Shed House & Shed inventory For Insurance Purposes

[Chris Parks]

See my comments above re G Drive.

[codeMunk3y]

Your drive is linked directly to your email, getting rid of the email removed the files. This is no different to the calendar, YouTube, google+ and Play account that are all attached to it as well.

[Chris Parks]

My point exactly. If you are unaware of this problem you lose access to the files which were created in the G Drive native format so excel cannot open them for instance. As far as I know the files are still there.

[codeMunk3y]

You can export Google Doc spreadsheets in a variety of formats including excel and CSV. I'm advocating it to store a copy, not the copy.

[Chris Parks]

You can export Google Doc spreadsheets in a variety of formats including excel and CSV. I'm advocating it to store a copy, not the copy.

I understand what you are saying and appreciate any input but...if you can't access a file you can't convert it to anything and there are snags that are not always apparent. I had two GMAIL addresses and I expected to be able to access the files using the remaining address and sign on but that is not the case. I am not the only one who has been caught in this way either and
I am just giving a general heads up on one issue that I encountered as some people may rely on it and not have a back up copy in another format. For those that have a Bigpond account Telstra now give 3 gig to account holders free of charge. I like the concept of cloud for small files that should have an off the premises copy and I have switched to the BP version for now. I suppose most ISP's have a similar system?

Back to the original problem. I have found a template for Open Office which looks promising and will start on the task as soon as I can get time. It is backed up behind a number of other jobs but it is something that can be done at night when I could be sleeping. Wives have a habit of making job lists I have found. If anyone doubts that they should do a similar thing, sit down one night and itemise everything in your shed and house from memory and see how many things you miss.

[Stewie D]

All good advice from above.
For the last five years I've been using Home Inventory 2.3 on my Mac and it is very easy to setup and use. It cost me $30 at the time and I think it is for Windows OS as well
In each file I usually ...
Scan the original sales invoice or if I paid cash note how much I bought it for
Note the serial no.
Take a picture or two of the item
Note any distinguishable marks, engraving or paint etc

These are for all items over $100 like a watch or camera for instance.
Smaller stuff just gets lumped into household goods
I have separate folders for
Household goods
Tools/workshop.
Camping gear/sports goods.
Vehicles
For the workshop I've taken out extra insurance and lots of photos of collections of handsaws, chisels, planes etc laid out on a table.
I keep a copy of this plus a few other important folders like photos etc on a separate external hard drive at my neighbours place.

Anytime I buy something new I add to the folder and then update the other external HD once a month.
Once you have set it up it is easy to update.
A lot of this I know you could just lump into general contents insurance especially the smaller stuff but I use it also as a sort of database and as a general reference.

Stewie