Moving Checklist: How to Inventory Your Belongings Before a Move

Movers lose things. Boxes get crushed. And when something goes wrong, "I'm pretty sure I had more than this" is not a claim — it's a guess. A quick inventory before moving day turns a dispute into a documented fact.

Do this before movers arrive, not after

The entire point of a pre-move inventory is that it exists before anything can go missing or get damaged. A list made after the fact, from memory, proves nothing to a moving company's insurance.

What to actually photograph

You don't need to inventory every book on a shelf. Focus on:

• Furniture — condition before the move, especially anything with existing damage
• Electronics — serial numbers and condition
• Anything fragile or valuable — art, mirrors, glassware sets
• Boxes as you pack them — a quick photo of a box's contents before sealing it saves enormous time if something's missing later

Number your boxes and match them to a list

A simple numbered-box system — "Box 14: kitchen, plates and glasses" — makes it obvious immediately if a box didn't make it off the truck. This matters more than people expect; boxes going missing in a move is more common than items being damaged.

Photograph existing damage on furniture before the move

If a dresser already has a scratch, photograph it before moving day. Otherwise, if it arrives more damaged, you have no way to prove what changed versus what was already there — and neither does the moving company.

Keep your inventory somewhere other than in the moving truck

An inventory stored only on paper packed into a box on the truck is useless exactly when you'd need it. Keep it on your phone, and back it up to cloud storage before moving day, so it survives independently of anything physically in transit.

This inventory doubles as your new home inventory

Don't throw away the work once the move is done. The same photographed, itemized list you made for the movers is most of a proper home inventory for insurance purposes — just add current estimated values and mark anything valuable as insured.

Using Flosna Vault for a move

Flosna Vault works well for exactly this: create a temporary "Moving" vault, photograph items and boxes as you pack, and note existing condition before anything ships. Once you're settled, reorganize items into permanent vaults by room or category — the photos and details you already captured carry over, so the inventory work you did for the move becomes the foundation of your ongoing home inventory.