If you’re anything like us, your stuff isn’t just stuff, it’s memories, passions, hobbies, expertise, and joy. It means something, and it’s worth something to you. We’d be pretty upset if anything happened to ours.

We’re from Southern California, too, and like all of you, we know way too many people that it’s happened to over the last four decades: fires, earthquakes, flooding, burglary; take your pick. We also knew that when it happened, the worst was yet to come: the mad scramble, the waiting, the negotiating, the pleading, and the shock of the final number. It gives all of us anxiety just thinking about it.

And even then, it still took us years to take our broker’s advice and document our home’s contents, starting with shooting videos on Carl’s iPhone. Simple, right? 

Uh…no, it wasn’t. At first, the videos were blurry, we inadvertently left a bunch of stuff out, and after six months, we still hadn’t completed a ledger of any sort. It was hard to start, but utterly impossible to actually finish. Suddenly, the idea of ensuring our recovery turned out to not be as simple as pulling out an iPhone.

After a moment of feeling kind of dumb, we asked our friends and family if they’d had the same experience with this critical task. Almost universally, “Um…yeah, we should do that.” A few said, “Sort of? It’s far from complete…” A brother-in-law, “Oh, of course, I keep the serial numbers in a spreadsheet…” And then his wife: “But my wedding china/expensive kitchenware/book collection doesn’t have serial numbers...” her voice rising with anxiety. So nobody seemed to agree on anything except, “Uh…well, not really. No.”

The truth is that not only has the entire process of recovery not improved much, if at all, in the past few decades, but having photo and video in all of our pockets hasn’t made us any better at it. If anything, the idea of it has only become more overwhelming.

We used our backgrounds in technology and specialty photography to make our own inventory less painful. After we finished it, we thought, okay, that wasn’t so bad. In fact, that was actually…sort of pleasant? There is a better way to do this. Most people just wouldn’t know what we know already. We could actually help someone with this.

Statistically, the worst could befall any of us, but we’d really rather it not be you, our friends and neighbors. The least we can do is help you quickly and easily secure all the facts so that if it does, you can get on with your recovery that much faster.