5 Tips to Inventory Your Home

Inventorying your home is a big process. Just take a look at a few of those closets, and you may be wondering how you will have enough time to go through it all. The good news is it may be simpler than you think. Having a comprehensive inventory of what you own is important for home insurance purposes. It provides proof of what you own so that in a situation where damage occurs your home insurance policy can kick in and help pay some of the costs.

Make Inventorying Your Home Easier

Take into consideration these tips for speeding up the inventorying process of your home.

1. Get rid of what you don't need. If you have closets full of stuff you do not use, purge it. It may not seem like a big deal, but reducing materials to include just what you need can really help you!
   
   
2. Use a camera. You don't have to have a piece of paper with everything written on it. Rather, use a camera and a flash drive to take photos of everything you own. Even better, store these in a safe place and don't put anything else on that flash drive. Back it up to a cloud storage system.
   
   
3. Use an app. There are various home inventory apps that make it simple for you to record what you own. Your home insurance provider may offer one. If not, consider Know Your Stuff or Sortly.  
   
   
4. Once you have inventoried everything in your home, keep it updated. If you buy anything of value, take a photo of it at the time you bring it into your home before you even put it away.
   
   
5. If you want more accurate and detailed records, especially of higher value items, create a simple spreadsheet on your computer. Track the items you own that are of a high value by recording the item, model number and the value of the item at the time of purchase.

Taking these steps makes it easy for you to keep track of what you own. That way if there is a significant fire or storm event, you can talk to your home insurance company about what you actually own.