Public Servant Lifestyle

Many victims of burglaries realise they have only a vague idea of the contents of their own homes once they are asked to provide a list.

Despite insurance policy details, the police and victims often find themselves with no comprehensive list of any missing material.

Widely held private collections of records, CDs, videocassettes and DVDs should all ideally be catalogued. The same is true of tools, valuable coins, medals or stamps. It is often the case that an accumulation of any such items - aside from having great sentimental value - also builds up a surprisingly high replacement value. These are often the things that people do not think to specifically insure, but realise after they have been stolen represent an enormous cost to replace.

Additionally, accumulated collections of this nature are often only nominally covered by broad household contents insurance.

Clearly it is impractical - not to say a little paranoid - to label every individual item in your home. However, the creation of a comprehensive list of what you actually own - and of makes and serial numbers - can potentially help the recovery and replacement of stolen goods. Perhaps doing such a list might also make you reconsider insuring those items that you may have so far overlooked.

More information available in Ideas, Home Security, Your Home