It may be time to review your home insurance policy if you haven't looked at it lately. The Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC) suggests that during spring-cleaning or before a move are ideal times to make sure your home has enough insurance coverage. You should have enough insurance to cover rebuilding costs for your home if it is destroyed. Remember that this amount isn’t the same as your home’s market value or its tax assessment value.

But what about your home’s contents? You probably have a lot of electronic items and valuable furniture, but what about antiques, jewellery, original artwork, clothing, coin, stamp or baseball card collections among other things? You may have many items that can’t be replaced easily. Some more treasured or valuable items may need optional additional insurance coverage.

The first step in insuring your belongings is to complete an inventory of your home’s contents and take photos or video of all your belongings. The IBC recommends keeping bills, receipts, warranties and instruction manuals of your most valuable possessions, which can serve as proof of ownership. Write down the model and serial numbers of electronic items. 

You can find a free downloadable inventory checklist at http://assets.ibc.ca/Documents/Brochures/Personal-PropertyInventory.pdf.

IBC advises that this list, along with records of credit cards, taxes, government and other household documents, should ideally be stored in an off-site location. It’s also important to keep your home inventory up to date. If you buy something new, get into the habit of adding it to the inventory list.