Home & Property · Mobile
ShelfProof: a home inventory app for insurance, room by room
Photograph what you own now, so you are not listing it from memory later.
ShelfProof is a home inventory app for insurance that walks you through your home one room at a time, photographing and listing what you own. Homeowners and renters build the record now and keep a copy somewhere the house cannot reach.
Waitlist Not built yet Updated 5 September 2026
What problem does ShelfProof solve?
Nobody makes a list of their own belongings. The kettle, the drill, the winter coats, the boxes in the loft, and the good saucepans are simply there, bought over years and never counted. That is fine until the day the house is wet and dark, and someone asks you to describe what was in the kitchen. Memory does not work the way you need it to under stress. You will remember the television. You will forget the cordless tools, the camping gear, the rug, and the box of your mother's jewelry in the wardrobe. Renters assume they own less than they do, right up until they price replacing a whole kitchen's worth of small things. The other failure is quieter. Someone does start a spreadsheet, fills in the living room on a rainy Sunday, gets bored in the spare bedroom, and never opens the file again. The record that exists is a third of a record, and it is saved on the laptop that was in the house.
Room-by-room inventory checklist
Pick your rooms to get a printable list of what to photograph and record for an insurance claim.
Free to use. No account. Nothing you type here is stored.
What would ShelfProof do?
ShelfProof would take you around the house one room at a time and make the boring part fast. You point the camera at a shelf, a wardrobe rail, or an open drawer, and the app groups the burst into items you confirm or merge. Each item holds a photo, a name, a rough age, a serial number if it has one, and a receipt if you kept one. Rooms show what is done and what is left, so a Saturday afternoon can finish the ground floor and next weekend takes the rest. The record syncs off the device, because a copy that only exists in the house is not a copy. When you need it, you export a dated packet as a PDF with photos, grouped by room, that you can hand to whoever asks.
How would it work?
- 1Pick a room and photograph shelves, drawers, and wardrobes in bursts.
- 2Confirm the items the app groups, and add serial numbers and receipts where you have them.
- 3Watch the room list fill in, and stop whenever the afternoon runs out.
- 4Export a dated packet with photos grouped by room, and keep a copy off site.
Who is it for?
- Homeowners who have lived somewhere long enough to lose track of what is in it.
- Renters who would struggle to list a flat's contents from memory after a break-in.
- People helping a parent record a house before a move, a sale, or a downsizing.
How do you make a photo home inventory in one afternoon without an app?
Block out an afternoon and start at the front door. Work clockwise around each room and do not tidy first, because the mess is the inventory. For every wall, take one wide photo that shows the whole room, then open what closes: cupboard doors, drawers, the wardrobe, the airing cupboard, the shed. Photograph each open space as it is. Bursts of ordinary shelf photos are worth more than a perfect catalog you never finish. For anything worth more than a weekly shop, take a second, closer photo of two things: the item, and its label. The label is where the make, the model, and the serial number live, usually on the back, the base, or inside the door. Say the name out loud while you shoot if your camera records video. Add a note straight away, because in a month a black rectangle is just a black rectangle. Jewelry, tools, instruments, and bikes deserve a close photo of any engraving or hallmark. Then get the record out of the house. Upload the album to a cloud account, and put a second copy somewhere physically distant: a drive at a relative's house, a work account, or an email to yourself with a zip attached. A record stored only on the phone in the kitchen burns with the kitchen. Add the date to the folder name so you know how old it is. Two more passes finish it. Walk the loft, the garage, and the outside, which is where the expensive, forgotten things live. Then dig out receipts, manuals, and old order confirmations from your email, search your inbox for the word invoice, and drop screenshots into the same folder. Calendar a repeat next year, and only photograph what changed.
What do people use today?
| Option | Good at | The gap |
|---|---|---|
| A spreadsheet inventory template | Free, sortable, and yours, with columns for room, item, value, serial number, and where you bought it. | Typing every line is the work, so most sheets stop in the second room. Photos live elsewhere, and the file often sits on a machine in the house. |
| A folder of photos on your phone | Takes an afternoon, needs no software, and captures far more detail than any list you would write. | Nothing is named, grouped, or searchable, and the album grows until you cannot tell the loft from the garage. |
| Asset and collection cataloguing apps | Detailed fields, categories, custom valuations, and barcode scanning for people who enjoy cataloguing. | Aimed at collectors and small businesses, so setup is heavy and the flow is item by item rather than room by room. |
| A narrated walkthrough video | Fast, cheap, and surprisingly complete. Ten minutes of filming with commentary covers a whole flat. | Labels and serial numbers are unreadable at walking speed, and one long video is hard to search or hand over item by item. |
What would it cost?
Free
$0
- Two rooms
- Photos and item names on the device
- Printable room checklist
Home
$39/yr
- Every room in one property
- Backup off the device
- Receipts and serial numbers
- Dated PDF export grouped by room
Family
$69/yr
- Everything in Home
- Up to four properties
- A second person who can add and edit
Prices are proposed. Founding members lock in the lowest price if we build ShelfProof.
Questions people ask
What is a home inventory app for insurance?
A home inventory app for insurance keeps a photographed, room-by-room record of what you own, with names, serial numbers, and receipts where you have them. ShelfProof would build that record in short sessions and store a copy away from the house.
What does my insurer want to see?
Ask them. Requirements and processes differ between insurers, policies, and countries, and no page on the internet can tell you what yours says. ShelfProof would produce photos, names, dates, serials, and receipts in one dated file, and you decide what to send.
Do I need receipts for everything?
No, and almost nobody has them. Photographs, model numbers, and the date you recorded an item are usually easier to produce. Treat receipts as a bonus, add them where they exist, and do not stall the whole project hunting for paper.
How long does a whole house take?
One focused afternoon covers the main rooms of a flat or a small house. Lofts, garages, and sheds are usually a second session. ShelfProof would let you stop mid-room and pick up later, because a half-finished inventory beats none.
Is a photo home inventory private?
Your record is yours. ShelfProof would store it for you and give you an export, and would never sell it, share it, or hand it to anyone. Photographs of the inside of a home are sensitive, and that is the design constraint.
Does this work for renters?
Yes. Renters own the contents even when they do not own the walls, and contents are exactly what an inventory records. The room-by-room walk is the same and usually shorter.
When will ShelfProof launch?
There is no date. ShelfProof gets built only if enough homeowners and renters join this waitlist and say they would pay. Joining costs nothing, and the printable room checklist on this page is free whatever happens.
Where does this stand?
ShelfProof is a proposal, not a product. This page collects demand from search and answer engines. Askwright builds it only if enough people join the waitlist and say they would pay. Read how this works.