INSURANCE · NEW ZEALAND · 3 MIN READ
The 30-minute home inventory: a starter method for busy households
A 30-minute home inventory method for busy NZ households: video each room, photograph your ten most valuable items, note the serials. Done beats perfect.
You know you should have a record of your stuff. You've been meaning to. Here's the deal: 30 minutes today gets you most of the value of a full inventory. You can refine it later. The other option — a perfect inventory that never happens — gets you 0%.
Grab your phone and a timer.
Minutes 0–5: the video tour
Walk through your house filming every room with your phone camera. Open cupboards and drawers as you go. Narrate as you film — "this is the lounge, the TV's a 55-inch Samsung, that's the good couch..." Your running commentary is doing the work of a written list.
Film the garage and shed too. Two of those minutes are for them.
Minutes 5–15: your ten most valuable items
Stop and photograph your ten most valuable things properly — one clear photo each. Furniture, electronics, jewellery, instruments, the bike. For each one, jot a rough replacement value: what it would cost to buy the equivalent new today. If you know where it came from or have the receipt nearby, note that too.
Minutes 15–25: serial numbers
For electronics, bikes and quality appliances, photograph the serial number label. It's the single most useful detail when a claim involves anything common — TVs and laptops especially. Ten or twelve photos and you're done.
Minutes 25–30: put it somewhere safe
Get it off your phone:
- Email the video to yourself or upload it to your cloud drive, and
- File the photos and serial numbers in Mynestvive (it stores photos and PDFs), where they sit alongside your values and house records as part of your passport report.
A record can help you explain what you owned if you need to claim.
Then set a repeat
Once a year — renewal time is a handy reminder — do another 30-minute pass and add anything new. A 30-minute habit beats a heroic weekend you only do once.
When you're ready for the full version
The room-by-room checklist walks you through a complete inventory with current values, which is also how you get a sum insured you can actually defend: see how to calculate your contents sum insured.
Keep it in one place
Mynestvive files your photos and serial numbers alongside your values, and turns them into a passport report you can hand to your insurer, a buyer, or attach to a claim. See current pricing.