Just went through a home inventory exercise and realized I have zero documentation of my wardrobe. No receipts, no photos, nothing. We have some nice luxury pieces that I feel like would not receive fair insurance treatment if there was fire/flood/theft or even if it was stolen out of luggage.
For those of you who've actually done a proper home inventory – did you include clothing? How did you handle it? Seems tedious to photograph and catalog everything.
Anyone ever actually had to file a claim that included clothing? How did that go?
Do you or people you know have their clothing/wardrobes documented for insurance purposes?
byu/BilliamHWilliam inpersonalfinance
Posted by BilliamHWilliam
27 Comments
Never thought about that really tbh but I don’t own any expensive pieces of clothing and never had to go through a home insurance claim
Yes. I can go to Costco.com and pull up all of my purchase history.
I have some arcteryx and Burberry pieces. All bought online, so receipts are there but I also add in the item number on my spreadsheet.
I live in wildfire territory in So Cal.
Once or twice a year, generally right about the time we start getting fire warnings, I take my phone and start a video recording.
I start at the front door, and wander through the house slowingly narrating what I see, and reading off brands and models off of labels as I see them. In the closets, I’ll thumb through the hangers and read off labels–many of which are designer.
I take careful stock of garage items, tools, drawers in my tool chest, clothes in the closet, pantry, shed, and even pots/pans/dishware.
You don’t need *all* the details, you just need enough details to justify the max reimbursement under your policies–like, you don’t need an appraisal for your Dolce gown, any reasonable adjuster will ballpark its value at several thousand and give you the max $500 single limit.
Having documentation will help. Without photos or videos, you’ll likely get replacement valuation for generic clothes. There’s a huge difference between reimbursement for 50 shirts at $7 each, vs 50 shirts at $65 each.
I don’t bother except for the unusual things that most would not believe.
I have electronics, yarn, and Warhammer models documented. I don’t want to explain why I am claiming 5,000 in plastic and 4,000 in yarn.
You should document anything that would be expensive to replace. Photos including front, back, label, and either a receipt if you have it or documentation from the brand or a good secondhand reseller what replacement cost would be. If you’ve got that kind of document for luxury clothing, shoes, any jewelry, artwork, even fancy cookware your chances of recouping value after a major loss are way better.
This reminds me that I need to up my documentation, and check with my insurer. We did pics and estimates for each room. Certain specific items we documented their price. All stored off site.
If you have over $10k worth of luxury clothing, it might be worth documenting. Keep in mind this means you could sell it now for $10k not you paid $10k for it.
If we’re not talking that much money just give up on the idea of using insurance for it. Insurance is for major losses not replacing your coach bag. Make a few claims like that and you will end up with insane rates or dropped.
Even if you have only lower priced items, replacing a lot of them at once adds up. I’d also video or take stills of jewellery, watches, furniture etc even if any one item isn’t pricey. My daughter had a home break-in a few years ago, and even remembering what costume jewellery she all had turned out to be a chore. We’re not American, so our insurance payouts are a bit different, but step one is remembering – and possibly proving – what you owned so that you can make a proper claim.
Right now I’m wearing a t-shirt from Old Navy and pants from Costco.
Needless to say, if some catastrophic disaster destroys my wardrobe, the low 3 figures worth of clothes lost would be the least of my worries.
I have an entire database in the cloud set up for my shoes. I take a photo of them, document the purchase price and date, color, material, etc. and if any of them are damaged or need repair I make a note and once a year I pull them to take to the cobbler. I also make note of pairs that I’ve sold and the sale price.
It’s tedious once if you’ve not done any of that and you need to go back and do from the beginning, but if you start with new purchases, and then over time as you wear something, just take a photo of it and add to your inventory.
For me it’s great because I can also use it when I’m shopping to fill in gaps in my collection, or if I’m wanting to wear a certain color or style I can search my DB for the shoes that fit that description.
I also have an additional rider on my policy to cover the excess personal goods.
Someone here must know how/which AI can turn video narration into a spreadsheet. Right?
I had to do it; I went partly from memory, and partly from the remnants of the damaged pieces.
Ultimately, the most compelling argument for taking the time (really, just a few minutes) to make a video inventory of your belongings is that *the insurance company banks on you not making one*.
Lost everything that wasn’t on a high shelf during Helene. My insurance covered personal items but trying to document it all wasn’t even worth it as they rejected most of it.
you can itemize and schedule that on a separate personal property policy
No, nothing I have is worth a ton. More sentimental than anything. I do have some other things documented, and probably should update that as it’s been a while.
I have my whole wardrobe documented, not for insurance purposes but because I enjoy keeping track of what I wear (I’m a weirdo like that). I use an app called StyleBook which lets you add items to your virtual closet along with info like price, web link for purchase, random notes. There are a few apps that do this. I imagine it would be tedious to do it all at once; I’ve been using it for years and just add new items the first time I wear them so I can add my outfit.
I video my entire house every 2 years. Closets, drawers … absolutely everything. No one has receipts for everything but a video provides absolute proof.
We had a wildfire in our community and so many people were unable to document their losses because they couldn’t remember what they had.
Also had any important details verbally as you video. Keep it on the cloud and your butt is covered.
Video record a walk-through of your house. For clothes, you can pan a camera through a closet or film yourself sifting quickly through a drawer. Anything price-y should be pulled out and filmed in better detail, showing the label and maybe verbally giving info about it.
Do this once a year, or if you make a costly acquisition. This helps to show the insurance a general idea of how much you’re needing to replace if anything happens. Like, they may say it is sufficient to provide replacement for 7 pairs of socks each and so you want video of your 50 pairs of wool hiking socks. Whatever like that. Serial numbers for anything which has them can be shown fairly quickly, too.
Keep a copy of the video off-site, in case of fire.
I definitely have receipts of some of our more expensive items in my email – do people with experience in insurance claims know if that is enough?
They all usually show date of purchase and card used.
Got hit by a hurricane last year so yes… It’s a huge pain trying to go through everything and find out how much you paid for it when it’s soaked in sewer water.
A friend of mine just lost her house. She didn’t have an inventory, or even photos of all her stuff.
Why did you post this in so many places? Just skip to the part where you recommend the software you’re selling.
Every few years or so I take a video walking around my house and point out the big ticket items. Then save it to a google drive so i can access it anywhere. I briefly sold home insurance and my job trainer told the class to do this.
I am a shopping addict so I got an app called Whering last year where I was able to document everything, not for insurance purposes but just to track my wearing habits. Only after did I realize what a great tool it would be for insurance, especially since everything I have totals around $12,000. Yes it took a while, but I broke it up over the year to add everything so it wasn’t that daunting.
I don’t even really have that much nice stuff either. This is a J. Crew and Banana Republic wardrobe we’re talking about. I can only imagine for people that have actual nice items.
Similar for makeup and skincare but that’s just an Excel spreadsheet. Still, totals about $8000 so it’s well worth it!
I collect watches, and those are very well documented. I own about $300 worth of 5.11 tactical pants, and probably $200 worth of 32 degrees tshirts and underwear from Costco, and another $50 worth of puma socks from Costco. When you factor in depreciation, it ain’t worth the trouble.