Create a Home Inventory

Creating a home inventory and storing it in a safe place will make it easier to work with the insurance company at a time of loss.

 

A home inventory can make dealing with an insurance company much easier. And your camera phone is a convenient way to create and store this inventory. With a little preparation, you can canvass your entire residence in just an hour or so.

 

You'll need a stack of 3" 5" cards and a bold-tip felt marker. Carry out your inventory one room at a time. Daytime hours are best, because you'll have enough ambient light to record the objects without using flash. Many camera phones don't have flash, and for this job, it's just as well. Photographing shiny objects with a flash is difficult at best; it's hard to record detail in the lighter tones. Ambient light is less contra sty, which makes it better for this project.

 

Start with your first item and write the following information on a 3" 5" card:

 

· Name of object

· Serial number

· Date purchased

· Purchase price

Make your letters big and bold, as shown in Figure. Put the card next to the item and snap a picture.

                          

                        A sample item in a home inventory

When you finish one room, move on to the next until you've completed the entire house.

Then, upload your images to the computer. You might want to give each image a filename that makes sense, such as bedroom_tv.jpg, bedroom_vase.jpg, bedroom_lamp.jpg, and so on.

 

A handy way to organize these images is to actually build a web photo gallery and burn it to three CDs: one to keep at home for reference, one for easy-access backup at your office, and a final copy in a safe-deposit box or another secure location.

 

When you need to refer to the cat log, simply load the CD into your computer, double click index.html, and a thumbnail cat log of your entire home inventory will appear in your web browser. You can click on any of the thumbnails to enlarge the image and read the details you wrote on the 3" 5" card.

1. Schedule time in your calendar. Block off 20 minutes at least once a week to get started.

 

2. Gather a home inventory “Tool Kit.” Grab a canvas tote bag or basket and add the items listed on the right.

 

3. Install Collectively Home Inventory (CHI) software onto your computer. Once it’s installed, type in the name of the owner of the inventory, and choose your currency. Finally, add any of these rooms or areas that apply to you and your home:

 

4. You do not have to inventory everything you own down to the last paperclip. The following will offer tips on what to focus on and where you can gloss over some things.

 

5.Although this is not the time to organize your belongings, as you come across items to donate, toss them in a bag to give to charity.

 

6. Since you’ll most likely have to move plugged-in items to get a shot of their serial/model numbers, this is the perfect time to label the cords so you know what belongs to what.

 

7. As you go make notes in your spiral notebook of identifying features, things you remember about the item, and so on. These notes will be

keyed into your inventory when you upload the picture.

 

8.This is not the time to do a professional cleaning. However, while you are behind objects it might make sense to dust off the back of items or use the hand-vac to gobble up any dust bunnies

 

Source: O'Reilley |Portfolio Website|Online Portfolio