Home Inventory for Insurance: How to Document What You Own

Your insurance policy pays out on what you can prove you owned. Most people find this out after a loss, when they're rebuilding a list from memory and guessing at prices. This is how to do it before that happens.

Why it matters

A house fire. A break-in. A burst pipe that floods the lower level. Your homeowners policy covers the loss, but only what you can prove you owned.

Claims adjusters aren't trying to cheat you. They can only pay for what's documented. "I had a TV in the bedroom" gets you a generic depreciated payout. "Samsung QN65Q80D, purchased March 2024 for $1,299, serial number XJ99382" gets you a real one.

The difference on a major loss can be tens of thousands of dollars. The only thing required is that you wrote it down.

Most people don't. Not because they're careless. Nothing bad is happening right now, and documenting your stuff feels like homework. Then something goes wrong, and they're rebuilding their entire household from memory while dealing with displacement, adjusters, and contractors all at once.

An hour of documentation now prevents that.

What a home inventory is

A home inventory is a record of everything you own, room by room and item by item, with enough detail for an insurance adjuster to verify and value each piece.

At minimum: item description, purchase date, purchase price, and serial or model number. Photos help. Receipts help more. A video walkthrough gives adjusters a floor-to-ceiling view of the space and is hard to dispute.

It's not only for catastrophic losses. A home inventory matters for partial claims too: a stolen laptop, a flooded basement that damages furniture, a break-in where specific items went missing. Whenever you need to prove ownership and value, the list does the work.

What to include, room by room

You don't need to catalog every fork. Focus on items over $50 and anything with a serial number.

Living room

• Television: make, model, serial number. Usually the single highest-value item in a living room. Full guide on where to find model numbers on electronics and appliances.
• Audio equipment: soundbars, receivers, subwoofers, streaming devices
• Furniture with real value: sectionals, recliners, entertainment centers
• Gaming consoles and accessories
• Artwork, rugs, decorative items over $100

Kitchen

• Major appliances: refrigerator, dishwasher, range, microwave. Model numbers are on data plates inside the door or on the back panel.
• Small appliances: espresso machine, stand mixer, air fryer, blender. A KitchenAid stand mixer is $400+. A Breville espresso machine can be $600. These matter.
• High-value cookware: All-Clad, Le Creuset, and similar sets are worth documenting by piece.

Bedrooms

• Electronics: laptops, tablets, phones, smart watches. Serial numbers are in Settings on phones and tablets; on the bottom of laptops.
• Jewelry: description and approximate value for everyday pieces, full appraisal for anything over $500. Standard policies cap jewelry coverage at $1,500–$2,500 without a rider.
• Mattress: brand and size. A quality mattress is $800–$2,000.

Home office

• Computers and monitors: serial numbers matter most here. A single desktop setup can be $2,000–$5,000.
• Peripherals: external drives, docking stations, webcams, headsets
• Printers and scanners

Garage and storage

• Power tools: brand, model, approximate purchase price. A set of Dewalt or Milwaukee tools runs several thousand dollars.
• Lawn equipment: mower, leaf blower, chainsaw, pressure washer
• Bikes and sports gear: road bikes especially ($1,000+)
• Items in storage bins: holiday decorations, camping gear, seasonal items. These are among the most consistently underclaimed after a loss.

How to document it

The method matters less than doing it. Three options work, in order of effort:

Option 1: Video walkthrough

Walk through every room narrating what you see. Open closets. Open cabinets. Open drawers. A 15-minute video costs you nothing and gives an adjuster a floor-to-ceiling view of the space. Upload it to Google Drive, iCloud, or Dropbox. Keep it off-device.

This is the fastest option. It's not the most detailed, but it's far better than nothing and courts accept it as evidence of ownership.

Option 2: Spreadsheet

Columns: Item, Description, Purchase Date, Purchase Price, Model/Serial, Photo. One row per item. Takes longer but produces a searchable, sortable record you can hand directly to an adjuster, an attorney, or your insurer's online claims portal.

Option 3: A dedicated app

Apps built for home inventory, including kept, let you photograph items, scan barcodes for model numbers, and organize by room. You end up with a structured record that includes photos, no spreadsheet maintenance required. Your inventory syncs to the cloud, accessible from any device after a loss.

For any method: serial numbers and photos are what separate a strong claim from a weak one. A photo proves the item was in your home. A serial number confirms the exact model and retail value. Both together are nearly impossible to dispute.

Where to store it

Not in your house. Your home inventory is most useful after a fire, flood, or break-in, which is exactly when you can't access documents stored inside the house.

Cloud storage works: Google Drive, iCloud, and Dropbox are all fine. Email yourself a copy after each update. A fireproof safe protects against fire but not a total loss or theft. Treat it as one layer, not the only layer.

If you use kept, your inventory syncs automatically. You can access it from any phone or computer, regardless of what happened to the device you used to build it.

If you have high-value items like jewelry, art, collectibles, or instruments, keep appraisal documents and receipts in the same place as your inventory. Your policy may have per-item limits, and an appraisal is what triggers additional coverage.

The fastest way to start

Don't try to document the whole house in one session. Start with the five highest-value areas: living room, master bedroom, kitchen, home office, garage. Those five rooms hold the majority of your claimable value.

For each room: photograph the space from the doorway first. Then photograph individual high-value items. For electronics, photograph the serial number sticker on the back or bottom. For appliances, scan the barcode or note the model from the data plate. That same information goes into appliance warranty tracking and is exactly what an insurance adjuster will ask for.

Add everything to kept as you go, organized by room. By the time you've walked through five rooms, you have a cloud-synced inventory that covers most of your household value.

Update it when you buy something significant. A new TV, a new laptop, a new appliance: add it when you set it up. Thirty seconds now is easier than reconstructing it two years later.

A home inventory overlaps with a lot of other homeowner information that belongs in one place. The post on things to remember about your house covers paint codes, contractor contacts, filter sizes, and more.

Frequently asked questions

What should a home inventory for insurance include?

Document every item worth more than $50, plus anything with a serial number. For each item, record a description, purchase date, purchase price, and model or serial number. Photograph each item individually, and store receipts for high-value purchases. Electronics, appliances, furniture, jewelry, and tools are the categories that matter most for claim payouts.

Do I need a home inventory to file a homeowners insurance claim?

No insurer requires one before a loss. But when you file a claim, you need to prove ownership and value for every item you're claiming. Without a home inventory, you're rebuilding that list from memory after a fire, flood, or break-in, and you'll miss things. Adjusters can only pay for what's documented, so the inventory is what determines your payout.

How do I document my belongings for an insurance claim?

Three methods work: a video walkthrough of every room (narrate what you see, open closets and drawers), a spreadsheet with one row per item, or a dedicated home inventory app like kept. For any method, prioritize serial numbers and photos for high-value items. A photo proves the item existed in your home. A serial number confirms the exact model. Together they're hard to dispute.

What happens if I don't have a home inventory when I file a claim?

You can still file, but the claim is harder to support. You'll reconstruct the list from memory under stress, miss items, and estimate values rather than cite purchase prices. Some high-value items may not get approved without proof of ownership. Most people who go through a major loss say they claimed far less than they actually owned because they couldn't document it.

What is the best app for home inventory for insurance?

kept is designed for exactly this. You photograph items, scan barcodes for automatic model number lookup, and organize everything by room. Your inventory syncs to the cloud so you can access it after a loss, even if your phone was damaged. It's free to try and covers a typical house's highest-value rooms in about 20 minutes.