Comparison
The best way to keep a home inventory
"Home inventory" sounds like a big, dutiful project. In practice it is one small question you ask over and over: where did I put that thing? The right tool is simply the one that answers it without becoming a chore you quit. Here are the four people actually reach for, compared honestly.
The quick answer
For a one-time list, such as an insurance record you build in an afternoon, a spreadsheet is fine. For something you keep adding to over months, the deciding factor is how long a single entry takes. Anything that makes you type breaks down past a few dozen items. A dedicated app wins by removing the typing: photograph, auto-name, done.
| Notes app | Spreadsheet | Photos folder | Remio | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time to add an item | Type it | Type it | One tap | Photo, auto-named |
| Finds it later by search | Text only | Clunky on phone | No | Yes |
| Where it lives (room, box) | Manual | Manual | No | Built in |
| Warranty & expiry reminders | No | No | No | Yes |
| Photos of each item | Awkward | No | Yes | Yes |
| Works offline | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Private, no account | Usually | Depends | Yes | Yes |
| Best for | A short list | A one-off record | Visual proof | A living inventory |
A notes app
Free, already on your phone, and perfect for a handful of things. The trouble starts as the list grows: every item is typed, there are no reminders, and a wall of text is hard to scan when you are looking for one cable. Great for "winter tyres, garage shelf." Not built for two hundred items across a house.
A spreadsheet
The classic insurance-record tool, and genuinely good at that: columns for value, date and serial number, easy to total up. But it is the least pleasant to use daily. You type every row, there is no photo or reminder, and editing a sheet on your phone in the garage is a fight. Most people build one after a burglary scare and never touch it again.
A photos folder
Making an album in your photo library is the fastest way to capture what you own, and the pictures are real proof for insurance. Its limits are that a photo has no date you can act on, no location, no reminder, and no search beyond whatever your gallery guesses. You end up scrolling through hundreds of images to find one.
A dedicated home inventory app
This is the category built for the recurring question rather than the one-off list. A good one removes the friction that kills the other three: adding an item is a photo, not a typing task, and everything is searchable, placed in a room or box, and tied to a warranty date.
Remio, if you want the app version
Photograph a thing, its AI names it, you say where you put it, and later a search takes you straight to the spot. It reminds you before a warranty ends or a lent item is forgotten. Everything stays on your device, there is no account, and it speaks nine languages. Free to start.
Get Remio on the App StoreHow to choose
- One-off insurance list? A spreadsheet or a photos album is enough.
- A few things you keep losing? A note works today.
- A whole home, a move, or a growing collection? A dedicated app pays for itself the first time you find something in a tap instead of an hour.