Use Photographs, List To Make Inventory

Now I know why I never bothered to compile a household inventory.

Since college, I’ve lived in five houses and 10 apartments, and never once took the time to list all the stuff accumulated over the years. Several insurance agents have told me to make a list of all my possessions, handing over forms to make the job easier.

Twenty-five years of procrastination was supposed to end last week, when I finally sat down to compile my inventory.

“Set aside a morning or afternoon to do a thorough job of listing all your belongings, systematically, room by room,” advised Barbara Taylor, author of “How to Get Your Money’s Worth in Home and Auto Insurance” and the former vice president of the Insurance Information Institute in New York City. Photograph everything, she advised, adding that serial numbers are important, as is the price and date of purchase of each item. Although most people won’t gather all this information, it’s important to get as much as possible, Taylor said.

Fine. At 11 a.m. last Saturday, I got a camera and a legal pad and got to work. The idea was that I’d spend four or five hours doing this long-delayed chore, and use that experience to write a story explaining what the job is like. To warm up, I got all the camera gear I’ve collected over the years and started there.

I spread all that stuff over my dining room table, took a photo of the whole mess, then wrote a detailed list of all 38 items, including serial numbers. When the job was done, I was surprised to see it was 12:30 p.m.

Clearly, I needed to move faster, so I photographed all parts of my kitchen, then listed 21 of the biggest items, making no effort to write down the serial numbers, purchase date or price. That took until 1 p.m.

Moving even faster, I photographed the living room, listing 23 items ranging from the sofa to my CD player. That took until 1:30 p.m., when the batteries in the flash went dead.

After installing fresh batteries (and eating a sandwich), I resumed the job at 1:45 p.m. By this time it was obvious that doing a detailed inventory would take days. I abandoned the list, simply trying to photograph everything. Even here, I ran into trouble in places like my daughter’s room, where the camera recorded only the top layer.

The photography went on until 2:15 p.m. After investing three hours and 15 minutes of very tedious work, I have a five-page handwritten list and 42 photographs.

In retrospect, it might be more reasonable to photograph everything, then go back and tackle the inventory one room at a time. My new plan is to get back to the job in the next month or so.