Welcome! This section of the Lists of 42 is a doozy – fifteen separate lists all having to do with the heart of our homes – the kitchen! In this section, these fifteen house inventory lists are organized starting with the furniture and fixtures in your kitchen followed by kitchen basics and expand from there to include the following:
42 Furniture and Fixtures in Your Kitchen
42 Kitchen Basics for Your New Home
42 Cooking Essentials for a Well-stocked Kitchen
42 Must Have Kitchen Utensils
42 Baking Essentials
42 Nice-to-Have Kitchen Supplies and Equipment
42 Nice-to-Have Kitchen Gadgets
42 More Nice-to-Have Kitchen Gadgets
42 Even More Kitchen Gadgets
42 Still Even More Kitchen Gadgets
42 Pantry Essentials
42 Spices to Have on Hand
42 More Spices to Have on Hand
42 Refrigerator Essentials
42 Freezer Essentials
These household inventory checklists of kitchen items do not repeat things in the other lists and are meant to supplement and enhance each other. And while this may seem like too much detail for you in creating your own house inventory, I’ll share with you what my insurance adjuster told us – we had to include everything down to the last toothpick!
Nine of these lists are all about kitchen utensils, gadgets, and cooking essentials laid out in order of importance to me! That doesn’t mean they are in the right order or any kind of order, just that when I created these lists I used my past experience from my numerous shopping trips to furnish our two separate homes (our rental while our destroyed house was under construction and then our new home – see “Why Did I Start Creating House Inventory Spreadsheets?” below for more details).
Here’s a tip: click here for the best value – The Complete Book of Lists: Room-by-Room Checklists or Your Household Inventory Projects – $10.00 for all 75 lists!
This all-in-one book not only includes all things “kitchen,” but also incorporates these other parts of your home:
- Main Areas
- Bedrooms and Bathrooms
- Laundry, Cleaning, and Storage
- Bonus Areas and Extras
- Home Office
- Holiday
- Garage and Storage
- Garden and Outdoors
You’ll have the complete set of home inventory templates at your disposal in one book for easy reference.
Why Did I Start Creating Household Inventory Spreadsheets?
A wildfire swept through our valley In October 2007, burning our home to the ground. Known as the Witch Fire, this catastrophic fire was a life-changing event in our lives. Five years later, I was emotionally ready to share our experience with others so I wrote a series on this blog which you can read beginning here: Any Way the Wind Blows.
The first week of our evacuation we spent in a hotel (which we were lucky to find) with pretty much just the clothes on our back and our cat, Coco. he second week we moved into a family member’s spare bedroom. The third week we moved into a rental condo. And, each time we moved, we moved with just the stuff we had when we evacuated.
So, when we moved into the condo, we had practically nothing. The good news is that the previous tenant had left furniture behind and when the landlord told us it would take a few days to get the place cleaned out and ready, we asked her not to – we didn’t have any furniture and would appreciate any furniture left behind. And that first night in the condo, our condo neighbors loaned us sheets, blankets, and towels – a kindness we have never forgotten.
A few days later, when I did start to shop to furnish our rented condo with the basics, it was trip after trip after trip to various stores. I’d fill up my car until it was full and then had no choice but to go home and unpack it before I went out again.
What did I buy on my first shopping trip, then my second shopping trip, then my third shopping trip, ad infinitum? It was overwhelming, but I started by buying only what we needed, which included some of the kitchen basics outlined in 42 Kitchen Basics for Your New Home and groceries. For example, I didn’t buy a food processor until I decided I needed one, which turned out to be years later.
Are you working on your own home inventory project or wanting to start one? Whether as a proactive project to create a record of your personal belongings or as a reactive task for an insurance claim because of a catastrophic loss, kitchens are a great place to start because they can be quite detailed, so getting through this section of your house inventory will give you a great sense of accomplishment.