Is there a FOSS program where I can inventory my high value items in case there is an insurance claim?
I was thinking of the item, the picture of the item and serial number, maybe the UPC, and then an attachment of the receipt.
I’m guessing some kind of database that integrates file attachments per item.
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So I’m an insurance agent who has also been through a house fire personally. Any of the options people have suggested here would be fantastic and far better than what most people have, which is nothing.
What I suggest to my clients is to make a video once or twice a year walking through your house, inside and out. Video makes it less likely to miss a small detail that turns out to be important later than pictures, but pictures are also helpful. Insurance aside, it’s kinda fun to look back and see how things have changed through the years. I like to do it around Christmas.
Ideally that would be in addition to a spreadsheet or something with receipts and serial numbers and individual photos of specific items, but that’s a lot of work and hardly anyone keeps up with it on a consistent and long-term basis.
Whatever you end up doing, it’s useless if the only copy is stolen, burned, or sprayed with a hose. This is one thing I keep with a major cloud provider with a local backup. At the very least, make sure you have an off-site backup that’s reasonably up to date.
Definitely don’t forget about Christmas decorations. A decent Christmas tree is at least a few hundred. My wife has the Hallmark Hogwarts Castle and all five characters that go on the tree. I checked them on eBay and they sell for around $650.
Sounds like Homebox would fit your purposes.
This looks amazing. I’m going to try it out
Looks aight but I consider it overkill for my needs. I have my own system which is just creating a note titled ‘YY-MM-DD Desc/Model’ when I purchase something and adding compressed images & scans of the label/serial, sometimes packaging, user guide, etc.
I then just print a dymo label for the product, components, cables, and spare parts using the note title so I can search the date and pull it up if I need. Makes dealing with a mountain of cables and power adapters much easier. I never pull something out of storage and go “what the fuck is this” anymore.
Testing and tagging USB-C cables is especially helpful, too. They usually have no indication of what speed or power they can handle.
To be honest, would a spreadsheet not be a good use for this? There are FOSS asset trackers, but a simple .ods with a pictures column might serve you well. Are there additional features/conveniences you are looking for?
I was thinking of doing that, but I don’t think it would handle attachments gracefully. I also don’t want to inflate it to a 100gb document with all of the attachments.
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Don’t sleep on the video walk through, it can be truly invaluable.
Agreed… with a timestamp on the video this was the best advice I had after a housefire.
Maybe consider paperless-ngx.
Its primary purpose is document management, but you can easily upload receipts and pictures as well. I use paperless-mobile to interact with my instance.
Could Snipe it work for you? https://docs.linuxserver.io/images/docker-snipe-it/
It looks like an asset management tool. The description copied and pasted from above reads:Snipe-it makes asset management easy. It was built by people solving real-world IT and asset management problems, and a solid UX has always been a top priority. Straightforward design and bulk actions mean getting things done faster
Snipe it is hardcore overkill for this need. I started using it a couple weeks ago since I have lots of tech, but it’s made for large businesses, or multiple businesses. Technically yeah one can use it, but it’s cumbersome and a bit frustrating to get started/figure things out.
I want to add a smart coffee maker? Okay I’ll just get the serial and - oh I haven’t entered this model before, lets add it. Oh I can’t, because I haven’t entered anything by Honeywell yet, time to back out and add all the details of the company. Now lets go back and enter that serial again. Now we can add the model details. Let’s grab a photo. Oh, the fucking system has a known issue that it limits uploads to 2MB? And adjusting it in docker doesn’t work even though it should? Let’s stop the container and go into the damn host filesystem to edit the php file that has the solution you will only find on a github discussion from 5 years ago. Now start the container and add an asset and enter the serial and set the model and set the company and upload the picture and why does the warranty length box only take months and I need to mark it as ready for deployment and holy fuck it’s taken 45 minutes…
And no, none of this was hyperbole. Once I know these stupid quirks, 5 minutes to grab data and enter, but shit especially the filesize issue, 5 years and no fix? Oh and guess what you’ll be searching for online after watchtower pulls an update and you forgot to note that fix in the docker-compose file? Mmmhm, that fix gets overwritten with every update.
What would be a better alternative in your opinion?
I tend to keep things simple. I’ll keep a folder with high value items listed in their own sub folder.
I’ll keep a copy of the receipt; photos of the serial number and UPC; depending on the item, I’ll have photos of it; and a text document with the warranty period listed.
It’s easy enough to find the right folder when I need it. And since it’s rare that I’ll need to retrieve this information, I don’t put any more effort into it than that.
Yeah, if we focus on high value items, it becomes much simpler. But what if there’s a disaster like a fire? One shirt is too cheap to worry about but having to replace all your clothes is expensive, so what’s a practical way to inventory that?
Looking at my home automation stuff, really the only expensive thing is my smart thermostat and it’s nit that expensive. However all the devices add up to several thousand dollars.
Maybe there’s a sense of type and volume or something, and video or photos, that would be sufficient to inventory everyday stuff
Actually, I’d also wonder how far insurance “replacement value” stretches. So many things I got on close out deals where the nearest remaining similar brand is several time the price
I’ve never been in a situation where I needed insurance to replace all my stuff, and hope I never do.
My priority are lives (people, pets, etc.), and data that can’t be replaced.
The high value items are important to replace, because I couldn’t afford to replace them all at once.
For stuff like clothing, if I had to replace it all, I’d probably take the minimalist route and get the bare minimums. I’d probably prefer that, even if EVERYTHING could be replaced.
