How to Make a Home Inventory in an Afternoon (and Why Adjusters Wish You Had One)

Pick one cloud service (Google Drive, iCloud, OneDrive, or similar) and make six folders. Everything you collect from here on has an obvious place to go.

• 01 Major systems and appliances: HVAC, water heater, kitchen and laundry appliances, roof paperwork, solar.
• 02 Electronics and media: computers, TVs, audio equipment, cameras, smart home hubs, gaming.
• 03 Furniture and decor: living room sets, beds, dining tables, rugs, lighting fixtures.
• 04 High-value and scheduled items: jewelry, watches, fine art, instruments, firearms, collectibles, silver, and their appraisals and certificates.
• 05 Tools and outdoor equipment: lawn equipment, power tools, generators, outdoor furniture, grills.
• 06 Clothing and personal property: wardrobes, designer apparel, sporting gear, luggage.
• Plus one folder named Video_Walkthroughs with the year, holding one video per room.

Anything worth more than about $100 to $250 gets its own row. Below that, your room videos cover it. Here is what each column does for the person handling your claim.

• Make, model, color, and size. Lets the adjuster match like for like instead of pricing a generic replacement.
• Serial or model number, copied from the plate or tag. Proves the exact item and that it was yours.
• Room or location. Speeds up mapping the loss when only part of the home is damaged.
• Purchase date and cost. The starting point for value and, on some policies, for depreciation.
• Condition. Supports the actual cash value calculation if your policy pays belongings that way.
• A link to the receipt or invoice. Proof of purchase that nobody has to take your word for.
• A link to the photo or video. Proof the item existed, in that condition, with that serial number.

Fifteen minutes with your phone does more than an afternoon of typing. Do it once a year.

• Walk slowly through each room and describe what you see out loud. The narration is the index.
• Open every cabinet, closet, drawer, and storage bin so the contents are on camera: pantry shelves, tool chests, the closet rack.
• Pan slowly across ceiling corners, window casings, baseboards, and built-ins. That footage is your proof of the home's condition before anything happened.
• Take clear close-up photos of the data plates on the water heater, furnace, electrical panel, and every major appliance.
• Photograph high-value items one at a time from several angles, including maker's marks, signatures, and serial stamps.
• Scan paper receipts with a phone app the day you buy something, so the PDF lands in the right folder while you still remember.

Standard policies usually cap what they pay for certain categories, like jewelry, watches, art, collectibles, firearms, and silver, and the caps are often lower than people expect.

• Keep appraisals and certificates (a diamond grading report, a certificate of authenticity) as PDFs in the 04 folder, next to the photos.
• Photograph each item individually, with anything that identifies it: stones, hallmarks, signatures, engravings.
• Scheduling is the insurance term for listing a specific item on the policy at an appraised value. Whether that makes sense for your items, and how often an appraisal needs updating, are questions you may want to ask your licensed insurance agent. The template has a column to note what you have and have not asked about.

An inventory only helps if it survives the same event that destroys the house.

• Keep one copy in the cloud and one on an external drive or USB stick stored somewhere other than the house, such as a relative's home or a safe deposit box.
• Share access to the cloud folder with one trusted person, so the inventory can be found if you are not the one who needs it.
• Set a calendar reminder for every January, or for your policy renewal date: re-record the room videos, add the year's purchases, and file the receipts.

Here is the insurance side. Many policies pay for belongings in two steps: a first check at today's depreciated value, and the rest only after you replace the item and send proof. Your inventory is what makes both steps go smoothly, because it shows what you had, what it cost, and what condition it was in.

Whether your own policy pays belongings at replacement cost or actual cash value is one of the first things worth knowing, and it is printed in the policy. CoverageDecoder can read your policy and turn what it finds into questions ready for your licensed insurance agent.