How to Make a Household Inventory PDF for Home Insurance
List rooms, photograph items, note what each cost, then save it as a PDF in cloud storage and offline.
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Why this list matters after a break-in
If you've already had items stolen, the inventory you build now is what backs up your claim. Your insurer pays out based on what you can show you owned, not just what you remember owning. A list with photos, approximate purchase dates and costs for each room gives the adjuster something concrete to work from instead of a verbal description they have to take on faith. For electronics and furniture, a photo and receipt or bank statement showing the purchase usually settles it. Jewelry, watches and collectibles are different. Standard personal property coverage caps those categories low, often a couple thousand dollars total, regardless of what your list shows. Your declarations page states your limits, and anything above them needs an appraisal and a scheduled items endorsement to be paid in full.
Without that appraisal and endorsement, a stolen ring or watch collection worth far more than the category cap still settles at the cap, no matter how good your photos are. That gap between what you own and what your policy would actually pay is worth checking now, against your own declarations page and against what other insurers would cover for the same items.
What to do with the inventory once it's built
Keep a copy where a fire or break-in can't reach both at once. Cloud storage handles this on its own, but email yourself the PDF too, or hand a copy to a relative who doesn't live with you. If the house burns down the same week it's stolen from, you want the list to still exist somewhere.
Update it when something changes, not on a fixed schedule. A new television, a ring you bought for an anniversary, a laptop that replaced the stolen one. Add it to the room it lives in and note what you paid. An inventory from three years ago is worth less every year it sits untouched, because it's missing whatever you've bought since and still lists things you no longer own.
For anything you plan to schedule, meaning jewelry, watches, art or instruments worth more than your policy's category cap, the inventory photo is a starting point, not the appraisal itself. An insurer adding a scheduled items endorsement wants a written appraisal from a qualified appraiser, usually within the last few years, with a stated replacement value. Keep that appraisal with the inventory PDF so both documents travel together. If the item's value changes significantly, a new appraisal keeps the scheduled amount accurate.
Receipts and bank statements matter more than people expect. A photo proves you owned something. A receipt or statement proves what you paid for it, which is what an adjuster uses to value a claim on items not separately scheduled. Where you still have the original receipt, scan it into the same folder as the room photos. Where you don't, a bank or credit card statement from around the purchase date works nearly as well, and it's worth the ten minutes it takes to find one for anything worth more than a couple hundred dollars.
What format and detail actually hold up in a claim
A spreadsheet works as well as any app for this, and it doesn't need to be fancy. One row per item, columns for room, description, purchase date, purchase price and where the photo or receipt for it is saved. Group rows by room so the PDF reads the way an adjuster will use it, room by room, matching what's in each photo to what's on the list. Export it to PDF last, after the spreadsheet is done, since a PDF is what you'll actually send and a format that doesn't change if you switch software later.
Video works alongside the written list, not instead of it. Walking through the house with a phone camera, narrating what's in each drawer and closet, catches things a room photo misses, the contents of a jewelry box, what's actually in the garage shelving. But a claims adjuster still wants the written inventory with values attached, because a video doesn't give them a number to work from. Film the video, then use it as a reference while you fill in the spreadsheet, so nothing in a closet or cabinet gets left off the written list.
Serial numbers matter for electronics and appliances specifically, more than for furniture or clothing. Many devices display the serial number on a sticker on the back or bottom, and photographing that sticker alongside the item ties a specific unit to your list, not just a model name that could belong to anyone. This matters most for a police report after a theft, since a serial number is what lets stolen property actually get matched and returned if it's recovered. Furniture and clothing don't have this, so a receipt or statement carries more weight for those categories instead.
Store the PDF with the same two-places habit as the inventory itself. A folder in cloud storage, a copy emailed to yourself, and if you keep appraisals for scheduled items, those saved in the same place. When a claim starts, having the complete file ready to send, rather than rebuilding it from memory while also dealing with a break-in or a fire, is what makes the difference between a claim that moves in a week and one that drags for a month over missing documentation.
Before you close this tab
Open your declarations page and find the personal property limit and any jewelry or valuables cap. Compare it against what your inventory just showed you own. If there's a gap, that's what a scheduled items endorsement is for.
