Disaster recovery is not just for businesses

It seems like this is the season for thieves to be out in force, so it's a good time to make sure your insurance company has current information about your valuables in the case of theft, or accidental destruction.  One tip that my insurance agent gave me is to keep a current list of my valuables, including pictures. 

This is a good idea, but I started thinking about what to do with the list and how to make sure it stayed current. If your list is on your computer and that gets stolen, you're out of luck.  If you keep a hardcopy list with your jewelry or money, well, that could take a walk as well, or be destroyed in the case of fire or flood. 

The best idea is to have a copy offsite somewhere. Since I'm backing my computers up on the SWCP BUS service I just created a new directory with my valuables list and pictures. Now if I get something new I just need to add it to the list, take a picture and put that in my directory.  The directory automatically gets backed up when it changes and my list is offsite, complete and safe. And since I'm using the encryption option for the backups, the offsite list isn't readable by anyone else.

A safe deposit box would work for this as well, and is still useful for certain hard-to-replace documents (birth certificates, stock certificates, your offsite backups encryption key,  etc.)  But keeping the list up-to-date can be tedious if it requires a trip to the bank each time.  My offsite backup solution makes it easier (and thus more likely that I will follow through to keep the list and photos current).