I've found that "database" software is a pain.  For an inventory, both at work and at home, I use a much simpler spreadsheet program like Excel, or the one in OpenOffice (free).

Using a spreadsheet, you can very easily add, delete, and edit an entry for a piece of equipment, search the collection for any term with a "find" command (usually control-F also).   And you can save a copy of the spreadsheet "off-site" in case of fire or other disaster and open it with most any spreadsheet program you find available.

I'd strongly recommend a spreadsheet over a database for this application.  It would be the difference of an hour getting started with the spreadsheet and minutes to use each time, versus days getting started and then hours to remember how to use the database each time you want to use it.