What’s the best way to make the most of your insurance dollars and protect your belongings in case of an emergency or disaster? Create a home inventory of everything you own.
According to the Insurance Information Institute, the home inventory will help you to:
• Purchase enough insurance to replace the items you own.
• Get insurance claims settled faster.
• Substantiate losses for income tax purposes.
To make the task easier, the Institute created “Know Your Stuff – Home Inventory Software” available as a free download at www.knowyourstuff.org. The software lets you store digital photographs along with your list of possessions. You can burn a copy of the information on a CD or print out a room-by-room document and store either in a safety deposit box or other secure location.
Here’s good advice: Make it fun by getting the family involved. Have your kids help out by opening closets and drawers and listing the contents. At the same time you can clean out any unwanted clothes and donate them to organizations such as the Big Brothers Big Sisters or the Kidney Foundation of Hawaii.
If you encounter any old computers which are still operable go to www.opala.org which lists several organizations that will accept donations of electronic equipment.
