I'm sorry to hear that happened. I am preparing for that exact scenario (we live in an area with wildfires), which is what brought me to that link. Did you have any trouble being reimbursed? Did they cover everything? How long did it take?
Our insurer was State Farm. Much to my surprise--we've all heard horror stories--they were great from beginning to end.
For small items under some threshold, we just had to identify them for reimbursement and provide a recent or current price; for more expensive items, they wanted a receipt, photo, or some kind of proof. Since we buy so many things from Amazon, its CSV allowed us to handle, say, 80 percent of our recent miscellaneous purchases in one fell swoop. For the other stuff, providing documentation took all of a few hours. And the insurer covered everything, without any hassle or dispute. When we got around to submitting claims--which took a few months, due to the press of work--reimbursement followed in a couple weeks.
We had some very unusual and expensive things--high-end audio equipment, artwork, and custom-made suiting--that were either damaged or destroyed, and the insurer never blinked an eye.
If you're preparing for this kind of thing, probably the easiest and most useful thing to do is to walk around your home and just photograph things. It was surprising (to me) how many possessions I simply forgot about in the aftermath until some event or need triggered a recollection.
Thanks, that's extremely helpful. Did you have any issues with things that you couldn't find a receipt/invoice for? I have some items that I can take a picture of now to prove that I own, but I bought them in person years ago, and can't find a receipt for them.
