Options for protecting your décor items: Home insurance

The walls make the home secure, the décor is an expression of your personality. It can take some time to build up a nice collection of pieces - both functional and decorative - that overall, create the ambience that to you means home; some time, and of course money. It makes sense to protect your investment, so what is the best way to do this?

Home insurance policies are designed for just the purpose, and the market is full of literally thousands of them. The key to finding the home insurance policy that presents the best value for money for you is to have an accurate picture of exactly what it is you own, and the replacement value of these goods. This second part is the crucial factor – it is not what you paid, but what it will cost to replace your antique lamp or mirror that is the key detail. In terms of the former point (making an itinerary of what you own) there is now free help available with this online. Home insurance providers like Legal & General offer a home contents survey wizard, which uses a virtual tour through a house to break the task down into manageable pieces. See their website for a quote on home insurance.

Once you have a reasonable idea of the value of your possessions, you can use comparison sites to find the best deal, given your circumstances. If you don’t get the first two tasks right, you are in jeopardy of either underinsuring , or over-insuring your household goods – and neither of these situations is a happy one, should an expensive mishap occur.

If you own several high value items, underinsuring is a distinct hazard, and you may need to look for specialist insurance, as there is commonly an upper limit on the value of single items that can be included in the cover provided by a general home insurance policy. Again, the internet can be a good place to research this, with several popular advice sites providing valuable pointers.

There is always the option of self-insuring – that is, putting aside savings to be accessed in the event of damage. This option has the advantage that you, and not the insurance company will accumulate money over time – that is, barring misfortune. The question really is, do you feel lucky?