Dividing Personal Property & Household Items in a Divorce

One of the most common areas of settlement in a divorce is with relation to personal property and household items. The items are often specific to the individual or it is possible to reach an agreement on how to split everything up.

Because of this, a lot of divorce decrees or settlement agreements will include language along the lines of “Husband and Wife are to keep all of their personal effects and personal property currently in their possession which they have previously divided.”  So how do you go about dividing and valuing your personal property and household items?

Keeping Your Private Possessions

When you are going through a divorce you usually keep the items that are yours individually. For example gifts, hobby items, clothes and jewelry are often items of a personal nature and it wouldn’t make sense for your spouse to keep those items.

Dividing What is Left

There are also other things like kitchen utensils, furniture, and other household items that would need to be divided. I would recommend making a list all the items that you own jointly and then go through the list item by item and see if it makes sense for the item to go to one or the other of you.

Determining the Value

I would also go through and assign a value of everything over an agreed amount, for instance $100 or $500. You can then go through your list and assign a fair value of each item.

Considering the Balance

After you have divided everything up, it may be that you split it 50-50, or one party took more than the other. You can use the values you set to determine if the property distribution needs offset by some other marital asset that will be included in the divorce.

Unable to Reach Agreement?

If you can’t reach an agreement, maybe you could agree to sell the item and split the proceeds, or you can proceed to court and request that the judge determine who should get the item.