List of Stuff

Sometimes it's necessary to go into more detail than usual about what things each person gets to keep and which debts each person is supposed to repay. We normally just say that husband keeps the stuff in the place where he lives, and wife keeps the stuff in the place where she lives. But, if the parties intent to live in the house together after the divorce is final until the house sells, then sometimes it's necessary to go into great detail about who gets what.

Not a spreadsheet

I say repeatedly that I do NOT want a spreadsheet. They usually only make sense to the person who drew them up, they have much more information than I need, and they're not arranged in a way that makes it easy to put the information into a Final Decree of Divorce.

Information not needed

I don't need to know where you got the sofa, what room it's in, how much you paid for it, how much it's worth now, or why you should get it. I just need to know that when the house sells, you get to keep the sofa.

Accordingly, on the list of stuff you get, I just need the word "sofa". Unless there are two sofas, in which case I need "red sofa" on your list and "blue sofa" on your spouse's list. Unless there are two blue sofas, and then I need "blue leather sofa" on your list and "blue cloth sofa" on your spouse's list.

Be careful not to share

If you used a regular spreadsheet (which I tell you not to do), the temptation is to put "pots and pans" and then under the column for Husband you put "half" and under Wife you put "half". If you're not using a spreadsheet, you can put "half the pots and pans" in each of the lists, but that probably means that the provision in the Decree will not be enforceable. That is, it'd be very difficult to prove to the judge that you didn't get half the pots and pans. Better practice is to award Husband all the Farberware and to award Wife all the Revereware.

Here's a word processing document you can use

If you must list stuff in more detail than the paper Workbook I gave you allows, please open the document below, save it to your computer, fill it out, and then email the document to me whenever you send me the Workbook. It's an .rtf file, which nearly any word processing program should be able to open easily, especially Microsoft Word.

Please don't add spaces, numbering, or other information, as it'll just make it more difficult to put into the divorce decree.

Click here for the word processing document you may revise and email back to me.

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