Homeowners insurance can be an invaluable protection in the event that your home suffers a disaster, but most people only consider protection of the physical structure. While structural problems can be costly to fix, only using homeowners insurance for that purpose will cause you to miss out on some of the stronger protections. This is because homeowners insurance also covers the value of the items within; but that protection only extends as far as you have items well-documented.

A recent article on the Equifax Finance Blog, “

How to Create an Inventory for Homeowners Insurance” explains how to make the most of the protections offered to the items within your home:

Create a list – going room by room, make a list of all items in the room and an estimate of their value. You can generalize and group items as you go for large groups of items like clothes, books or media. With unique or valuable items, make sure that you are as specific as possible, including details (like make, model, serial number and anything else).

Document the items visually – match the list with photos and videos where available. These can be as simple as ones taken from your camera phone. It is best if you keep these in order with your list in a room-by-room fashion. Take extra pictures of valuables from multiple angles.

The Equifax Finance Blog has more information about how to keep your valuables protected, including stopping

online identity theft and more. To start learning the power of personal finance, head to Blog.Equifax.com!