Personal Property Inventory For Insurance Purposes

We recommend you inventory all the items in your home and the home itself once a year.
We have found the best time to do this is right after the holidays. The house is clean and well decorated, and a lot of the items from the attic are already out on display. The fastest way to inventory your home is with video. Walk from room to room recording each room; open drawers and closets, as you record your items talk in to the video about when you bought the bigger and more expensive items and what you paid for them. Video your jewelry and silver service. If you can record the serial numbers and model numbers of your items, this will help verify exactly which model of the item you had for the insurance adjuster. If you are the victim of a burglary, the police can verify these items are yours if they are recovered.

Once your inventory is completed, we recommend making a copy of the video, or burn it to a cd or dvd, and keep a copy off site. Keep it at the office, at a parent's home, a safe deposit box, anywhere where it can't inadvertently be thrown away, or lost in a fire at your own home.

After the inventory is completed, verify that the coverage on your homeowner, renter, or condo insurance policy has enough coverage to replace all of your items.

When you inventory the inside of the home, take pictures or video the outside of the home as well to document the condition and features of the home.

One idea I heard about to protect your jewelry is to hide them in a pot in the kitchen cabinets. I was told by a jeweler that many burglars are now using metal detectors to find hidden metal items in peoples drawers and or mattresses. The kitchen has too many metal items for a metal detector to work efficiently.

Unfortunately no one is completely safe from a thief. The truth is that if a thief really wants an item you have, they will find a way to take it. Our best advice is to insure the items and know they can be replaced.