier. In case, a burglary or natural disaster occurs or preventative maintenance isn’t enough, it will be hassle-free to provide a list of possessions that have been stolen from your unit.
Many unpredictable situations can happen so a home inventory is an invaluable resource. If we own a lot of things, it can be hard to keep track of them and remember the value of each of these items.
What Is a Home Inventory?
A home inventory is a listed record of all your possessions, including the cost of each item. They include the following:
- Home appliances (television sets, computers, and coffee makers)
- Gadgets (tablets, smartphones, and laptops)
- Sports equipment (surfboards, bicycles, and jet skis)
- Valuable items (jewelry, luxury clothes, bags, and clothing)
Why Do You Need to Prepare A Home Inventory?
Property owners need to keep a home inventory document to provide details of personal items and the corresponding values in case insurance claims need to be filed. You can easily identify items that must be covered by the insurance for better protection.
You can also calculate the value of your items and decide how much insurance coverage you need. For example, your appliances amount to $50,000, while personal items reach $100,000, and you can choose an insurance protection of $150,000 or greater.
Further, a lot of time can also be saved after a crisis. Your mind will be occupied by stressful circumstances so it will be hard to remember the list of damaged or stolen possessions, especially for people like snowbirds who may be away for a winter or summer.
Valuable jewelry, antiques, and other rate collectibles must also be identified in complete detail to assess their value correctly.
At times, the disaster can be utterly consuming, and it will require a strong effort for you to remember the smaller items. The first thing that will cross your mind will be the big-ticket items such as large furniture or appliances.
But even little items can cost a lot and you will want to be refunded for all personal things. That’s why, a full home inventory in your hand is precious.
Another advantage of making a home inventory is that you can clear your property’s clutter. You may discover that you own several of the same items. You may want to minimize your possessions to fit your storage spaces.
By taking the time and effort to craft a home inventory, you can proceed to downsize and get rid of items you no longer need. You can give away some items and maximize your property space with less clutter contained in your unit.
How To Craft a Home Inventory?
Creating a home inventory can simply be done by keeping a detailed list of all your purchases or documenting your possessions with photos and videos. You can visit each room of your property and open storage spaces to take photos. This can help in preventing home emergencies by making it harder to steal things from your home.
Videos are recommended since you have an image of the items and can zoom in on important information such as the serial numbers and model. Visual records help you identify the color and look of a particular belonging.
Another method to make a catalogue of what you own is listing your items on a computer document or downloading helpful smartphone apps. These options lead to effortless writing of a home inventory.
It may sound exhausting to perform this additional task, but the rewards are great if disaster hits, like fire or flooding. Your home inventory can be a handy document to review the items that were damaged or stolen.
It can be challenging to remember what possessions you own in a property emergency or crisis. You need to provide this list to file for an insurance claim or police report. Plenty of insurance companies will require you to hand over a home inventory, while police stations will request a list of items you lost during a property break-in.
Having several copies of a home inventory is vital so you are not relying on a single piece of resource. If you lost one copy, you could still get another one for a complete list of your possessions.
Safekeeping Your Home Inventory
It is advisable to keep your home inventory in a safe space so you can readily access this resource when needed. Natural disasters can wipe out every item in your home, so it is preferable to place it outside your property.
You can pay for a deposit box in a bank or keep it in a storage space rental where it will be kept safe all days of the year. Another good option is storing a digital copy of your home inventory to ensure ready access at any time.
Tips to Create a Home Inventory
Here is a simple step-by-step guide to creating a home inventory.
1. Identify the place where you will begin documenting
With so many possessions lying around, it can be overwhelming to capture everything in one go. In large rooms, it may take a while to record all your belongings found there.
Starting small like a storage cabinet can be easily done.
2. Check the recent items you bought
You can also opt to focus on your recent purchases to make it easy to start. You might have a receipt that you can go over so you can easily record the price of the items.
3. Write down essential details
In your home inventory, you need to provide clear information and include item descriptions, features, product numbers, and even the manufacturing dates for a complete picture. The more details you can provide, the better.
4. Create a category for your possessions
Categories can assign labels quickly which can make the task easy to accomplish. You can create listings for shoes, gadgets, and furniture. When capturing an image, you can also group identical items.
High-value items can be placed in another category so if they become damaged or stolen, they can be easily identified and prioritized.
Bottom Line
Creating a home inventory can be a challenging task for some homeowners, but it doesn’t have to be. Get in touch with our experts at Income Realty Home Watch and have the safety without the stress.
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