I purchased Q home inventory prob a year ago worked with it probably two times and gave up.. the program is so bare bones, so elementary. I couldn't believe it. You will have to jump through ten hoops to accomplish what you should in 2. I could not believe the Quicken put out such an inferer product

You could check with your homeowner's insurance company to find out what kind of documentation they require. We had our insurance company come to do a risk management assessment. There wasn't any fee for this and the representative was a specialist in evaluating the home - not only for replacement cost but also to see what could be replaced, repaired or otherwise improved to reduce risk. The agent took precise measurements and many photographs - especially of those items that were of higher value - custom cabinetry, window treatments etc. He also noted which features we had that lessened our risk and which also enabled us to save money on our insurance policy - alarm system with 24/7 monitoring, smoke and heat sensors, low temperature sensors, whole house generator, proximity to a fire hydrant and fire station, automatic water shut-off in case of a leak, age and condition of roof etc. The agent also suggested that we take photos of the interiors of the closets and cabinets - he didn't need it for insurance purposes but he said it could be helpful to the homeowner in case of loss. Items of high value such as jewelry, artwork, wine collection etc. should have appraisals and listed as scheduled items on your insurance. He also said you could video your entire house. Start outside and pan the exterior and then walk inside and go through the entire house - opening closet doors and cabinets. The advantage of a video is that you can narrate as you walk "this is the Monet we bought in Paris last year" or this is my son's collection of rare dominoes" etc). Make several copies or put them on your computer so that you can access them remotely. You could do the same with your receipts. One project that I'm in the process of updating is a record of all our bank and investment accounts, credit cards, insurance policies, emergency contacts etc - all those things that you might need in case of an emergency. The last time I did this I made copies and put one in my safety deposit box and gave one to my attorney.

I'm going to slightly disagree with lazy about the GIMP. It's free, but it still looks and functions like software designed by a committee. If you have Pshop experience, yeah, you can learn it fairly easily, but the documentation is absolutely terrible for people with no photo editing experience. She's right that it's very capable, though. But it's free, so you might as well try it. If you have a mac, try the GIMP derivative Seashore. It doesn't do exactly everything GIMP does, but it's easier and also free. I used to write books about Pshop, more specifically Pshop Elements, but these days I mostly use only Affinity Photo. If you have windows I don't know how the windows version is, since I only use it on the mac side. They have superb documentation on their site, alas for me (no book opportunity there). If you really want to grapple with PS or PSE, the free trials are here: http://www.adobe.com/downloads.html But these days I'd say that PS is easier to use than PSE, unfortunately. PSE is all junked up with useless clutter now and many of the tools don't work as well as they do in full PShop.

I've done a little experimenting with outs, but not much because I don't want to confuse myself with test cases, so there may be more ways to do things which I haven't found yet. You can use either a standard search box or a bar code scan to look up an item in inventory. Then you tap the item and from the detail screen can adjust the quantity. I think this kind of stepped system, while less fun to use, is probably good for getting it right. There's also a "finish" button for removing the item when it's all gone, and the slider where you can indicate how much of your 10 lb. bag of flour, for example, you've used. It makes the top of the photo in the inventory listing transparent congruent to the slider so you can tell at a glance. There are also buttons on the detail page for "spoil" and "restock". Your entries are also listed in a timeline so if you want to check what you stocked in from a particular shopping trip or canning session, it's there. The spoiled list does as well (and you can undo there, for an accidental tap). I think Finished just disappears the item. You get 200 items capacity free, 2000 items for $12/yr. and 10K for $30/mo. Given the photos and all, I think this is very reasonable. Restock lets you add the item to a shopping list, of which you can have multiples you name. Finish clears the item from your inventory making room for something new. There are a number of powerful tools. I think just getting in the habit--including all your household members (yes, it syncs across devices)--of recording your outgoes is harder than actually doing it. You could also just save up the empties and make the adjustments during cleanup. I don't think I'll use this for fresh foods, though maybe frozen. Perhaps fresh staples like yoghurt if I end up using it a lot for shopping. I think I'm more likely, however, to use the inventory for info to create a shopping list, rather than rummaging around the pantry, and still rummage in the fridge. OTOH, if one kept it pretty well up to date, it's a great tool if you're in a store and can't remember what you have. Even better if you split the shopping duties. One can add things to the list while the other is out, and there isn't that whole didn't you get my text, we need milk, thing. :)