Welcome to the easy way to create a home inventory that every homeowner should consider. Picture yourself caught in the middle of a catastrophic event where you have to evacuate your home due to damage. Would you be able to remember all of your possessions? Creating a simple home inventory will help you get your insurance claim settled faster and verify your losses when disasters strike.
What is a home inventory?
Simply put, a home inventory is a list of all the things you own and their estimated value. At Mammoth Restoration, we commonly deal with businesses and families who don’t know where to start after experiencing a major loss. Having an inventory is just one less thing you’ll have to deal with in an event where you’re sure to have a million other things to figure out.
Why is it Important?
- Are You Covered? Consumer Reports stated according to CoreLogic Analytics Firm, 3 out of 5 American homes are insured for an average of 20% less than their home’s value. By creating a home inventory before a loss happens you will be able to have a more educated conversation with your insurance agent and verify that you will be covered if a total loss happens.
- Can you remember everything that’s tucked away in your basement or attic? If you’re like us, you will have trouble remembering all the things you’ve purchased this year, let alone the items you’ve accumulated over your lifetime. Having a home inventory will help you make a claim quick and help you in getting the things replaced you deserve. Don’t leave it up to your memory in a stressful time like a flood or fire.
How to Start:
The days of creating a time consuming written out home inventory are in the past. Thanks to smartphones, there are now a number of apps that keep all of your information easily organized and disaster-proof by storing your information in the cloud. We’ve included a list of our favorite 3 apps for both Apple and Android Devices, however, there are many inventory items out there.
Apple IOS Devices:
- Belongings Inventory App
- Encircle: Home Inventory
- III Inventory
Android Apps:
- Encircle: Home Inventory
- Home Inventory Organizer
- Magic Home Inventory
Getting started can seem overwhelming when you have so many items in your home. We’ve outlined some key points below.
- Try to go room by room in your house.
- Feel free to bunch lesser cost items into a category. (Example: 30 plates or 15 pairs of shoes)
- Create an itemized list of those belongings of higher value while being sure to record serial numbers or notate costs when possible.
- Verify insurance coverage on your more valuable assets.
- Don’t forget to list things in your shed, storage units, etc. These are covered too.
If all of this seems overwhelming and too time-consuming, you can always opt for the simple video tour of your property. Use a cloud-based app like Google Photos to backup your photos and video as you walk-through each room slowly opening drawers and closets. Speak into the camera listing the items you have tucked away in boxes and other assets that are unidentifiable by your camera angles. While this method won’t help you have an exact value of your products it will give you a good place to start recalling all of your assets if the worst does happen.
Didn’t create a home inventory list before your loss? We’re here to help. Mammoth Restoration’s Content Cleaning team has seen it all. We can help you itemize your assets into salvageable and non-salvageable items, bringing your salvageable items back to pre-loss condition while documenting and working with your insurance company through the process. Mammoth Restoration is “contents made easy!”
