Your insurance claim is only as good as your home inventory
Insurance covers what you can document. After a fire, flood, or theft, insurers don't take your word for what you owned — they want proof: photos, receipts, serial numbers, appraisals. Most people have none of that ready when they need it most.
The fastest way to build one
Walk through every room with your phone recording video, narrating out loud as you go — open closets, drawers, cabinets. Say what things are and roughly what they cost as you film. This single video is worth more during a claim than most people's entire memory of what they owned.
Do this for:
- Every room, including closets, garages, and storage areas
- High-value items specifically — electronics, jewelry, tools, musical instruments, appliances — get a close-up on brand, model, and serial number where visible
- Anything with an appraisal or original receipt — keep those documents too, not just the video
Store it somewhere the disaster can't reach
A home inventory saved only on a laptop that burns down with the house is useless. Back it up somewhere physically separate:
- Cloud storage (email it to yourself, upload to a cloud drive)
- A copy with a family member or friend who lives elsewhere
- Your insurance company or agent — some let you attach documentation to your policy file directly
What it actually gets you
- Faster claims processing — adjusters move faster when documentation already exists instead of having to verify a written list from memory
- Fewer disputes over value — a video showing an item in use, with visible condition and detail, is stronger evidence than a claim form line item
- Coverage for things you'd otherwise forget — after a major loss, people reliably under-remember what they owned; a video doesn't have that problem
Update it periodically
A home inventory from five years ago misses everything bought since. Redo the walkthrough:
- After any major purchase (electronics, furniture, appliances)
- Once a year as a baseline, even if nothing major changed
- Immediately after moving into a new place
This pairs directly with renters insurance covers more than you think — the policy doesn't help if you can't document what it's supposed to be covering.
Quick reference
- Record a narrated video walkthrough of every room, including closets and storage
- Get close-ups of serial numbers and models on high-value items
- Store the video somewhere off-site — cloud storage or with someone else
- Redo it at least yearly, and right after big purchases
- Keep original receipts and appraisals alongside the video, not instead of it