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Could you list everything you have in your home, down to the make and model of your expensive electronics and the number of shirts you have in your closet? If disaster ever struck—flood, fire, earthquake—that’s exactly what your insurance company will ask you to do. Make it easy on yourself: Take a video inventory.
This is for you: If you have home or renters insurance (No? Learn how to get some here) and you don’t yet have an inventory of your possessions, or you’ve acquired something big since the last time you took stock.
Hands-on time: Two hours, max. Less than an hour for the average-sized home, plus the time to put the video on a storage device, such as a CD, DVD, or flash drive.
Cost: $15 or less for a pack of writable DVDs, CDs, or a small USB flash drive.
What you’ll need:
- A digital camera that takes videos, or a video camera (digital or otherwise). If you don’t own one, borrow one for the project.
- A storage device—DVD, CD, or flash drive
- A computer
When to do it: After you’ve cleaned and tidied your home, so the important stuff isn’t buried under piles of laundry or stacks of mail.
What to do:
- Go through your home, room by room, filming your belongings. Pick a method and stick with it—left to right, ceiling to floor, for instance—to make sure you don’t miss anything.
- If you’re using a digital camera, which limits video length, it may be easier to take one video per room.
- For each video snippet, give the current date and time.
- Narrate as you go along. If you know about how much something cost, throw that in.
- Get a close-up of makes and models of the big stuff, when you can. If it’s something expensive (like a flat-screen TV), you may even want to get the serial number.
- Open drawers one at a time and film the contents.
- Open closets and pan the contents. (No need to go through your clothes piece by piece. It’s enough if you can visually tell how many shirts are hanging there.)
- Make sure you cover anything particularly valuable, including collections you may have stored—china plates, jewelry, tools, art, etc.
- Don’t forget your attic and/or basement, if you have them.
- Once you’ve finished the inventory, burn the file or files to a CD or DVD for safe keeping, or transfer to a flash drive. (You can skip this step if you used a non-digital video camera. The tape will serve as storage for the video.)
- Store the video inventory someplace safe, like a safety deposit box, or even a drawer at work. You could also upload the video to an online file repository, such as Dropbox.com, for safe storage. Whatever you do, don’t just keep it at home, where the same fire that destroys your belongings could destroy your record as well.
- Whenever you acquire something new and valuable, take a new inventory, or add to the inventory you already have.
To learn more:
Protect Your Property with a Home Inventory (State Farm)
How to buy renters insurance
Did you do it? Tell us what worked or share other tips in the comments below.
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