individually, with my digital camera and put it on a CD. I was always going to,
> but didn't, so I spent about 8-9 hours listing and more than that checking
> prices on the 2 lists.
I have film in my camera that needs to be finished. Now I know what to use it on.
I do have an Excel spread sheet listing all my tool purchases since I started woodworking, but not other tools I've accumulated over the years.
Also a good idea to take photos of the rest of the house and contents. Then store the CD in a safe place or at a relatives house in case yours burns. Ed snipped-for-privacy@snet.net
Great advice Charlie, I started doing this on regular film years ago as I suspected that proving to the insurance company that you actually owned the items that you claim would probably be harder than agreeing to their value. The beauty to pictures is that you can still claim items that probably should have made it to the last garage sale or been thrown out.
Excellent advice, Charlie. I have a MS Access database in which I have placed all the information I have saved. I have kept track of everything over the last 20 years of woodworking so the information in that database is quite interesteing to go back over and look at. I was supplementing it with a narrated video for visual proof but I am planning on adding a photo field to my database so that each field has tool info and a picture.
By the way, if anyone wants to download the DB file I use (if you have MS Access), there is some information and instructions, plus links to the files, below. I have made it available to anyone interested to promote recording purchases for insurance purposes.
Yes! I left that out, figuring we'd all know not to leave it in the place it recorded...but, hell, I didn't even have sense enough to take the pictures!
Charlie Self
Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child. Dan Quayle
Don't forget to do the same for your computers. Take a snapshot or video-tape of the boot sequence so you can prove that Gig of DDR RAM and 2 GHz CPU and 80 Mb harddrive.
With a current backup off-site? Or will your spreadsheet disappear in a fire, too?
Aboput 5 years back we were on vacation at the inlaws' when a small forest fire took off. We were just outside the evacuated area, but were on 10 minute notice with hot ash fallling on the house. I took about
400 photos with the digital camera, and put one copy in our car, one in MIL's car, and one in MIL's purse.
Went over the entire property... opened drawers, closets, everything including the exterior of the house, the property showing trees and shrubs, outbuildings, etc.
JB, this is one of those really good pieces of advice I never though about. A snapshot of the boot sequence! What a good idea....
If you are trying for snapshots and can't catch the data in time, or if you have a computer made by a manufacturer that likes to put their logo on the screen instead of the boot information, you might try hitting "del" (or whatever the key is on your computer, it varies somewhat) during boot to go into setup. You can flip through the setup information here and get some of the same information.
Also it works better to catch this information on a reboot than on a cold boot, because often, by the time the monitor warms up it's already past the good information.
And finally, there is an item (typically found in Control Panel> System>
Hardware) known as "device manager" that can show you all of the hardware and drivers installed on your computer. This can show you even more information than the boot process because it tells you sound cards, network adaptors, mice, etc. It also might give you more information like the manufacturer, etc. for bits of hardware that the boot process might not show you.
I've got a program...let's see if I can find it. Not on my download stuff, but the program itself is Belarc Advisor. It was free, and can probably be easily googled. It tells you everything you want or need to know about your machine, plus some.
Charlie Self
Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child. Dan Quayle
In windows xp, (prolly 2000 and 2003 too) , our buddy bill provides msinfo32.exe to do this for us.
As for the pictures, great idea. However, it's not a couple of hour job. To get full value, insurance companies would like to see recepts. (oh well, i have most for my WW tools but nothing else) The pictures are good but only show that you had a picture of some object. It better to include some unique object with it, with your name, address and phone, specific object info like serial number, model, etc. too. If you can register the object(s)/device(s) with the manufacturer all the better. If your insurace company refuses you'll have a next level of ownersip evidence. Like most of you, I have a large investment in my tools in addition to household items. A few years ago, I added up the replacement values and it was more than the insurance company would have allowed. I'm still in the process of getting sufficient riders to cover. What a great pita.
Or, even easier, use a video camera and go through the house and open every drawer, every closet, garage etc. Shoot everything and narrate while you're at it. Dub a couple of copies and keep one at work, one in a safety deposit box, etc.
One could even just upload the pics to their ISP for the offsite aspects.
Another thing - don't overlook the amount of cash sitting in our wood stock. Don't really know how to set a value at any given day, but it is property that has worth.
I have digital pictures of nearly everything of value we own (Tools, Jewelry, Computers, TV's etc). I also created an index that lists the description of what is in each picture along with the model and serial #'s. This is burned to CD's about twice a year, and always after a major purchase. I also have a file that has the receipts for almost everything I have pictures of (Some things you can't get receipts for, like stuff you buy at garage sales etc.) This information makes its home in a safe deposit box. I just hope the bank doesn't burn down. HA!
Yes, it's a PITA, but when my shop/garage got broken into and several hundred dollars worth of tools, bicycles and my lawnmower got ripped off, the insurance company couldn't dispute anything.
Excellent, but what I'm talking about is the non-valuable stuff, all the low cost clutter of our lives that we don't know how to get along without. How many handkerchiefs do you have and how much did each cost? Things like that. Couple dozen hankies can run 40+ bucks (way more for people who buy top grade fancy stuff I can't afford). That's not much, but if you multiply that by the contents of your sock drawer, your underwear drawer, your shirt drawer, add in
3-4 pair of pajamas, look at your belt rack and tie rack and so on, you'll see many, many hundreds of dollars, quite possibly over $1000. How many pair of Reeboks do you have? Then toss in your spouse's slinky things drawer contents--that doesn't sound quite right, does it? Ah well. It may beat saying, "Add your wife's skivvies," or not. Stockings. Bras, nightgowns, slips, all sorts of stuff.
Like most people, I don't keep receipts for that kind of thing, nor do I have more than a rough idea of how many of each I have. So I have to be gentle when presenting the stuff to the insurance company. I may be SURE I had 40 pairs of socks of different kinds, but I'd bet I could only list 20 or so (I don't have to, because I lost only a few pair, those in the basement awaiting washing).
Even a quick photo of the contents of that drawer would be a big help.
Once we're back in the house, we go through and shoot everything. Then, into the garage and the same. I may do that first, as it's undamaged, but packed to the walls. Then down to Bedford to shoot stuff there.
And list all I can, with receipts where available. The photos I'm OK with. The listing is not my forte.
Charlie Self
Republicans understand the importance of bondage between a mother and child. Dan Quayle
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