One of the challenge tasks for this week is to decide on the format for your household inventory and to inventory two rooms of your house. The weekend can be a good time to get started on this. If you aren’t sure how to begin, the fact sheet, “Get Financially Prepared: Take Steps Ahead of Disaster,” posted in the Learn More section at the right is a good place to start.
eXtension.org and the Insurance Information Institute are two additional sources of information. Both provide forms that can be used for your inventory. On eXtension.org scroll through the section that describes methods that can be used to complete household inventories and look for the link to the interactive household inventory form. Download the form, print it and hand write the inventory information, or fill out and save it on your computer.
Know Your Stuff® – Home Inventory, is the Insurance Information Institute’s free online home inventory software.
Regardless of the method you use, when it comes to storing your inventory:
- Keep a working copy (paper or electronic) in a file at home.
- Keep one copy of your household inventory away from the insured dwelling, such as in a safe-deposit box, with a trusted person, or stored online, so that it can be accessed from any computer.
I keep copies in DropBox. I can access this from any computer as long as there is Internet access.
Cloud-based storage is wonderful thing, isn’t it!
I’ve started my inventory using the software your website has mentioned through the insurance institute. I’ve spent about 20 min. trying to update a room and each time the update has failed. When I click “save”, it eventually says “update fails” and then it returns to the page without any of the information…so I start again. This is an overwhelming task anyway, and this does not help me want to continue…at least with this website. Any suggestions?
Kathy,
I’m sorry to hear that the Insurance Institute software is being troublesome. Thank you for bringing this to our attention. As you say, it certainly does not make the task any easier! In terms of suggestions, have you contacted the Insurance Institute? Here is a link to some support information that they share on their site https://www.knowyourstuff.org/iii/viewOnlyNoLogin.html?page=front_support_start There is also a link to email them directly. I apologize that I am not able to respond directly to your specific situation and encourage you to contact them directly.
Elizabeth
Having trouble with the website offered through insurance institute. My updates to rooms aren’t being saved, then I have to reenter the information again. When I feel overwhelmed with this whole process anyway, this doesn’t help. Cindy, do you use a spreadsheet for your inventory and then put copies on dropbox? Please advise, feeling frustrated.
Kathy,
I commend you for exploring other options for your household inventory! The Kansas Insurance Department also has a nice resource. It is available at http://www.ksinsurance.org/consumers/docs/HomeInventory.pdf
Good luck!
Kathy,
I do use a spreadsheet for our inventory and store a copy in DropBox.
DropBox has saved us many times when our computers crashed.
Life is too short to get frustrated. If I try a new free file or software and get frustrated, I explore other options. It helps keep my creative mind busy.
Good Luck!