This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company. All opinions are 100% mine.
Nationwide provided me with information regarding its In The Nation blog post.
I’ve lived in my current house for 15 years.
I’ve brought both of my kids home from the hospital to this house. Spent numerous holidays in this house. Finished off a basement and remodeled every room to my preferences in this house. And watched way too much Netflix in this house.
And I would be devastated if something happened to my house. So when I saw this article on, An Inventory of Your Life, it took my breath away. Because beyond being devastated, I might also be without a lot of the stuff that is currently in my house.
I realized while I had lived in my house for 15 years, the last time I took a good inventory of my house, was probably also 15 years ago, when we moved in. (And if you are like me, that stuff you inventoried 15 years ago, isn’t even in this house anymore. Goodbye college apartment furniture.) I just didn’t need to update my inventory list, I needed to scrap the old one and start new.
How to Create A Digital Inventory Of Your Life
1. Decide how and where you will store your inventory. I know this sounds silly, but when you are creating a digital inventory there are many options. Just like a paper inventory list, you have to decide HOW and WHERE your inventory will be stored. Will you use a cloud server? A thumb-drive? Create an extra hard copy? This site – In The Nation – has more resources.
2. Inventory room by room. While the iPads and SmartPhones make it easy to take and store pictures, you need to have a system. (Because an inventory is WAY more than just pictures.) You have to inventory all items through tagging and documentation (like quality of the item or special details like stained glass or sterling silver, receipts showing purchase amount or appraised value). It is also a good idea to take panoramic photos of the whole room, in case an item is missed.
3. Organize the inventory. Once you have inventoried your items, you need to organize the list. Usually organize by room and then subgroup items are the easiest (plus it is easy to add new items as you purchase/inherit new possessions).
4. Safeguard the inventory. After you have completed taking and organizing the inventory, you need to safeguard it. Make a printed copy to include with essential legal documents (even if you are storing digitally). Also make sure to include access information, including passwords, to your inventory, so other trusted people can access if you are not able.
I will admit after reading the article An Inventory of Your Life, I was a little overwhelmed. Considering I hadn’t taken an inventory in 15 years, the task seemed DAUNTING, to say the least.
But over the course of a month, I started a binder and took pictures one room at a time. Some rooms took longer to inventory (our home offices, living room and kitchen), while other rooms took almost no time at all (kid’s and spare bedrooms). Then we saved everything in Dropbox and a thumb drive.
I realize a home isn’t the stuff inside it, but the people and the memories you make while you live in it. But, if something were to happen to it, would you want to make sure you were adequately insured so you could replace the items?
Creating an inventory of your life is the adult thing to do, and while it isn’t super fun (even with a glass of wine), it feels so good after it is done.
