Home Inventory

[Life_is_Simple]

I am creating a Home Inventory, and it is brutal! :sick:

I don't know a good way to do this, but I am plugging away anyway.:treadmill:

This is what I have done so far:


Last year, I had listed many of my items by room in an excel spreadsheet, and attached purchase info (prices, when, where) or estimates to them. I had also put some photos into the spreadsheet. So I thank my 2011 self for that! :thankyou:
Now I have divided rooms in that spreadsheet into categories, and have worked on the Home Office first. I have a lot of receipts for that stuff.
I watched a Youtube video yesterday, which recommends taking photos of the model and serial numbers of things. Some of the electronic stuff has that, so I have been doing that today.
Also, I just realized I have warranty manuals for a lot of things, which lists model numbers on the front, so I am capturing that info.

I know there is software for this, and I downloaded some. But then liked my spreadsheet better.

People on one of the videos I watched said many people put off doing a home inventory, but maybe they could work on 1 room every other weekend. Ugh!

That's all I have to say about this for now. :help:

[Minz]

So I assume you are doing this for insurance purposes? It sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately I am not as disciplined as you. :) I have a ways to go before I am that organzied and detailed-oriented. :)

[ToomuchStuff]

What I see recommended most, is home video's of the rooms of the house. Burn multiple disc's and different media types, and leave them in different places (safety deposit box, some recommended work, parents house, etc). As we enter the future with all the smart phone stuff (I still don't have one), with 3d barcodes and such, this should become easier (scan and it enters into an inventory).

[leslieann]

Good luck. I am always inspired by Fawn. I don't want to actually DO an inventory until I am at least approaching her territory (in terms of number of items).

[Life_is_Simple]

So I assume you are doing this for insurance purposes? It sounds like a great idea. Unfortunately I am not as disciplined as you. :) I have a ways to go before I am that organzied and detailed-oriented. :)
Minz, yes, insurance purposes. Partly to see if I have enough insurance coverage.

Also, as I list things, I am hoping some things are not worth my time to list, and I can declutter them ;) Last night I selected 5-6 books to donate, as I was going through my bookshelves.

I actually typed books into my spreadsheet, and looked up the prices of some grad school text books, since they are higher priced. I'm thinking of selling some of those on Amazon, after seeing the selling prices :)

I probably should work on the bigger items first, and not worry about listing each individual book. But for some reason that was fun and interesting to me, so I'll just go with what I feel like doing.

[Life_is_Simple]

What I see recommended most, is home video's of the rooms of the house. Burn multiple disc's and different media types, and leave them in different places (safety deposit box, some recommended work, parents house, etc). As we enter the future with all the smart phone stuff (I still don't have one), with 3d barcodes and such, this should become easier (scan and it enters into an inventory).
Thanks, ToomuchStuff, the idea of storing discs in different places is a good one. So I will do that.

Yesterday, two separate friends told me they uploaded their documents to DropBox.com, so I am doing that, for some of the pictures.

Oh, you think the barcodes will be scannable at some point? That would be very cool!:+1:

[Life_is_Simple]

Good luck. I am always inspired by Fawn. I don't want to actually DO an inventory until I am at least approaching her territory (in terms of number of items).
Oh gosh, yes. I thought that since I majorly decluttered recently, the item listing would be easier.

But I am far from getting down to my 100 items ! :laff:

[ToomuchStuff]

Oh, you think the barcodes will be scannable at some point? That would be very cool!:+1:

Barcodes are scan-able by design. The "big thing" now, is those square, 3d barcodes that companies are using with a "get our app or find us online" type of thing. Android or iphones take pictures of them and scan them to bring up the stuff. I would be surprised if someone isn't already making (if not made) an inventory app for them.

[Life_is_Simple]

Barcodes are scan-able by design. The "big thing" now, is those square, 3d barcodes that companies are using with a "get our app or find us online" type of thing. Android or iphones take pictures of them and scan them to bring up the stuff. I would be surprised if someone isn't already making (if not made) an inventory app for them.
T.M.S., I just tried one home inventory app, at your suggestion. I get the feeling they still need some development.

What I DID find that I liked is an app called "Book Catalogue," which scans the barcodes from books. It also downloads your inventory to an excel file, with the author, title, isbn, publisher, date published, description, etc.

It has some things that the person can enter in themselves, like list_price. If the app developed where it brought that info in, that would be helpful to the home inventory.

Anyway, I like that book app a lot:+1:

[ToomuchStuff]

The one I wanted to use was a few years ago, and I don't know what became of it. If you remember when Radio Shack was pushing an item called the CueCat, it was a barcode scanner, that was supposed to bring up products (kind of a predecessor to what the smart phones do now). Someone found out how to eliminate the id information that it sent to the company, and then just used it as a barcode scanner. Then projects started happening in the Linux world, at least. I remember one that a person did, to scan the barcodes that were on cd's and inventory his music collection.