Do you have a household inventory?

[SunshineJ]

My stepmom's brother ended up losing his house and just about everything last December in a fire and I've been hearing from my stepmom what a nightmare it's been listing out every single thing he had for the insurance claim. (Thankfully he was ok, he'd had to put his dog down 2 weeks earlier, so he didn't lose the dog at the same time, and all other family was out of the house!) He had something like 2 months to list out all the possessions he lost - including how many pens and pencils, paperclips, potato peelers, etc. We were talking about it and suspect that most people probably just list the main things and figure the rest is unimportant, but that little stuff can really add up!

Since we're seriously decluttering and getting ready to move, as I unclutter a room and get it in order, I've been making an overall inventory and taking pics of each drawer, etc. I've started to input the list into an Excel spreadsheet and will load the pics onto a cd to store for safe keeping. The things I don't bother to list out will show in the picture in a worst case scenario, so I figure that reference will help. Hopefully I'll never have to use this list!! Never in a million years would I have though I'd actually get something like this done!

Do you have any kind of inventory or pics in case of an emergency?

[kirstenb]

No... but reading your post it sounds like a really good idea.

[SAHDS]

Yes, but not down to my paper clips (I actually don't think we have any though).

[Denvergirlie]

I don't but have thought about doing so in the past.

However, keeping this stuff on a CD isn't going to help if that CD is still in the house when it burns down. Look into online storage, perhaps email a list to yourself and upload photos onto something like photobucket or flickr or store the CD in a saftey deposit box at bank or anywhere else other than at home.

It's got to be a big project, I can only imagine, kudos to you for tackling.

[CrunchyDoula]

I have been really thinking about this in the last couple months. I know it will take quite some time to do it, but I feel like it is important and will really save a heart ache later if something were to happen.

[sunnysandiegan]

We sort of do. When we did some major home improvements in Fall 2007, we videotaped us walking through our entire house talking about everything and showing every little detail for our annual family video that we share with family each year. (Christmas gifts for grandparents and great grandparents that are eagerly awaited.) The actual footage captured in the DVDs that went out was an edited version, but would suffice. The raw footage is stored on a hard drive AND on the original tapes. DH has these in different places. (We have an elaborate back-up system for all computers that is maintained regularly. One copy is kept at DH's parents home across the country from us and another copy is kept at DH's work - about 25 miles away - and it goes to my dad's home, which is a 90 second walk from our home, when we go on vacation (if he is going to be home).

In addition to the above, I have taken numerous pictures of every nook and cranny of our home over the years. I love to scrapbook and I love photography and I love home projects, etc, so it all blends together and I have pictures of the container of paper clips. Yep, that is plural, as in pictures...several pictures of the paper clip tin (and other such seemingly insignificant objects).

I recall talking to our insurance agent a few years back about this type of thing. (I do not recall what prompted me to ask.) She highly recommended videotaping our whole house. She says people are more likely to actually DO that versus writing down a really long list in ADVANCE of a claim. One must write the really long list in the event of a claim and it is no fun.

We had a major flood on May 1. Floods are different than fires in that the items don't get reduced to ashes, but the amount of insurance paperwork is undoubtedly similar. I can tell you the paperwork is daunting. It is a form that is landscape oriented with many columns and you have to fill in a lot of details about each item and you have to provide some type of documentation for each item. The accepted list of documentation ranges from sales receipts to product literature to photographs and more. Photographs were BY FAR the easiest!!! However, we did have to recall a lot of details on each item and look them up online to get certain info and so forth.

Since this has been brought up, I thought I would mention that in dealing with this flood for the past 6-7 weeks I have spoken with MANY people and have learned that 70% of all insurance claims are water damage. That is a significant number!!! It has been stated by many of these people that water damage is a case of "when", not "if". Planning ahead for that type of claim may be worth the time and hassle.

All that said, I will point out that because our home was decluttered and fairly neat and orderly, I was able to save all but a dozen personal property items. I had a group of people in my house within 15 minutes of discovering the flood and we were able to save 95% of our main level belongings. The only piece of furniture we lost was the entertainment center and that was no great loss, in our opinions. LOL The reason we lost it is because it takes too much time to move electronics and all the little things in order to get the furniture itself out of the house. There is no time to properly unhook all the cables and such, so we focused on the quickest items to save and the most valuable/sentimental that were literally in the water. (Our main level was ankle-deep in clean supply line water when DD & I came home from a playdate on a Friday afternoon.)

[SunshineJ]

Originally Posted by Denvergirlie

I don't but have thought about doing so in the past.

However, keeping this stuff on a CD isn't going to help if that CD is still in the house when it burns down. Look into online storage, perhaps email a list to yourself and upload photos onto something like photobucket or flickr or store the CD in a saftey deposit box at bank or anywhere else other than at home.

It's got to be a big project, I can only imagine, kudos to you for tackling.

Good point. DH and I already have planned to keep an annually updated copy with at least one set of parents, as well as a copy in the firesafe.