how can i create a home inventory of stuff i own with MS Access?

MS Access is not a quick to learn product. Probably be quicker to use a Office Template.

Microsoft has a home inventory access database template at:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/CT011366831033.aspx

You can't just learn MS Access in 15 minutes. MS Access is not like MS Word, which you can just click here and there to get what you want.

If you need to know it ASAP, you should use the Wizard; it guides you through the process. In addition, use help; it contains a lot of info that you need, but you just need to spend some time to read.

Basically, you create a table with all your items, and you then create a form to query the table to get the result that you want.