How to Create a Home Inventory for Insurance (Free Template)

A home inventory is simply a documented list of what you own — with enough detail that, if you ever needed to file an insurance claim, you could prove what was there and what it was worth. Most homeowners and renters don't have one, mainly because it sounds like a bigger task than it actually is.

What actually needs to be in it

• Item name and category
• Approximate purchase price and current value
• A photo — this matters more than any written detail
• Serial number or receipt, for higher-value items

You don't need to document every single item you own on day one. Start with the higher-value rooms and items, and add the rest over time — a partial inventory is still far better than none.

Go room by room

Working through your home one room at a time — rather than trying to think of "everything I own" all at once — is both faster and much less likely to leave gaps. Living room, then kitchen, then each bedroom, and so on. See our getting started guide for a full walkthrough of the builder itself.

Photos over spreadsheets

A spreadsheet can hold numbers, but it's clumsy for attaching a photo to each row. A tool built specifically for this lets you snap or upload a photo right next to each item as you go — which is both faster and produces documentation that's actually useful if you ever need it.

Build yours now, free

Contents Proof lets you build a home inventory by dragging rooms and items onto a visual canvas, attaching photos and receipts as you go, and exporting a clean PDF — free, with no account required to start. If your insurer is one of the larger companies, we also offer export formats matching their own published inventory guidance — see our State Farm and Allstate guides.

Keep it somewhere safe

Register a free account and your inventory is kept for a year, reachable from any device — not just stuck on whatever device or paper it started on.