How to Make a Home Inventory for Moving

Let’s face it – moving house is a rather chaotic period and any clever or even not-so-clever tricks to introduce order and organization into the moving preparations are always welcome. A well-planned move is not only much easier to execute but it also keeps you away from problematic complications and relocation related headaches.

To help you achieve the smooth relocation experience you expect and hope for, make sure you use the indisputable organizational power of the 3 must-have planner tools that every home mover should take advantage of:

1. Moving calendar: a super detailed and personalized to-do list where all your moving tasks are evenly distributed and properly prioritized. Your personal moving calendar (aka moving timeline) will help you optimize every hour of the remaining time until your moving date and will enable you to minimize the negative effects of moving stress at the same time.
2. Box labelling system: a good labelling system for your moving boxes will ensure that your hired removal men complete their task of delivering the right packed box to the right destination room faster and with no mistakes whatsoever. Also, the fact that you know the exact contents of each moving container will enable you to save a plenty of valuable time when unpacking after the move.
3. Home inventory: well, read on to learn all about home inventory sheets and find the answers of important questions, such as “Why make a home inventory list?” and “How to do a home inventory for moving?”

Home inventory checklists can be very helpful in many ways, especially when you’re packing for a move and later when you’re unpacking after moving day. The very first thing to do is to figure out whether you’ll be the one packing up your own belongings or you intend to hire experienced professional packers to do the hard work for you. Either way, you do need a detailed home inventory for moving. But why, you may ask.

Why create a home inventory?

Creating a home inventory will inevitably eat up a large chunk of your pre-move time. After all, the process of diligently documenting absolutely everything you own can’t possibly be over in a few hours, can it? Often, the time you need to complete this detailed list of all your household items and personal possessions found inside your house or flat will depend on the number of belongings and the number of rooms in your home (of course!), and the selected documentation method. Considering the fact that your moving calendar is already overflowing with essential tasks to take care of before moving day, the possible question of whether a detailed home inventory is necessary at all should come as no surprise.

Here are the 3 major reasons why you should make a home inventory list when moving to another house:

1. First of all, you can take the unique opportunity of creating a house moving inventory list to declutter your home of no longer needed and unwanted stuff. You’ll probably find it hard to believe how many forgotten and duplicate items you keep for no good reason. The good news is that all your past excuses for not doing such a house inventory worksheet until this very moment, or at least for postponing its creation for years, are now invalid. Now you have the perfect reason to know exactly what you own, and to save time and money during the residential move.

But how exactly will a home inventory save you time and money? The concept is easy: your careful decision to not move some of your possessions to your new home will give you extra time as you won’t have to pack the stuff you’re leaving behind. Also, not paying for the senseless transportation will keep more money into your pocket, while the possibility of selling a number of such no longer needed items can even contribute significantly to your moving budget.

2. Secondly, your comprehensive house inventory worksheet can serve as an excellent packing list as well, especially if you have chosen to use the numbered labelling method instead of the color-coded one. Simply mark down the corresponding item numbers on both the inventory sheet and the packed box, and one single glance over your spreadsheet will inform you which moving box you need to open to find a specific inventoried item.

In other words, a packing list linked to a smart labelling system will lead to a very smooth and quick unpacking process after the move is over.

3. And thirdly, a precise home inventory checklist for moving will enable you to track your items and know immediately if a specific good has gone missing between the times of its loading into the moving vehicle and its delivery to your new home. Your personal inventory list will inform you immediately if a possession is not where it’s supposed to be so that you can take the right steps under the circumstances.

If you have used the services of a professional removal company, you can as well file a claim against your relocation partner if something was lost or damaged. On the other hand, skip the step of taking a home inventory altogether and it could be months before you notice that a specific item is missing, and by the time you do realize it, it could be too late to do anything about it.

How to make a home inventory for moving

So far, so good. Now that you’re well familiar with the indisputable advantages of having a detailed home inventory checklist by your side, it’s time to say a few words about how to go about creating one. Just follow the steps below and you’ll have a great household moving inventory list in no time.

Step 1: Allow plenty of time for the home inventory process. Begin diligently to document absolutely everything you own as soon as your move is confirmed, so that you don’t have to be forced to cut corners, and thus make inventorying mistakes and deal with confusion later on;

Step 2: Select your documentation method, or rather what medium you’ll build your inventory sheet on. For many home movers a pen and a sheet of paper is still the easiest way to do a detailed home inventory. While the old-school pen-and-paper approach has its charm, it’s even quicker and much more versatile to create an inventory list electronically – just use the spreadsheet program Excel or another specialized home inventory software as a great modern way to stay organized during your move. By using a computer or a hand held device, you can easily insert digital photos and even record videos of your house belongings, especially of the more valuable and fragile ones.

Step 3: Make sure your home inventory template has at least 6 essential columns:

1. Item name or description: this one is pretty obvious. You don’t really have to go through each and every small item – you can easily use the collective descriptive approach. For example, it’s really unnecessary to inventory all the individual books you own – instead, you can view your entire book collection as one unit and only list separately the more expensive and valuable ones. However, don’t forget to include individual jewelery pieces, pricey artwork and other valuables.
2. Current condition: the current condition of your household belongings is an important requirement for your moving inventory list. Note down diligently any pre-existing damage and try to be as objective as possible.
3. Quantity: the quantity column can actually help you realize you have too many of a certain item, and therefore cause you take appropriate actions to fix this anomaly. By the way, do you really need 3 extra bathroom robes besides the one you’re using right now?
4. Destination room/location: it’s important to know the exact room or location where each item will be placed in your new home. In most cases, this column is a no-brainer as the current location of your items will coincide with their new spots (the toaster you have just inventoried in your kitchen will end up in your new home’s kitchen, right?). However, if you wish to introduce any location changes, this is the opportune moment to do so.
5. Estimated value: the item values you place in that column of your home inventory sheet will help you file an insurance claim with your removal company or insurance company in case of damaged or even missing items upon arrival.
6. Notes: of course, it’s always a good idea to leave some space for taking personal notes or writing additional info about an item that falls outside the constraints of the previous 5 columns.

Step 4: Making a home inventory sounds like a pretty straightforward task and most of the times it is just that. The idea is to document each and every household item and personal possession in your home, remember? Simply choose a room and get started.

Step 5: Start with the furniture – every piece of furniture should be duly noted down in your detailed house moving inventory list. Also, mark appropriately the pieces that will need to be disassembled before they can be successfully transported to and loaded into the moving van.

Step 6: It’s a great idea to add visual aids to your house inventory checklist. In other words, take digital photos of some of the more valuable or fragile items you own as proof of their current condition.

Step 7: If you really feel like it, you can even go a step further and create a video home inventory by going from room to room with a video camera and taking voice memos. Although it may look like a superb idea, it is advisable that you stick to the more old-fashioned way of inventorying your entire home.

Step 8: If you intend to compile the house inventory sheet by hand, make sure the detailed list is neatly written and perfectly legible. You wouldn’t want to have trouble deciphering your own handwriting, would you?

Step 9: As mentioned above, the home inventory process takes a great amount of time, so it’s never a bad idea to have some helpers by your side. If possible, get your entire family involved to speed things up. For example, if you have a child or children and they are old enough, it’s only natural that they should be responsible for inventorying their own room(s).

Step 10: When you’re done with your personal home inventory moving list, make several copies of it and store them in different places just in case. After all, it’s fairly easy to lose your inventory sheet during the chaos that is usually unleashed during a house move. If you have just prepared a digital moving inventory, then transfer a digital copy of it to a memory stick or send it to your own e-mail address as backup options.

Step 11: Don’t forget that the most important documents you own must always travel with you to your new home – that is, don’t make the rookie mistake of entrusting them to your removal company. Simply add your ready inventory sheet/packing list to that blue folder of essential papers.

Have you ever had to conduct a home inventory prior to a house move? If yes, how did it go? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

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