The Moving Inventory List: What You Need To Know

Whether we’re helping you move to a new neighborhood or to the other side of the country, one of the first things Shleppers does is conduct a pre-move inventory. This process serves several purposes. The first, and most important, is to create a comprehensive list of everything that needs to be moved: after the move has been completed, the inventory serves as a checklist to make sure everything arrived safely.

There’s another reason inventorying a household is important. This is especially true if you’ve been in your residence for a long time – generally three years or longer. Over the course of time, families can accumulate a lot of possessions and then lose track of them in the hustle and bustle of everyday life. The inventory process can clarify the full extent of what your household owns, which impacts both the space you’ll need to store everything and plans for keeping, selling, or donating items.

An inventory is also useful when you’re determining how much moving insurance coverage you’d like to secure. Full value replacement coverage – the type of relocation insurance that pays you to replace every single thing you own in case of a catastrophic loss during the move – generally requires a comprehensive inventory to be performed to ensure your possessions are properly valued.

Bear in mind that while Shleppers does an inventory with each and every move, there’s no rule that says you can’t do one on your own. In fact, we recommend that homeowners do their own inventory. Two sets of eyes are always better than one! For best results, when conducting your inventory, work room by room, and take pictures of everything: images serve as documentation of your possessions’ condition prior to the move.  Taking pictures is also the fastest way to inventory collections, such as your library of books, DVDs or video games.