Here's the scenario:  You come home from work to find your front door open and a whole lot of things missing.  You call the policy to file a report and then call your insurance agent to file a claim.  The adjustor comes out to find out how the theft occurred and what they took.  Here's where it gets tricky.

How are you going to prove how much your personal stuff was worth let alone prove what was taken (other than the wires where your TV used to be).  The adjustor is not simply going to take your word for it and write you a check.  The burden of proof is on you.  Making a home inventory while you still have your personal belongings is a lot easier than looking for receipts after a theft or a fire.

Before you start your home inventory, there is one thing you should be keenly aware of: it's very time consuming.  Plan to do this over a whole day or a couple of days.  It's a lot of work but really well worth it.

So where do you get started?  The easiest place to start is in the living room because that's where most of your electronics are.  What makes it the easiest is that all those electronics have the model number and serial number printed on them somewhere.  After you're done with this room, pick another room to tackle.  Make sure you document everything in that room.  Be descriptive about the items and give them a reasonable value if you cannot remember how much you paid for them or no longer have the receipt.  Do not forget the closets.  Clothes are very valuable and while you may not be able replace the exact shirts, pants, shoes, etc. that you currently have, it's helps to know that having an inventory of the items will ensure you get paid the correct value to go out and buy a new wardrobe.

What materials do you need?  There are online and offline tools you can use to create your inventory.  At the most basic, you'll need a pen/pencil, some paper, and a camera.  If you have a computer (you must or you wouldn't be reading this), then we have some online tools you can use to make the job easier.

"EZ" is the word here.  With this online tool, you set up a location (ie. home, office), add a room, and then start adding items to that room.  For each item you can upload an image, receipt, and/or appraisal.  You can also upload exterior pictures of you home.  Reports of your assets are available in CSV format which you can import into a program such as Microsoft Excel.  A new feature is the ability to backup you files, however, this feature is not free.  See further down for our recommendations for backing up your files. (EZasset)

StuffSafe 

 Similar to the online tool described above, StuffSafe allows you to set up a location, add a room, and add items to that room.  You can also upload photos and any other item relevant to the item you are adding.  A nice feature StuffSafe has is to print a friendly-looking inventory of your items.  You can also download your inventory in several formats: .html, .doc, .xls, and .csv. As you add items, the interface has a running tab on the replacement cost of your items. (StuffSafe)

Excel (or similar spreadsheet program)

If you don't trust putting your information on the internet, you can use Excel or something similar like the free program "Base" available as part of the OpenOffice.org suite of programs (www.openoffice.org).  Use a separate tab for each room.  Setup column headers so you can enter pertinent information about your items such as make, model, serial #, where purchased, when purchased, value when purchased, brief description of item.  Remember, you are making an inventory to give to the adjustor in the event you lose these items so document as much information about your items as possible.  Store this information both digitally (ie. on your computer) and as a hard copy.

When you're done with your inventory, you'll want to download it from the sites above (if not using Excel), back it up and store it in several places including one offsite location.  I would not recommend a USB stick unless you use encryption software and it never leaves your sight.  I am not going to into great detail about the different backup methods but I will list them.

For online backup you can use several free resources and I am only going to list some of the more popular ones. Dropbox, and Sugarsync both give you 2GB free and allow you to sync your files between computers as well as storing them online.  Mozy (also 2GB free) and Microsoft's Skydrive (25GB free) only allow you to backup your files online.  All of these allow you to access your files from any computer.

For physical offsite backup, you can transfer your downloaded inventory list to a blank CD.  We recommend making 3 copies as CD can get scratched and unreadable.  Store one at home, one at your office, and one at a relative's home or with your insurance agent.  You can also make several printed copies of your inventory and store them in several locations.  The point is to have multiple copies in case one (or more) gets destroyed and to not rely on the one you might have at home.

If you need help with your inventory, give our office a call and we can help walk you through the initial steps of creating your inventory.  Getting this done before you have a claim will make your's and the adjustor's life a lot easier.