Friday, May 22, 2009

Insurance Pics I

A week or so ago, Child and I finally got renter's insurance. Along with that, we decided to take pictures of all our belongings. I found a webpage that talked about taking pictures for insurance purposes to see if there were any tricks I should know about, but there was nothing particularly difficult about it. The webpage did have a few suggestions, however, one of which was, "Set aside several days for the process."

Child and I laughed at that. What sort of mansion did they think we were living in? I decided to start with pictures of my office, and Child went downstairs to make dinner. "Come down when you're done!" she said.

An hour later, my camera battery died, I was only halfway through my office, and I was no longer laughing. I was starting to realize that this was going to be a long process. I couldn't just snap a few pictures of the room and call it good, I had to pull out each individual item or set of items and arrange them on the floor, then take the picture. I also realized that there was a definite downside to storing my life in banana boxes instead of on easily-accessible shelves.

126 pictures and a day later, I was finally done with my office. Only seven rooms and our backyard to go! Fortunately, I think the office was the hardest room; it definitely has the largest collection of (expensive) objects since it holds my electronics, camping gear, and tools.

I really saw the need for the pictures, however. Pulling stuff out of the boxes, I was finding stuff I didn't even remember I had, and things I would have never remembered owning after the trauma of a fire or theft or something. That expensive graphing calculator I havn't used since graduating from college? That propane lantern I haven't used since getting a battery-powered one? The raincoat?

No comments: