Photos of special belongings

Of jewellery, a work of art or a watch you take a photo and you put it in the life file, together with the place where the object is. A drawer, a safe, a sofa, or with a person whose name and telephone number you note. The photo shows which object you mean, so that later it is not confused with another piece that looks like it. Add the date of the photo. A photo from five years ago can show a piece of jewellery you have already given away. Update the line when the object moves or leaves the house. One clear photo per object is enough. A series of almost identical images does not make the folder more useful.

The photo is not a valuation. You do not write a value next to it that you hope for or that you remember from earlier. An amount without a source is an invented price, and that does not belong in the file. If there is a proof of purchase or an insurance paper, you note where that paper is, not which amount you want to read out of it. Later someone can lay those papers next to the photo. Until then the value stays empty. The life file shows that the object exists and where it is. It does not establish what it is worth and it does not allocate it to anyone. A name next to the photo is the keeper or the place, not an heir.

Think about who can see the photo. Invited readers see what you share. A precise hiding place for a valuable piece is unsafe in a wide circle. Then do not write the drawer or the bottom of the cupboard, but that the trusted person knows where it is, with the name and number of that person. The photo may stay, without directions. That way a reader does not find the object without that person, and that person does know that the photo exists. If the piece moves to a safe, you change the line and you remove the old place. An old place that remains is a pointer that is no longer correct.

A life file is a note for later. It is not a will, not a medical instruction and not advice. A photo points to an object and a place. It appoints no heir and no executor and it is not a codicil. A codicil has its own, strictly handwritten form. The photo in this file is not that form, not even if you put a name next to it. Ervazo stores the photo and the line and does not send them to a notary. Whoever later wants to know what the piece is worth needs a source outside this note. Until that source is there, the amount stays empty.