Home Insurance Item Tracking

Surely this has been done before, and there are likely services that will take itemize and take pictures of the everything in the house.

This could be a web app with decent functionality (user account, upload item pics, add tags to pics, track the value of items, upload copy of the insurance policy, potentially share the itemized list with insurer or cut a CD and mail to document a claim). While the functionality covers a few areas, it is limited and wouldn't threaten unending feature creep.

Costs would be development, marketing, and hosting. Monetization would be ad serving and potentially a fee to cut a CD/DVD.

Common mistakes
One common mistake homeowners make: Failing to record the contents of their home.
"One of the first things you need to do is make sure you keep track of all of the things you have in your home of value. You should keep lists, take pictures, do videos, because when there's a claim, the insurance company is going to want to see what it is in fact you're claiming for. A lot of people don't do that," he said.
Also, "keep the receipts for expensive items," he said. "That makes the whole process with the insurance company easier and a lot of people don't do that as well."

January 22, 2007:
unloseit.com charges to store serial numbers. Finders can enter serial numbers and claim rewards. "You can register any item which has a serial number."

=======================================
20071029
...
Also, for those who have evacuated, policies often have coverage for reimbursement of living expenses after the home is left; find out if yours does, and keep the receipts of those expenses. Read more advice at the Insurance Information Institute's Web site.
If possible, Long recommends homeowners grab their insurance policy and related documents before evacuating in order to easily communicate with the insurer. And keep careful and detailed records on the various losses you've suffered, he added.
...