Home inventory video for insurance: how to film it well

A home inventory video is a slow walkthrough of every room with closets and drawers open, labels shown up close and valuable things named out loud. Space Context turns that video into a room-by-room list of what you own, with each item’s location and condition, and links every item to the original frames it came from, with their time in the video. Keep the original video somewhere other than your home, update it once a year, and ask your insurer what documentation they expect.

In short

• Insurance regulators recommend keeping a home inventory, and a video is the quickest way to start one.
• Film room by room, open storage, hold labels in frame for a second, and say what things are.
• Space Context lists items with quantity, location, condition and brand or model when readable, each with its evidence frames and timestamps.
• It does not value your belongings or replace receipts, and we can’t tell you what your insurer accepts: ask them.
• Re-scan once a year and after big purchases; earlier scans stay in the history for before and after.

Why make a home inventory video at all?

Because after a fire, flood or burglary nobody remembers everything they owned. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners puts it plainly in its disaster preparedness advice: “A comprehensive home inventory can take some of the stress out of filing a claim should you suffer damage or a loss”, and “If you don’t have time to create a home inventory, then quickly videotape and/or photograph every room.”

The California Department of Insurance home inventory guide adds two habits worth copying: update the inventory “at least once per year”, and store a copy with receipts and model numbers “in a safe place, such as a safe-deposit box, work office, or a relative’s house”. FEMA’s flood insurance program, on FloodSmart, says: “Take photos and videos of all major household items and valuables. Include their serial numbers if they have them.”

A raw video is a good start, but it is hard to use. When you need to list what was in the kitchen, you end up scrubbing through minutes of footage. Space Context does that work once: it watches the video, listens to your narration, and writes the list, with every line pointing back to the frames that show it.

How do you film a home inventory video?

1. Prepare the rooms. Turn the lights on, open curtains, and charge your phone. Daylight and slow movement give sharp frames.
2. Go one room at a time. Say the room’s name as you enter (“this is the kitchen”); the narration ties what follows to that room.
3. Pan slowly, then look inside. Sweep each wall, then open closets, wardrobes, kitchen cupboards and drawers whose contents you would want to claim.
4. Hold labels in frame for a second. Brand and model plates on the TV, fridge, washing machine and laptop, and serial number stickers where you can reach them. Space Context records brand, model and visible text when a label is readable.
5. Say what matters. “Bought in 2024”, “this is the good camera”, “scratch on the table, already there”. What you say is transcribed and tied to the right room.
6. Don’t forget the edges. Garage, shed, garden furniture, bikes, the storage room.
7. Split a big home. In the app, a recording can currently run up to 3 minutes without Pro and up to 6 minutes with Space Context Pro. For a large house, make one space per floor or wing rather than one rushed walkthrough.

What not to film: alarm codes, safe combinations, passwords. A home inventory doesn’t need them.

Ready to try it on one room tonight? Download Space Context for iPhone and walk the living room first.

What does Space Context record from the video?

Each scan becomes a structured document, organized by area:

Condition is one of new, excellent, good, fair, poor, damaged, not_working or unknown. unknown means the frames didn’t allow an assessment, not that something is wrong.

Here is a real item from the Space Context demo, a one-bedroom apartment in Brisbane filmed with a narrated video (photos by Chris Olszewski on Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0; the narration is invented for the demo):

{
  "name": "Portable fan heater",
  "category": "climate",
  "quantity": 1,
  "location": "On the floor below the left side of the vanity",
  "condition": { "code": "damaged", "notes": "The power cable is visibly loose." },
  "aliases": ["portable heater", "fan heater", "space heater"],
  "evidence": [
    { "frame_id": "frame-28", "timestamp_ms": 28087 },
    { "frame_id": "frame-30", "timestamp_ms": 30058 },
    { "frame_id": "frame-31", "timestamp_ms": 31044 }
  ]
}

The three frames are at 28.1, 30.1 and 31.0 seconds into the video. They are the original frames, never retouched. That pairing (a line in a list, plus the exact moments of footage that show it) is what makes a video inventory usable when you need it.

In the app you get the result in three forms: a visual PDF with frames from your video and a description of every room, structured JSON, and an Agent Skill for an AI assistant. You can also ask the space questions (“is there a second TV?”) and get answers from its own records. Sign in to the Space Context console with the same account and you can browse the inventory by room with the original photos.

What a home inventory app can’t do for you

Be clear about the limits before you rely on it:

• It doesn’t put a price on anything. There is no value estimate. Keep receipts and model numbers, as the California guide suggests, and appraisals for valuable items.
• It can only list what the camera saw. A closed drawer stays closed in the inventory. Read the list after the scan and re-film what’s missing.
• It can name things differently, or miss small ones. The same piece of furniture can be a sideboard in one scan and a TV cabinet in the next. The frames are there so you, or an adjuster, can check what each line refers to.
• It doesn’t decide what your insurer accepts. Policies and claim processes differ. Ask your insurer or agent what they want to see: a list, photos, receipts, a video, and in what format.

Should you keep the original video?

Yes, and in more than one place. Space Context keeps your walkthroughs with each space in the app, so you can re-run the analysis when the space changes. Keep your own copy of the original file too, unedited, somewhere that would survive whatever damaged your home: a cloud drive you control, or a copy with a relative. The NAIC suggests keeping inventory back-ups “somewhere besides your home, like with a family member or your insurance agent”.

One detail if you also use Space Context’s developer tools: scans made through the console or the API delete the source video once its frames are extracted, keeping the frames as evidence. In that case your own copy is the only copy of the full video.

How do you keep a home inventory up to date?

Scan the same space again once a year, and after anything big: a new sofa, a renovation, a move-in. In the app, the new analysis becomes the current one and the previous one stays in the space’s history, so you can compare a past scan with the current one, before and after.

A yearly re-scan takes a few minutes per space and gives you a dated record of how your home looked each year. If you want to see how comparisons work in detail, including why “not seen” doesn’t mean “gone”, read how check-in/check-out comparisons work.

Is my home inventory private?

Your content is processed only to deliver the service and is never sold to third parties. Storage and database are hosted in the European Union and encrypted at rest, and you can delete any content, or your whole account, from the app. The privacy policy has the details, including which AI providers process frames and audio.

What does it cost?

The app is free to download for iPhone (iOS 17+). Scans run on credits or the optional Space Context Pro subscription: €9.99 a month, or €69.99 a year with a 7-day free trial for eligible new subscribers, 20 scans a month. A home inventory needs one scan per space, plus a re-scan each year.

If you like to tinker, the same inventory is available to AI assistants and code through the Space Context developer platform, with the same account.

Film your first room tonight

Start with the room that holds the most value, usually the living room or the home office. Walk it slowly, open the cupboards, say what things are, then read the list Space Context gives back. Download Space Context for iPhone and check with your insurer what they would want to see on the day you need it.