How to Make a Home Inventory Before a Move

What the inventory is actually for

It is easier to build a useful inventory if you know who reads it. There are four readers, and each one wants a different column.

The removal firm reads it to quote and to work out how many crates and how much van space. They want volume, bulk items and anything awkward: pianos, safes, chest freezers, wardrobes that do not come apart.

The insurer reads it if something is damaged or goes missing, in transit or at the new address. They want description, condition before the move, and evidence of value. Most contents policies have a single-item limit and a separate schedule for anything above it. Ask your insurer what they need and in what format. They will tell you, and the answer differs by policy.

Your siblings read it, or could, which is the point. An inventory that exists means nobody has to take anybody's word for anything.

And you read it in three months, when your parent asks where the sewing box went and you have genuinely no idea.

Build one list that serves all four, rather than four lists. It is only two extra columns.

The columns of a row

One row per item, or per group of identical items. Use a spreadsheet if you are comfortable with one, and a printed grid if you are not. Both work. What matters is the columns.

Item number. Room (current). Description. Quantity. Condition. Photo reference. Estimated value. Destination. Box number. Room (new). Notes.

The description is where inventories succeed or fail. Write what someone who has never been in the house would need in order to pick the item out of a warehouse.

Not: "sofa."

Instead: "Blue two-seat Ercol sofa, 1970s, wooden frame, small tear to left arm."

Not: "box of china."

Instead: "Royal Doulton dinner service, Bunnykins pattern, 6 place settings, 2 plates chipped."

Condition should be a fixed word, not a sentence, so it can be compared: New, Good, Worn, Damaged. Note existing damage explicitly. An inventory that records the tear in the arm before the move is what stops a pointless argument about the tear after it.

Estimated value is your own rough figure, not a valuation. Mark it clearly as an estimate. Where a real valuation exists, reference the document instead.

• Item no.
• Room, current
• Description, identifiable by a stranger
• Quantity
• Condition: New / Good / Worn / Damaged
• Photo reference
• Estimated value, marked as an estimate
• Destination: move / family / sell / donate / dispose
• Box number
• Room, new
• Notes

Photographing a room so the photos are usable

Photographs are the fastest part of an inventory and the part most often done in a way that turns out to be useless.

Start every room by photographing a sheet of paper with the room name and the date written on it in large letters. Everything after that shot belongs to that room, and your camera roll self-indexes without you renaming a single file.

Then take one wide shot from the doorway, and one from each corner facing in. Four corners plus the door covers a room.

Then open everything. Photograph the inside of every cupboard, drawer and wardrobe, one shot per opening. This is the step people skip and it is the step that later tells you what was in the sideboard.

For anything electrical, photograph the back before you unplug it. Cable arrangements are far harder to reconstruct from memory than anyone expects.

Photograph serial numbers, hallmarks, maker's marks and signatures close up. Put a coin or a ruler beside small items so the scale is visible.

Finally, photograph each room again once it is empty. An empty-room photograph is proof of condition at handover, and it settles deposit disputes on rented property in one image.

High-value and hard-to-replace items

Take these off the main list and give them their own schedule, because they need more detail and they will be handled differently.

For each item on the schedule, record: a clear photograph, dimensions, any marks or signatures, any receipt or valuation you hold and where that document is, where the item is kept now, and where it will be kept afterwards.

These items do not go on the van. They travel in your car, or they go to a bank, or they stay with a named person who signs for them. Write down which, and who.

Speak to the insurer before the move rather than after it. Ask two things: is contents cover in transit included or does it need to be added, and what does the policy require for items above the single-item limit. Insurers have a specified-items schedule and they will tell you exactly what evidence they accept. That is an administrative question with a definite answer, and it costs one phone call.

• Jewellery and watches, photographed individually with a ruler in shot
• Silver and anything hallmarked
• Paintings, prints and anything signed
• Musical instruments, with serial numbers
• Cameras, tools and equipment with serial numbers
• Collections: coins, stamps, medals, first editions
• Military records, medals and service documents
• Deeds, certificates and any original legal document
• Cash, passbooks and safe deposit keys found during sorting

Numbering and labelling so the list survives the move

An inventory only works if the boxes agree with it. That means a numbering system decided before the first box is taped.

Number boxes with a room prefix and a running number: K1 to K14 for kitchen, B1 to B9 for the main bedroom. Every box number appears in the inventory against its contents. Never rely on a written contents list on the box alone, because the list on the box is unreadable once it is stacked.

Label two sides and the top of every box, never only the top. Stacked boxes show their sides.

Write the destination room on the label, not the room it came from. The people carrying it need to know where it is going.

Mark fragile boxes on all four sides and note which they are in the inventory.

One box is labelled OPEN FIRST in large letters, and it goes in the car. Kettle, mugs, tea, toilet roll, scissors, a torch, phone chargers, a change of bedding, and the printed inventory.

Keep the master list on paper as well as on a device. Phones run out of battery in the middle of moves with impressive reliability.

Where the file lives, and who gets a copy

Version the file with a date in the filename, in the form 2026-08-10, so that copies sort themselves and nobody works from last month's version.

Make three copies before the move. One travels in your car with the OPEN FIRST box. One goes to a sibling by email, which is both a backup and a record. One stays with whoever is coordinating, in the caregiver binder.

After the van has gone, walk the empty house with the inventory once, room by room. You are looking for anything on the list still in the building and anything in the building not on the list.

After the van arrives, check the box numbers against the list before the crew leaves, not the contents. Count boxes. Contents checking comes later.

Then ask the removal firm what their claim window is, in writing, and put the date in your calendar. It is usually short, often measured in days rather than weeks, and it starts on delivery. Damage found on day nine is a very different conversation from damage found on day two, and the only thing that separates them is whether anyone noted the deadline.

Questions