#My home inventory serial numbers#
#My home inventory plus#

Answer: Yes! I also wanted to clean and declutter the whole house (which is now done), because I find clutter stressful. The big question you are probably asking is, вЂњWhy?вЂќ It all began when I wondered if my $180,000 contents insurance (an amount proposed by the insurance company) is sufficient.

#My home inventory serial numbers#

The rest of the info varied вЂ“ I listed serial numbers for electronics, the colour or size of something if it seemed relevant, and so on. I made sure to give a name, number, price and location for everything. Here is the worksheet for pet supplies (chosen because it is a small category): Name Typical scene at our house (except for the clean coffee table) ThereвЂ™s just too much of it.ДЄ very small sample of the Christmas tree ornaments at our house People walking into the house see the crammed book shelves and say, вЂњYou have a lot of stuff.вЂќ But I am pretty much a neatnik вЂ“ everything is organized and accessible.We could say we collect vintage toys, but really, I think we are just pack rats who had happy childhoods. Both Rom and I have an embarrassing amount of toys, some from our long-ago youth and some new.I have enough ornaments and decorative objects to fill several homes, but they arenвЂ™t displayed because the cats knock them over.Worse yet, I printed all the emails I received for the first 5 years I had email! I discovered a box of 100 floppy disks with work files on them from the 1990s.Despite being very precious to us, our cats only own 17В things вЂ“ and they are all shared! Maybe I should live more like they do!.We have $25,000 worth of electronics and $25,000 worth of music CDs.Here are some random and shocking facts about the things I own: Rom stores his music CDs like this (he got rid of the plastic cases) вЂ“ he has 3 crates. They followed me wherever I went and created an instant вЂњhome.вЂќ I also spent a lot of adult years single, so I spent more money on personal items (such as books and CDs), less on household items (like furniture) and far less on recreation (like sun holidays and hot tubs). Since I was never very settled, my personal possessions were my security blanket. In the 27 years since I left home, IвЂ™ve moved 10 times. IвЂ™ve mentioned in previous posts that my stuff is typical of my generation in some ways, but there are differences, too. I recorded the replacement cost of homemade items as zero, not because theyвЂ™re worthless, but because theyвЂ™re irreplaceable вЂ“ and the same for documents and photos.I said that very cheap or heavily used items were worth nothing, such as used pencils or old tea towels.If I had to sell everything I own, I would get a pittance! I listed the purchase price if I knew it, but I marked it down if I knew I could replace it cheaper. YouвЂ™ll find the prices are all over the place. Since this started for insurance purposes, I estimated replacement costs. The purchase price and the value of my stuff are nowhere near the same.For the count, everything purchased separately counts as one item: a package of printer paper counts as one, and a set of dishes counts as one.I listed everything else, from a box of paper clips, to the kitchen table, to every DVD in the house.I didnвЂ™t include consumables: food and drink, personal care items and cleaning supplies.I didnвЂ™t include the cars, the garden shed or the fence.I didnвЂ™t include structural or built-in items like the furnace or the kitchen cabinets.

#My home inventory plus#

I didnвЂ™t, and youвЂ™ll see the result!Д«efore I tell you about the ten thousand plus items I own, I made up my own rules for the home inventory: I thought it would take 3 months of weekends вЂ“ then 6 вЂ“ and now IвЂ™ve gone from March to the end of December! In my previous posts IвЂ™ve talked about how the exercise evolved from an insurance documentвЂ¦ to an opportunity to clean and declutterвЂ¦ to a soul-searching examination of my relationship with stuff.ДЇor anyone out there who is starting out or starting over, I hope you will do the right thing and consider the entire life cycle of everything you bring into your home. I have spent the past 10 months conducting a thorough inventory of everything I own. You might think my house looks like this! (Photo Credit: Powerhouse Museum)