Have you ever had your home burglarized and lost everything? I have and I can tell you it sucks something fierce. Everything I ever worked for was gone. What the thieves didn’t want, they broke. I didn’t’ have a physical copy of my inventory for insurance purposes.
I had a big, heavy TV that was too big to carry away. They threw a hammer through the screen. When I say I lost everything, I mean it. It has lasting effects too. It’s been about 4 years and I still freak out if I don’t remember locking my door. My house was locked up tight, but that doesn’t matter. I’ll still walk back to my apartment, up four flights of stairs, to check my door.
Keeping inventory is great for insurance purposes. I didn’t have a physical book, I kept everything on my computer, laptop, iPad, and external hard drive. The latter two were hidden well, I thought. Nope. So I had no copies of my items. I had to find email receipts, call companies and have them mail me receipts, and go to a lot of stores to get what I needed for the insurance. It didn’t add up to much. For all my losses, I got about $15,000. Replacing my camera and lenses took half of it. I couldn’t afford to replace both my desktop and laptop, so I got a really good laptop. I’m typing on it right now – about 5 years later.
The worst of it though, was losing my daughter’s baby pictures. I know it’s been 5 years because my daughter was just a few months old when this happened. The only baby photos we have of here are the ones uploaded to Facebook.
If I had a physical copy of everything I would have got a lot more from the insurance company. But there was too much I couldn’t prove. So with this journal I’ve included inventory pages with a space for photos. Photos are great for showing the condition of items. The insurance companies will not pay full price unless you can prove there’s no wear and tear. That’s a problem I had with my camera and lenses. They were all in prime condition. I was a Navy photographer, I take excellent care of my equipment. They were locked up in a safe, by the way.
I was reading a post in a Facebook group a few days ago. A guy lost everything in a fire, it was pretty sad. He said he’d prepared for everything, except a fire. You’ll want your inventory log kept in a fire proof safe with all your other important documents.
Here is what I’ve included in this journal and inventory log book:
- There are lined pages for writing whatever is on your mind at the moment. Each of those pages has a box for doodles or notes.
- There are inventory pages to keep track of what you have and a place for a photo of the item(s.) This is a great place to put receipts (or copies of receipts) as well.
- It has a page for your rotation schedule. When do you rotate your water? What about your food bars and MRE’s? Write it down and know, all in one place for convenience.
- There are “To Do” list pages so you can always stay on track.
- The “Weekly Plan” pages also help you stay on track of your life and your prepping goals. If you’re not a big writer or you’re a new prepper, no worries. The weekly plan can easily be a monthly or bi-monthly plan. It’s your journal, set your own pace.
Prepper Journal and Inventory Log Book
The journal also lets you keep track of what you have, what you want, and what you need. A written plan is a solid plan.
Not having my stuff written down cost me thousands of dollars. The insurance companies are not going to help you and will do everything they can to pay you as little as possible. Don’t let that happen. Whether you buy this journal and inventory log or not, keep a log. Don’t add insult to injury.
