Then review the list and sort it into four categories – yours, theirs, both and not wanted. Once you have a list of all the items regarded as marital property, then you can go through the list and identify all the items you’d like. According to Mitchell, if we were unable to come to an agreement and did end up going to court about the painting, the court would be more likely to award it to me because of the familial relationship. When we were separating, we both wanted the painting. My father, for example, gave my husband and I a painting as a Christmas gift one year. The same is true for gifts from your family to you as a family.” Mitchell says, “The rule of thumb is, if you received the item as a gift from your spouse, then the court would be more likely to award it you. These would generally be items that you brought into the marriage and items you received as gifts during the marriage. You’ll want to segregate from this list any items you regard as separate property. It’s often sufficient to describe items collectively, such as “Mandy’s office supplies” or “gardening tools.” Separate Property You don’t need to go overboard on the detail – you don’t need to itemize every single piece of glassware or flatware. However you’ve decided to approach this challenge, you need to go from room to room documenting all the items that aren’t personal to one person. Professionals can also help with creating an inventory for a vacation home or where individuals don’t have sufficient time or emotional wherewithal to do this. If there is a restraining order against one party, that party is not going to be able to enter the property and they may not have enough trust that their spouse is going to accurately inventory all the items. There are some situations which call for the assistance of a neutral third party. Could one of you accept responsibility for coordinating it or could each of you take responsibility for specific areas of the house such as the kitchen, the garage or the basement? Mitchell says there’s no one answer but it is best if you can agree on an approach. If you were approaching this logically, from a project management perspective you’d put one person in charge of coordinating this but in the normal chaos that comes with divorce, discussions about dividing the household items can tend to be disorganized with one party focusing on some items, the other party worried about some other things and a whole bunch of things that no one’s thinking about. You can listen to the episode or … keep reading. Carrie Mitchell of TWS Inventory is one of these experts and she shared her insider tips with me in this interview on Conversations About Divorce. The good news is that you don’t have to figure out how to be smart about dividing your household items – plenty of people have done it before you and there are experts who do this daily for a living. The fees for lawyers and/or mediators could easily outweigh the value of the item and by the time the issue is resolved, you may have been able to purchase a duplicate, maybe even two or three. Regardless, one thing we all need to remember is that for the vast majority of us, it is never worth arguing over these items in court or even in mediation. There’s no emotional attachment and they’re ready to walk away from it all.įor others, it’s more challenging – there are particular items they really want and some that their STBX really wants and they may overlap.Īnd for some people, it’s more about what’s equitable but even that can be a debate. That’s the furniture, the stuff in the garage, your hobby items, the kids’ toys… you name it, it all has to be divided except that most of it can’t just be cut in half and even if it could, you’d likely end up with a bunch of stuff you had no interest in.įor some people, this is easy. One thing that every couple who gets divorced has to do, is decide how to divide all the household items.
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