Published 2026-09-14 by Unified Public Advocacy · Part of the Fire Loss Resource Hub
The short version
A contents inventory is a room-by-room list of the personal property damaged or destroyed by the fire. The adjuster will ask for one. If you do not have a pre-loss inventory — almost nobody does — you build it from memory, from photographs you already have, and from what comparable items cost today.
Each line needs four things: what the item is, in enough detail to price it; roughly when you got it; what it would cost to buy an equivalent one now; and whether it was damaged or destroyed. Everything else is optional.
Do not discard damaged items before they are on the list and photographed. Once they are gone, the line is very hard to support.
- Go room by room, not category by category.
- Describe items specifically enough to price: brand, size, material, age.
- Use current retail listings to establish replacement cost.
- Photograph damaged items before they leave the property.
- Ask your adjuster how long you have. There is usually more time than you fear.
Why this list matters more than it looks
The building side of a fire claim gets estimated by professionals with software. The contents side gets built by you. That asymmetry is why contents is routinely the most under-claimed part of a fire loss — not because insurers refuse to pay, but because the list submitted is shorter than the house actually was.
Open any drawer in your home and count what is in it, then multiply by every drawer, shelf, closet and cupboard you own. Whatever list you can write from memory in one sitting is not a list of everything you owned; it is a list of everything you remembered in one sitting. The remedy is not heroic recall, it is method.
Work room by room, and go around the walls
Take one room at a time and walk it mentally in a fixed direction — start at the door and go clockwise around the walls, then the middle of the room, then up, then down. Ceiling fixtures, rugs, what was under the bed, what was on top of the wardrobe.
Then open every container in that room in your memory. Closets, drawers, cabinets, toy boxes, filing cabinets, the linen cupboard. Contents inventories fail on the contents of containers far more often than on furniture — nobody forgets the sofa, and almost everybody forgets the four drawers of clothing next to it.
Do not skip rooms that did not burn. Smoke and soot residue travel, and water used to fight the fire moves through the structure. Items in untouched rooms may still be damaged.
- Around the walls, then the floor space, then up, then down.
- Every closet, drawer, cabinet and box, one at a time.
- Garage, basement, attic, shed, and anything stored offsite that was in the home.
- Consumables people forget: pantry food, cleaning supplies, toiletries, batteries, light bulbs.
- Clothing counted properly — by garment, not by wardrobe.
Rebuilding the list from what you already have
Most people have far more evidence of what they owned than they realize, and none of it was created for this purpose.
Photographs are the biggest source. Years of phone photos taken inside your home show shelves, rooms, furniture and possessions in the background. So do photographs held by family and friends who visited. The NAIC specifically recommends reviewing photographs to help build the list when records are gone.
Then come the transaction records, which survive the fire because they were never in the house: card and bank statements, online order histories, email receipts, warranty registrations, subscription and service records, and photographs of gifts posted to social media.
- Your own phone and cloud photo library, searched room by room.
- Photographs held by family, friends and anyone who stayed at the property.
- Online retailer order history, going back years.
- Card and bank statements for larger purchases.
- Email receipts and warranty or product registrations.
- Video from doorbell cameras, pet cameras or home videos.
What each line should say
Write each line so that someone who has never been in your house could price it without calling you. A line that says lamp is not priceable. A line that says brushed brass floor lamp, about five feet, bought new roughly 2021 is.
Age matters because of how claims are valued. Under a replacement cost policy the insurer typically pays the depreciated value first and the rest after you replace the item, so age is part of the arithmetic rather than a detail. Under an actual cash value policy, age is the arithmetic.
- Room the item was in.
- Description: what it is, brand or type, size or capacity, material, color.
- Approximate age or purchase year.
- Approximate original cost, if you know it.
- Replacement cost today, from a current listing for a comparable item.
- Quantity.
- Damaged or destroyed.
Pricing replacements honestly
The standard is a comparable item — like kind and quality — not the cheapest thing that performs the same function, and not an upgrade. Search current retail listings for an equivalent item and record the listing you used.
Keep the evidence of the price alongside the line: a screenshot or a link. The single most productive habit in a contents inventory is recording where a number came from at the moment you write it down, because reconstructing that six weeks later takes longer than writing it did.
Where an item is genuinely irreplaceable or unusual — handmade, antique, collected, professional equipment — say so on the line rather than guessing a number. Those items may need separate treatment, and some policies carry specific limits on categories such as jewelry, firearms, art or collectibles. Check your declarations page.
Getting through it without giving up
This is a long job done at the worst possible time. A few practical things help more than motivation does.
Work in short sessions, one room per session, and stop when the recall starts thinning rather than pushing on. Do it with someone else who lived in the house or visited often — two memories cover far more than one, and saying items aloud triggers more than staring at a spreadsheet does.
Keep a running unsure list rather than stopping to resolve every question. Items come back at odd moments for weeks; keep a note open on your phone and add them as they surface.
And ask the adjuster how long you actually have. People rush and truncate the list because they assume a deadline that may not be there. NAIC guidance is that the adjuster gives you time to make the list — the honest answer for your claim comes from asking.
If items have already been discarded
Sometimes the cleanup happened before anyone said not to. That is recoverable, just weaker.
Write down what was removed, when, by whom, and where it went, as soon as you realize. If a restoration or debris contractor removed it, they may have their own photographs, load lists or disposal records. If food, drink or medicine was discarded for health reasons, note that it was discarded on health grounds and when.
Questions to ask your adjuster about contents
- How long do I have to submit the inventory?
- What format do you want it in, and is there a template?
- Does my policy pay contents on a replacement cost basis or an actual cash value basis?
- Are there per-category limits — jewelry, firearms, art, collectibles, business property?
- What do you need in order to release the depreciation held back on items I replace?
- Is there a separate limit for property that was not in the home at the time?
What goes wrong
- Listing by category instead of by item. One line for kitchenware turns a real loss into a number someone else gets to guess.
- Discarding items before they are listed and photographed.
- Skipping rooms that did not burn.
- Forgetting the inside of containers — drawers, closets, boxes, the garage shelving.
- Pricing from memory of what something cost years ago rather than what a comparable item costs now.
- Not recording where a replacement price came from.
- Rushing the list because of an assumed deadline nobody confirmed.
Related on this site
Sources
The factual statements on this page about insurance claim practice, fire recovery and mortgage handling come from the primary sources below. Where something depends on your specific policy or on the law in your state, this page says so rather than generalizing.
- Post-Disaster Claims Guide
National Association of Insurance Commissioners - Checking Your Home After a Fire
American Red Cross - Publication 584, Casualty, Disaster, and Theft Loss Workbook
Internal Revenue Service - What You Should Know About Settling a Homeowners Insurance Claim
National Association of Insurance Commissioners