Who gets what: documenting your belongings for inheritance
The hardest part of settling an estate is rarely the law — it is standing in front of a house full of things nobody can explain. A documented inventory spares your family that. Here is how to make one.
At some point, someone will stand in your home and have to decide what happens to everything in it — without you there to explain. The ring that was your grandmother's, the tools that were worth real money, the painting that was only ever a print. Most of the conflict and most of the loss in settling an estate comes not from the law but from that guessing.
What a will does not do
A will settles the big questions — the house, the money, the shares. It almost never lists the contents of a drawer. Formal rules for wills and estates differ by country, and nothing in this guide replaces proper legal advice. But in every jurisdiction, the belongings themselves are where families end up guessing: what exists, what it is worth, what it meant, and who it was meant for.
An inventory fills that gap. It is not a legal document — it is the record that makes the legal process, and the family conversations around it, far easier.
What to record, and for whom
Document your belongings for the people after you
Start with what would be missed
Not everything needs documenting. Start with the things that carry value or meaning: jewellery, watches, art, instruments, collections, tools, heirlooms — and anything with a story that only you know.
Photograph and describe
A photo, a clear description and a realistic value. For valuables, attach appraisals or receipts — they settle questions of worth before anyone has to argue about them.
Write down the story
Where it came from, who owned it before you, why it matters. This is the part no one else can reconstruct, and the part your family will treasure most.
Assign who should have it
Item by item where you have a wish, and say why. A written note next to the thing is worth more than a remembered conversation — and it is easiest to write while nothing is urgent.
Share the record
An inventory nobody can find is no inventory. Make sure the people who will need it know it exists and can open it — today, not only afterwards.
The practical dividend
The same record serves the living. A shared household inventory means your partner knows what the tools in the garage are, where the warranties are and what the insurance should cover — long before anyone has to settle anything. And when the time comes, the executor's first task — list everything and value it — is already done.
Where iTems fits
iTems is built for exactly this quiet job: share a collection with family — read-only or editing, with every change landing on everyone's devices in real time — then turn on inheritance and assign heirs item by item, each with an inheritance note for the story and the wish. The inheritance overview report groups everything by heir, with values if you want them, so the hardest conversations are already half-had.
Write it down while it is easy to say
Free to download — start with the ten things that matter most.
