Rebuilding your inventory after a house fire
A fire claim has a cruelty floods don't: often there's nothing left to photograph. The list must come almost entirely from memory and records. It can still be done well — here's how.
Your memory is better than you think — with the right prompts
Unprompted, most people recall only a fraction of what they owned. But memory isn't a filing cabinet; it's associative. The right questions unlock it:
- Walk spatially. Mentally stand at your front door. Enter each room. What did you see first? What was on each wall? What sat on each surface? Open each drawer in your mind, left to right.
- Walk your routines. Make your morning coffee — what did you touch? Cook your usual dinner. Do laundry. Get ready for work. Each routine touches dozens of items.
- Walk the calendar. Thanksgiving: what came out of storage? Christmas: decorations, the good dishes? Summer: coolers, beach gear? Every holiday has objects attached.
- Walk each person. Every household member is their own inventory of clothing, hobbies, electronics, and gear. Do them one at a time — kids' rooms especially.
Work in multiple sessions over days. Memory returns in waves, usually at inconvenient hours; keep the list where you can add to it at 2 a.m.
The records you still have (even if the house is gone)
- Your phone and cloud photos — the single richest source. Years of pictures with your belongings in the backgrounds.
- Retailer order histories — Amazon, Walmart, Target and others keep years of purchases; export or screenshot them.
- Email receipts — search "order confirmation," "receipt," and "shipped."
- Bank and card statements — flag big-ticket purchases and furniture/electronics retailers.
- Real-estate listing photos of your own home, if it was ever listed — often still cached online.
- Friends' and relatives' photos taken at your house — ask; people are glad to help.
What the insurer expects on each line
Description, quantity, approximate age, pre-loss condition, and today's replacement cost. The insurer applies depreciation to compute actual cash value and pays that first; replacement-cost policies typically pay the withheld depreciation after you actually replace items and submit receipts — so keep replacing and keep receipts. Details in our ACV vs RCV guide.
Bulk lines are accepted for like items ("men's shirts, 22, average $45"). In several states — California notably — insurers must accept grouped inventories for similar items after a total loss; check your state's rules.
Special limits to know about
Standard policies cap certain categories per loss — commonly jewelry, watches, furs, firearms, silverware, cash, and sometimes collectibles. List these items regardless (the caps are per category, not zero), and check your declarations page for scheduled items you may have forgotten you added years ago.
The scale of the job — and pacing yourself
A full household inventory typically runs 250–450 line items and takes multiple sessions. That's normal. Don't submit a thin list to get it over with: the difference between a 100-item list and a 350-item list is routinely tens of thousands of dollars. Check your policy's proof-of-loss deadline, calendar it, and work backward.
The faster way
Recount runs this entire method with you: it extracts items from every photo you can find, then interviews you using the spatial, routine, calendar, and per-person walks above — and prices everything into a carrier-ready spreadsheet. Flat $199, never a percentage. Built by someone who's stood where you're standing.
See how it works