All About Home Inventories

home inventory for homeowners insurance

What are Home Inventories?

You never know when disaster may strike and all your personal possessions are lost or damaged. Do you know how many pairs of sneakers you have? Or how many tools you have?  What about pots, pans and dishes?  THIS is where a home inventory can help.

Having a home inventory can help you purchase the amount of homeowner’s insurance you need. You don’t want too much insurance, because that wastes money & you don’t want too little as it can be inexpensive to increase the coverage. Having an inventory also will help you get your insurance claim settled faster, and verify losses for your income tax return.

It may seem like a daunting task having to create a list of every item you own, but don’t let that scare you off! There are many ways to create your list, you just have to decide what works best for you. You can go room by room, category by category (furniture, electronics, etc.), newest to oldest, or the most expensive to least expensive.

See if you can save money on your home insurance – get a home insurance quote from Jankowski Agency.

home insurance inventory

You can write everything down on a notepad, or take pictures, or put everything into your computer. If you do any of it electronically be sure to have a backup of the information that is kept away from the home in case a disaster (like a total fire) happens.  If you have a paper copy, keeping copies of the inventory outside of the home is essential.  You can keep them at a friend’s house or a safe deposit box.  Electronic copies can be kept at your friendly neighborhood insurance agency.

At the very least, please take annual photos or video recording of your home and all the possessions that you have, if your house is a total loss you will be able to start your inventory record based on the photos and video records. Always remember to keep the photos and videos outside the home in a safe place. Update your list after you make a significant purchase and keep it up to date. We hope you never need this list in a claim situation but you will be glad you had it if the unfortunate happens.

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