What an insurer actually asks for
A claim adjuster is not trying to take your word for it — they need a record that would convince a stranger. In practice that means three things per item: evidence it existed and belonged to you, evidence of its condition, and a defensible basis for the value you are claiming. A photograph covers the first two at once, which is why photo-first inventories hold up so much better than spreadsheets typed from memory.
Photograph it properly, once
- One clear overall shot of the item in good, even light — no flash glare across the front.
- One close shot of anything that identifies it: serial number, hallmark, signature, edition number, model plate.
- One shot of any existing damage. Documenting a scratch now stops an argument about whether it was there before.
- For anything boxed or papered — receipts, certificates, original packaging — photograph those too. They are often worth more than the item to an adjuster.
- A wide shot of each room as a whole, which catches the ordinary things nobody itemises until they are gone.
Write down what a photo cannot show
Photos prove existence and condition; they say nothing about provenance or price. Alongside each item, record where and roughly when you acquired it, what you paid, and where it lives in the house. Purchase price is not the same as replacement value, and most policies pay one or the other — knowing which yours does before a claim is the difference between an inconvenience and a loss.
Start with the expensive corners
Do not try to catalogue the whole house in one evening; that is how inventories get abandoned half-finished. Start where the value is concentrated — electronics, jewellery, tools, instruments, and any collection you have been quietly building for years. Collections are the classic underinsured category, because their value accumulated slowly and the policy was never revisited.
This is the job samla.ai was built to shorten: photograph an item and the analysis identifies it, fills in the details that matter for its category, and estimates a market value with comparable listings behind it. Everything is filed by building, room and shelf, so the finished record reads like the house rather than like a spreadsheet — and paid plans can export the whole thing when you need to hand it over.
