Inventory management isn’t just a task that is important for businesses to do. Every household has valuable items in it. Do you know how much your possessions are worth? There are many reasons to make sure you know that figure, and it is possible to use free software to help you determine what it is. Call it home inventory software or whatever you please – the point is that it can help you keep track of all of the items in your home at no cost.
Let’s first discuss five reasons to use a home inventory system and then go on to identify the best solution.
INSURANCE CLAIMS
Homeowners insurance often covers many of your prized belongings. Jewelry, clothing, footwear, electronics, appliances, hand tools, and pieces of art are all things that should be tagged and identified for insurance purposes. What if something happens to them, such as a burst pipe or a visitor accidentally damaging something? Part of the claims process involves determining the value of the property you are seeking reimbursement for. We’ll delve deeper into how to do this in the Theft section.
NATURAL DISASTERS
In the case of a flood, hurricane, tornado, earthquake, tsunami, or other natural disaster that completely destroys your home, you may qualify for insurance money to not only cover the cost of rebuilding your home, but also of many of the contents that were in your home when it was destroyed. This can be a great benefit when it comes to picking up the pieces and rebuilding your life after such a devastating calamity.
THEFT
When items get stolen, they can be practically impossible to recover. This is especially true if the criminals are smart and cover their tracks well by leaving the state or selling your stolen property on the black market instead of online or to a pawn shop where a paper trail can lead back to them. To combat this, you should get some sort of home inventory app on your smartphone or tablet and go through your belongings one by one. Record their names, descriptions, serial numbers, costs, and pictures so that they are easily identifiable. You may even want to take pictures of the receipts for their original purchase. Even if you can’t get your property back, all of this information will help you submit a claim to your insurance company if you ever get robbed.
INHERITANCE
Setting up a last will and testament allows you to leave an inheritance to your children after you die. Not everything can be divided up as simply as a pile of cash, though. You will likely have special belongings and heirlooms that you will want to give away to certain people who will benefit the most from them and take care of them. Maintain a record of everything you own to make sure you will be able to appropriately bequeath each item to your offspring when the time comes.
PERISHABLE GOODS
You don’t necessarily need to take inventory of your household goods in case of death, theft, or disaster. You can even do it for purely mundane reasons, like making sure you are cycling through your food before it reaches its expiration date. Many people maintain food storage and water storage for emergencies so that they have something to subsist on while they wait for electricity, running water, and other utilities to return. But even the best food storage items don’t last forever, so it is a good idea to make sure you know when they will go bad so that you can consume them before that time and replace them with new items.
BOXSTORM IS A HOME INVENTORY SYSTEM
Boxstorm Free is a no-cost online inventory solution that is a great tool homeowners can use to keep track of all of their possessions. You will never pay anything to have a Boxstorm Free account, and you can use it to identify and monitor as many items as you like. You can scan an item’s barcode to instantly pull up information on it, update inventory quantities, and create multiple units of measure. If you have items in more than one house or in a storage unit in addition to your house, you can use Boxstorm to track inventory in all of these locations.
More advanced features, such as expiration date tracking and serial number tracking are available in Boxstorm Premium and Boxstorm Ultimate. But if you’d like to keep it simple, Boxstorm Free is a great option. Sign up for a free account with Boxstorm today to start taking inventory of your personal assets so you’ll be ready for any eventuality.
TL;DR SUMMARY
Boxstorm Free offers homeowners a no-cost home inventory system. Taking inventory of your personal assets is important because it lets you accurately tag, identify, and value all of your expensive items in the event of:
- Insurance claims
- Natural disasters
- Theft
- Death and inheritance
- Cycling through perishable goods