The most useful thing you can do for a future personal property insurance claim is create a home inventory now, before anything happens. After a loss, you'll be asked to list what you owned, when you bought it, what it cost, and what it would cost to replace it. Doing that from memory, under stress, weeks after a fire or flood, is hard. Doing it from a documented record is straightforward. Here's a practical approach.
Why personal property documentation matters
After a major property loss, your insurer will ask you to complete a personal property inventory — a list of damaged or destroyed items with descriptions, purchase dates, original cost, and current replacement value. This inventory drives your personal property claim payment.
Items you can document well get paid well. Items you forget to include, or can't document clearly, get underpaid or denied. The difference between a thorough, pre-loss inventory and reconstructing from memory is often thousands of dollars.
On my own claim, I had roughly 50 items that the insurer valued at nearly $30,000 at replacement cost. Having some documentation — receipts for electronics, purchase records for appliances — made the process more defensible. Better documentation would have made it stronger.
The video walkthrough method
The fastest and most useful documentation method is a video walkthrough of your home. Walk through every room, narrate what you see, open drawers and cabinets, pan across shelves. This doesn't need to be professional — phone video is fine. What you're creating is a timestamped visual record of what you owned and its condition.
This takes 20–30 minutes to do well. It should include:
- Every room, including storage spaces, garage, and basement
- Closets — contents visible, organized items narrated
- Kitchen cabinets and appliances (serial numbers visible when possible)
- Electronics — screens, model numbers
- Jewelry and valuables (narrated description, not just visual)
- Tools and outdoor equipment
- Furniture in detail — brand, material, approximate age if known
Store the video somewhere off-site: cloud storage, email to yourself, external drive at a different location. A video stored only on your phone or home computer can be lost in the same event that destroys your belongings.
Receipts and purchase records
For significant purchases — appliances, electronics, furniture, jewelry, tools — keep receipts or purchase records. Most people buy these things online now, which means the purchase record exists in your email history or account order history. Email yourself a link to the order confirmation for anything over $100.
Periodically export your Amazon, Best Buy, or other major retailer purchase history to a spreadsheet or document stored in the cloud. This creates a retrievable record of what you've bought, when, and for how much.
For high-value items — jewelry, art, collectibles, musical instruments — consider a separate written appraisal. Standard homeowners coverage often has sublimits on these categories ($1,000–$2,500 is common) and may require a scheduled endorsement for full coverage. Knowing what you have and what it's worth determines whether your current coverage is adequate.
Dedicated home inventory apps
Several apps are designed specifically for home inventory: Encircle, Sortly, and the NAIC Home Inventory app are commonly recommended. These allow you to photograph items, enter purchase information, attach receipts, and organize by room. The data is stored in the cloud.
The advantage over a video walkthrough is organization — a spreadsheet you can hand to an adjuster is more useful than a 30-minute video. The disadvantage is that it takes longer to complete. A video walkthrough done today is better than an app inventory that never gets finished.
After a loss: reconstructing the inventory
If a loss happens before you've documented your belongings, you're not without options. Sources for reconstructing your inventory include:
- Credit card and bank statements going back several years
- Email purchase confirmations and order histories
- Retailer account purchase histories (Amazon, Costco, Walmart, etc.)
- Social media and photo histories — photos often show belongings
- Manufacturer warranty registrations
- Insurance policy schedules if you had scheduled property coverage
The mitigation company that packs out your belongings after a major loss will create a contents inventory as part of their service — though it may take months to receive and may not be complete. That inventory is a starting point, not a substitute for your own documentation.
Related: My Insurance Company Paid Almost $20,000 for Personal Property: Here's How the Math Worked — a first-person look at how personal property claims are valued and paid.