Copied from AAA.com
Going through your house to list every item, as your home insurer advises, can be daunting.
Going through your house to list every item, as your home insurer advises, can be daunting.
But creating a home inventory can make the insurance claims process much easier. To catalog your belongings, film a video walk-through of your home, speaking about each item and capturing it using a digital camera or your cell phone. In addition to helping your insurance company process your claim, a video often helps jog people’s memories about items they’ve lost. Here, six tips to get started:
1. Start with an exterior shot of your house. A shot of the entire house provides great reference when piecing things back together and before going into detail of each room.
2. Next, do a room-by-room inventory. Take wide-angle shots of the entire room, and then several close-ups to capture your possessions. Don’t forget the basement, attic and garage.
3. Open closets and drawers to video their contents. Remember small items like jewelry, and video any written appraisals, as well.
4. Take shots of all major electronics, appliances and furniture. Either video or read aloud the model number and serial number. When describing each object, be specific—such as “Apple 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop computer”—and include the price you paid for it. Also, film your computer’s home screen and show or say aloud each software program on it.
5. Lay large, valuable collections (such as dolls, coins, etc.) on a table and record each piece. Don’t forget tools and hobby supplies.
6. Don’t keep your footage on your filming device. Upload it to cloud storage—or store it on an SD card (Secure Digital card), external hard drive or flash drive, and keep that in a safe place, such as a fireproof safe or bank safety-deposit box. Label with the dates the video was taken. Update your video footage when you get something new.
