Rural home: the Home Inventory

The Rural Romantic is all about living peacefully and fully. Part of peaceful living is peace of mind, and for me, that means knowing that I am prepared for things that could come my way.

Part of that is knowing what I have in case I need to file an insurance claim, and a great way to do this is to create a home inventory.

Making a home inventory can be easy and fun. Just follow these simple steps, and in no time at all you'll have a home inventory too!

1. Pick a room and make a video log or take lots of pictures of the items in the room. If it is your living room, for instance, you might take several photos of the TV and any multimedia equipment, game systems, DVDs or VHS (if you still have those), as well as some shots of the furniture. Don't forget your artwork or knick-knacks! Be sure to get images of the insides of drawers and cabinets!

2. Document everything. An easy way to do this is to use your video or photographs and write down objects as you see them in your recordings. Another way is to go room-by-room, starting with big-ticket items like TVs or computers, and working your way down. Either way, make your list as thorough as possible

3. Save a copy of your new home inventory in your home, but make sure you have at least one copy in a well-protected area away from your home. If the unthinkable happens, you'll know you have a safe copy as a back up. One great thing about current home inventories is the ready availability of free internet storage. Why not keep a copy on a cloud drive somewhere? Amazon.com is just one of many companies that offer free cloud storage for documents and photos.

4. Don't forget to update your list whenever you buy or sell items!


Do you have enough insurance? Make sure you can count on your insurance company. I rely on State Farm, and my agent Danny Edmonds! I don't know what we'd do without him!

State Farm has created a great home inventory worksheet! The Insurance Information Institute has an online inventory tool that is absolutely free! Both of these can be awesome resources as you create your own home inventory.

Take the Home Inventory Challenge with me! Use IIIs online inventory tool to create your home inventory, and post here about your experience. Was it easy? Was it too complicated? I am going to be transitioning from a paper inventory to their online inventory, and I will let you know how it goes!

Information in this post came from AAA, State Farm, and the Insurance Information Institute.