The Fastest Way to Add Home Inventory Items: Batch Mode

Introduction

We believe Everspruce is the best house inventory app for iPhone and iPad and the best Android app for home organization and in this blog post, we’ll walk through one of the key reasons why: batch mode! Batch mode allows you to quickly take a bunch of pictures of areas, boxes, or items and then update the information for each entry at a later time. This speeds up the inventory process significantly, making it a breeze for you.

Important things to note before we get started

Before we get started, let’s go over a few essential things to note about Everspruce:

1. Everspruce uses a nested doll structure for its home inventory entries. That means entries are parents to other children entries. In other words, entries contain other entries. This is a simple concept but it can yield powerful results once you get the hang of it:
   • Areas can contain other areas, boxes, or items.
   • Boxes can contain other boxes or items.
   • Items need a parent entry that is either an area or box.
   • Items cannot contain other entries.
2. Everspruce allows you to easily move entries to different parents so don’t worry if you aren’t exactly sure how you want to organize your home inventory just yet. Just get started and you can adjust your structure as you go or at a later time.

Now that we got that out of the way – let’s get to the fun part…

Using Batch Mode to Add Home Inventory Items Quickly

Using batch mode to add home inventory items quickly is incredibly simple. All you need to do is follow the steps below.

Part I: Take photos of your items (or boxes, or areas)

1. Download Everspruce and open the app.
2. Tap on the + button in the bottom center of the app.
3. Make sure the Batch Mode option is highlighted (It cannot be used in combination with the Without Photos feature).
4. You can add areas, boxes, or items using batch mode, but for this example we’ll focus on items. Tap on “Add new Item”.
5. Now you need to select the parent entry you want this item entry to be nested under. Since we’re going to be adding items, they can be nested under an Area or Box. For example, if the items you want to add are located in Box 1, then select the “Box 1” entry as the location.
6. Now you are taken to the camera scene where you add photos for each of the items you want to capture. You can capture photos two ways: with the camera OR with the photo library:
   • To take photos with the camera, simply take a picture of each of your items by tapping on the purple circle.
   • To add photos via the photo library, simply tap on the picture button in the upper right corner. From there you can select photos. Note that each photo selected will be associated with a separate entry (assuming your default number of photos is 1).
   • Note that you can go into Settings and adjust the default number of photos you want to take with each entry and you can also add additional photos later on by going to the item detail page and tapping on “Options”.
7. Once you’re done capturing photos of all the items you want to add then tap on “Save”.
   • Note: We recommend doing batches of less than 10 entries at a time to ensure Everspruce has enough memory to capture all the photos you want to save.

You can repeat steps 2 – 7 from Part I above as many times as you would like and you can even do it over multiple sessions or even days. This is the power of batch mode! Your entries will be waiting for you in Part II below whenever you’re ready to add additional information to your items.

Part II: Add additional information to your items (or boxes, or areas)

Now that we’ve captured photos of all our items, it’s time to add additional text information to each item.

1. Open the app (if you haven’t already done so :).
2. Tap on the Task List icon in the bottom toolbar (second from the right). Here you’ll find each entry that needs additional information listed out row by row.
3. Tap on the item that you would like to update.
4. You’re now taken to the item input page where you can add the name of the item, an optional description, and any additional fields that you have already turned on.
   • Note: You can go into Settings and add a number of additional fields – including Serial Number, Manufacturer, Model, and more in Settings | Additional Fields. This can be great for those users who want to use their home inventory for insurance.
5. Once you’re done adding all the information for that item, tap “Save”.
6. You are now taken back to the Task List where you can continue adding additional information to more items. You could also go back to Part I and add additional photos of items, or you could do something else like grab a cup of coffee. Your task list will be waiting for you whenever you’re ready to add more information to your entries.

That’s it – that’s how you can quickly add home inventory items to Everspruce using batch mode.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Everspruce’s batch mode is an incredibly useful feature that makes the home inventory process faster and more efficient. We hope you found this blog post helpful and informative. Keep adding more areas, boxes, and items, and stay tuned for more tips and tricks for your home inventory journey. Happy organizing!

To continue learning about more Everspruce features, please read home inventory with pictures.