A home inventory you can actually finish

Why the usual approach stalls

A blank spreadsheet asks you to be a cataloguer. For every single thing you own you look up the model number, find the serial plate, guess what it would cost to replace, decide which column it belongs in, and type all of it with your thumbs. It is not hard, it is just relentless, and it stops being worth it somewhere around the fourth kitchen appliance.

What Asset Fox changes

The data entry is a photograph. You walk around the house taking pictures - the whole thing, then a close-up of the rating plate where there is one - and each photo comes back as a filled-in record: what it is, who made it, the model, the serial number, the room, a replacement value and a category. You correct what it got wrong, which is usually nothing or one field.

Photograph the receipt as well and the date, the shop and the price you actually paid go on the record too, and that price replaces any estimate. A receipt is evidence; an estimate is an opinion.

What you end up with

• A register you can sort by any column and search by serial number, room or shop.
• Totals by category, which is the shape an insurer wants them in.
• A PDF of any of it, to hand to a broker or keep off-site.
• Specification fields for computers - processor, memory, storage, graphics - read off the photo where the picture shows them.
• A warning the month before any warranty runs out, with the receipt, the photographs and the manufacturer's support address already on the record.

Where to start

Not at the front door. Start with the five most expensive things you own, because those are the ones an insurance limit will bite on, and because five finished records is a working inventory whereas half a hallway is not. Then do a room a week.