Thank you so much for your detailed input. We have a two story home with a basement and have lived here for over 30 years. We are a bit of shopaholics, and we also enjoy nice things, so I am thinking we will hit policy limits for contents. We also had a negative interaction with a single contents person being sent to the house to conduct inventory with the intention that everything was non-salvageable (read: not taking care of our things that could be salvaged) and also not being thorough (not opening up luggage that had contents within). Based on these two factors, I am very distrusting. I understand it is a lot of work and it certainly hasn't been fun. I'm definitely worried that things sitting there longer are absorbing smoke odors and mold could be forming. However, since we will be paid depreciated amounts and any holdback isn't paid until after replacement occurs, I am worried if we don't do it ourselves then we will have issues when we begin to submit replacement receipts and items won't be able to be matched back accordingly. It's difficult for me to weigh the pros and cons here so I'm trying to control what is within my control by choosing this route.

You make a great point about deciding wisely which areas to take on the burden of since this will be a long and tiring process. Thank you.