Household Inventory
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| Sat, 02-05-2005 - 1:53pm |
This is a little bit off topic but has to do with my big debt picture (and maybe yours too).
After the Tsunami I was thinking about how I would recover financially from a natural disaster, fire, or whatever; which made me think “do I even have enough homeowners insurance to cover everything?” I know off the top of my head it would probably not even pay off my current debts! If I had to start all over I’d even start over in debt.
So I decided to create a “household inventory” spreadsheet to see what I actually have, what its value is, and determine if I have enough coverage so if anything would ever happen I’d be okay in the end.
I’m currently in the process of getting all the details (omg, this takes time) added to the spreadsheet and it has been beneficial in two ways ~ first off I know in the end when I adjust my coverage I’m going to be able to have the proper coverage and the second thing is I’m going to have a HUGE garage sale (and therefore a big snowflake)!
This process has REALLY made me reflect on material things and wants vs. true needs. When I had to add each knick-knack and candle to my sheet (oh yeah, I got that detailed) it made me realize that I have so many things I don’t need (or even really want) instead of logging those they went into the “to be sold boxes”. I now have more space, less clutter, and it feels great. Once I have the sale I’ll have extra money too.
This is really a long and tedious process but it’s been so worth it and eye opening!
Have you done a household inventory, do you want to? How was your experience?

I am trying to declutter the house albiet SLOWLY, and actually, I guess I'd be making more of a mental inventory, but it is interesting to see all the bits and pieces of crap I have all over the house. I should inventory the big items, however. I have to think about this, but is is interesting to see where I have spent my money or debted myself for.
Littlesbigs
I did an inventory the first time I bought renter's insurance. A few years ago, I decided to do another inventory to *reduce* my renter's insurance. I realized that I would not bother replacing many of the things I had, so why pay to insure them?
Kelly
This is a really good idea, and something I've been meaning to do forever. Maybe I'll start with the big stuff and slowly work my way along. We started on the process years ago and gave up because it was so overwhelming--but we were logging every last screw in the junk drawer, so it was just too much, LOL.
This time, I'll just do the big stuff and then slowly work my way down. Thanks for the motivation!
Heather
Travi
I have had to do this the hard way. We had a fire several years ago when I was still married and my kids were both very little. It was a complete loss. For our insurance, we had to make a list of every item in our home. We had to picture each drawer, each cabinet, what was hanging on the walls, toys in the toy boxes, things on the counters, everything. We also had to list a value new, and value at the time of the fire. The total of this list had to total the amount of insurance we had on our belongings, or we would get the lesser amount. (This was in 1985). It wasn't hard to come up with the value, but trying to remember each thing was very difficult. I stongly suggest that everyone inventory and photograph, if possible, the valuables in their homes, and keep those lists and photos in a safe deposit box with their insurance policies. It's much easier to do then than it is after the fact.
gomom99
We have an inventory in our Quicken database that gets updated everytime we add something big. For the little things we update it once a quarter.
I guess I am lucky in a way. I have posted on here before that DH is in the Army. We move so often that I am constantly decluttering. If you want inspiration, watch TLC's "Clean Sweep." Any time I need motivation I just watch that and stand back, the extra stuff starts flying out of the house. Anyway, before our last move (last July) I had four yardsales between Jan and May (fortunately it was in Southern California, so we didn't have to stand in the cold weather to do it). We moved here and in August we had another yardsale to get rid of the stuff we didn't need we found unpacking all of our stuff. They have a big yardsale here in April and DH and I are already planning for that one.
Decluttering is a good idea as is a home inventory. Just make sure you make a copy of the inventory and put it in a fire proof safe in your home or a safety deposit box in a bank somewhere. It doesn't do any good to have it burned in a fire or water damaged in case of tornado, hurricane, or flood--depending on where you live.
Kellie