INSURANCE · NEW ZEALAND · 3 MIN READ
Home contents inventory: a room-by-room NZ checklist
A room-by-room checklist for a NZ home inventory — what to photograph, what to record, and the spots everyone forgets: garage, wardrobe, kitchen drawers.
A home inventory is a list of what you own and roughly what it would cost to replace it today. It helps you estimate your contents sum insured, show what you owned if you need to claim, and keep track of things when you move.
Here's the method. It takes a weekend, and most of that is the garage.
What to record for each item
For most things, two things are enough:
- A photo. One clear photo per item or group of items.
- A rough replacement value. What it would cost to buy the equivalent new today — not what you paid for it. See the valuation notes below.
For electronics, add the serial number. For anything genuinely expensive, add a receipt or valuation if you have one handy. And don't itemise every t-shirt: group cheap clothing as "wardrobe, approx $X" and move on.
Room by room
Living areas
TV, sound gear, gaming consoles, furniture, rugs, books, art, ornaments. Curtains often surprise people — note them.
Kitchen and dining
Appliances, cookware, good knives, dinner sets. Add the pantry contents as a group, and the chest freezer if you have one.
Bedrooms
Furniture and mattresses. Clothing grouped by person. Jewellery and watches — itemise these individually and note if they're worth more than a few hundred dollars, as policies often treat them differently.
Bathroom and laundry
Washer, dryer, towels and linen (grouped).
Garage and shed
Tools, mower, bikes, camping and fishing gear, the ladder you forgot you owned. Open storage tubs and photograph the contents — nobody remembers what's in them.
Everywhere else
Hallway, linen cupboard, roof space if you store anything up there. And if you own a bach, it usually needs its own contents cover — do a separate list.
The forgotten zones
Almost every incomplete inventory misses the same five places: the garage, the shed, the wardrobe, the kitchen drawers, and the freezer. Budget an hour for these and you're ahead of most people.
Valuing older stuff
Your sum insured should reflect replacement cost today, not the original price. Quick ways to check: the current retail price of the nearest equivalent model. If you’re estimating second-hand value, look for comparable sold listings. Aim for honest but not stingy — you want a figure you'd be comfortable defending to an assessor, in either direction.
Done beats perfect
A complete-enough list is dramatically better than no list. If you only have a couple of hours, do the 30-minute version first and come back to the details.
Keep it in one place
Mynestvive holds your inventory, values and records together and turns them into a passport report you can hand to your insurer, a buyer, or attach to a claim. See current pricing.