How to Make a Home Inventory List for Insurance

A home inventory is a documented list of your personal property — furniture, electronics, clothing, kitchenware, jewelry, tools — with enough detail that an insurance adjuster could verify what you owned if you needed to file a claim.

Most homeowners don't have one. The ones who do find out, after a fire or burglary, that it was the most valuable hour they ever spent.

Why insurers care about your inventory

Your homeowners policy covers personal property up to a percentage of your dwelling coverage — usually 50 to 70%. But the company doesn't owe you that full amount automatically. They owe you what you can prove you lost. Without an inventory, the burden of memory falls on you, in the middle of the worst week of your life.

What to include for each item

A useful inventory captures, at minimum:

• A description (what it is, brand, model)
• Approximate purchase date or age
• Original cost (if known)
• Current replacement cost
• A photo
• Serial numbers for electronics, appliances, and firearms

Don't worry about being exhaustive on the value side; estimates are fine. What matters most is that the item is documented as having existed.

What to skip

You don't need to inventory every fork or every sock. Group similar items: "12 dinner plates, brand X" or "approximately 30 pairs of shoes, ranging from $40–$200." Insurance categories tolerate grouped claims for everyday items.

Do itemize separately:

• Electronics over $200
• Jewelry and watches
• Firearms (always with serial numbers)
• Art and collectibles
• Designer clothing or handbags
• Musical instruments
• Power tools and equipment over $200

How to value items without receipts

Most homeowners don't keep receipts for things they bought five years ago. That's fine — current replacement cost is what matters for insurance. Find a comparable item currently for sale online and use that price.

For depreciation-based (ACV) claims, the insurer will apply depreciation themselves; you just need to document the original item and its age. For replacement-cost (RCV) policies, you ultimately get paid the cost of replacing the item with a comparable new one.

Three ways to build the inventory

1. Spreadsheet (manual)

Open Excel or Google Sheets, list every room, walk through each one with your phone. Tedious but free. Plan on 4–8 hours for a typical home, and expect to redo sections as you remember more.

2. Video walkthrough

Some insurers accept a narrated video walkthrough as informal documentation. It's fast (30 minutes), but doesn't produce a structured list — you still need values and descriptions when you file a claim.

3. Photo-based AI inventory

Take photos of every room, drawer, and closet, then upload them to a tool that builds the inventory automatically. ProofList identifies items, fills in descriptions, estimates values, and produces a structured spreadsheet — usually in under an hour for a full home.

Where to keep it

A home inventory stored on a hard drive in your home is useless if your house burns down. Keep copies:

1. In cloud storage (Google Drive, iCloud, Dropbox)
2. Emailed to yourself — easy to retrieve from any device
3. Optionally, with a family member or attorney for redundancy

Update it once a year, or after any major purchase. Add new items, delete what you got rid of, and refresh photos of high-value items.

What an adjuster actually wants from you

Adjusters work from itemized loss schedules — usually Excel spreadsheets with quantity, description, age, source, and cost. The closer your inventory is to that format, the faster they can process your claim. A neatly formatted, photo-backed inventory often results in a higher and faster settlement, simply because there's less friction in verification.

Bottom line

Spend an hour now or spend a week later under stress. A home inventory is one of those few things that's almost free in good times and priceless in bad ones.