Building a Contents List After a Fire or Water Loss

What a Contents List Is, and When You Need One

A contents list is a room-by-room record of what was damaged or destroyed, built after a loss rather than before one. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) describes it as one of the standard pieces of information an insurer asks for when a claim is opened, alongside contact information and policy details (NAIC, “Navigating the Claims Process: Recover & Rebuild”).

If a pre-loss home inventory already exists, building this list is mostly a matter of marking which items were affected and to what extent. If one doesn’t, this guide describes how to reconstruct the list from what’s in front of you.

What to Record for Each Item

Following the same structure used for a pre-loss inventory, NAIC’s guidance is to record, for each damaged or lost item: a description detailed enough to identify it, the brand and model where applicable, its age or purchase date if known, its original cost, and its condition before the loss (NAIC, “Navigating the Claims Process: Recover & Rebuild”).

Work room by room rather than trying to remember everything at once – it’s easier to be thorough about one space at a time, and it mirrors how the eventual list will likely be organized.

Photograph and Video Before You Move Anything

Photograph or video each item, and each room generally, before anything is cleaned up, thrown away, or moved. III’s guidance for building a home inventory in general applies just as directly here: a photo with a written description, or a narrated video walkthrough, both work (III, “Making a Home Inventory”).

If an item is a total loss, it’s still worth keeping the damaged remains where practical rather than discarding them immediately, so they can be inspected if needed – though check with your insurer first about anything that poses a safety or health hazard.

Organizing What You’ve Gathered

Once photographs, video, and a written list exist, the practical next step is assembling them into a single package: the inventory or list of damaged and lost property, photos and video, any receipts you can find, and your own contact information and policy details (NAIC, “Navigating the Claims Process: Recover & Rebuild”).

A spreadsheet works well for this – one row per item, with columns for description, room, estimated purchase year, original cost, and a note on condition. It doesn’t need to be elaborate. What matters is that everything is in one place and legible to someone who wasn’t in the room when the loss happened.

Keep a Record of Every Conversation Too

Documentation isn’t only about the property. Consumer Reports’ guidance on filing a claim after a storm recommends keeping a written record of every interaction with your insurer as well: staying in contact by email or text so there’s a record of the conversation, and keeping notes on missed appointments, unreturned calls, and what was discussed on each one (Consumer Reports, “How to File a Homeowners Insurance Claim After a Storm”). If you pay for emergency stopgap repairs yourself – boarding up a window, a tarp over a roof – keep those receipts too; they typically become part of the claim record rather than a separate expense you absorb (Consumer Reports, “How to File a Homeowners Insurance Claim After a Storm”).

After the List Is Built

From here, the list becomes part of the record you provide to your insurer as the claims process moves forward. This guide covers how to build the list itself – the record of what existed and what happened to it. It does not cover, and this site does not offer, guidance on how a claim should be evaluated, negotiated, or valued; that’s a separate question from documentation, and one this content deliberately stays out of.

Building the Habit Going Forward

A contents list built after a loss is harder to make complete than one built before – memory fades, receipts get lost along with everything else. Once the immediate situation is handled, it’s worth starting a standing home inventory (see our home inventory guide) so the next list, if there’s ever a next time, starts from a record instead of a blank page.