Home Inventory for Moving: What to Photograph Before the Movers Arrive

If your movers drop, damage, or “lose” something on move-in day, the only thing that proves it was there — and what it looked like before they touched it — is a dated photo. Here’s the complete checklist of what to photograph the morning of your move, organized room by room and category by category, so you have ironclad proof if anything goes sideways.

Why a photo inventory matters before a move

Most people underestimate three things about moving day:

1. How often things go missing or get damaged. Industry surveys suggest roughly 1 in 5 households files a damage or loss claim within their first move. The number climbs higher for long-distance and cross-state moves.
2. How hard it is to prove what was there. Without dated photos, your claim is your word against the mover’s. Receipts help with value but prove nothing about condition at handoff.
3. How fast “it was already broken” becomes their default answer. Most movers are pros and do honest work — but every company has a process, and that process starts with denial until you show proof.

Photographing the home before the movers arrive is the single cheapest insurance you can buy. It costs you 45 minutes and a phone.

The 45-minute moving-day photo walkthrough

Set aside the morning of the move, before anything gets packed. Walk room by room with your phone. For each area, take:

• One wide shot of the whole room. Shows layout, what’s in the room, and the general condition of walls, floors, and fixtures.
• Close-ups of anything valuable, fragile, or pre-damaged.
• The serial number or model plate on major electronics and appliances. Flip it over and snap it.
• Labels on items with brand or model info you’re likely to forget later (artwork, rugs, designer furniture).

Shoot in good light and turn your phone’s flash on for items in shadow. Most phones embed the date in the file automatically — that’s your timestamp. Confirm it once in your camera settings and you don’t have to think about it again.

Room-by-room checklist: what to photograph

Living room

• Sofa, sectional, ottoman — full shot plus a close-up of any fabric wear or stains you’re already aware of
• TV (front and the model/serial plate)
• Sound system, speakers, subwoofer
• Artwork, framed prints, mirrors
• Bookshelves (one wide shot is fine)
• Area rugs — flip a corner to photograph the back/label
• Lamps and shades
• Any pre-existing marks on the hardwood, baseboards, or walls (especially if renting)

Kitchen

• Appliances: fridge, dishwasher, oven, microwave — front and model plate
• Small appliances you actually care about: coffee maker, stand mixer, air fryer, etc.
• Knife sets, cookware (anything high-end — All-Clad, Le Creuset, Made In)
• Glassware sets and china — at minimum, one wide shot of the full set
• Anything inside cabinets you don’t want to have to argue about later

Bedrooms

• Bed frame and headboard (especially if it gets disassembled)
• Mattress — photograph the label. “Stained mattress” claim denials are among the most common
• Dressers, nightstands (and their contents if drawers aren’t being locked)
• Closets — full shot
• Jewelry, watches, family heirlooms: photograph separately and carry them with you. Do not let these go on the truck.

Bathroom

• Mostly for rental documentation if you rent: sinks, tubs, tile condition, mirrors, caulking
• Anything stored in the bathroom you actually care about

Office and electronics

• Computers, monitors, printers
• Camera gear, lenses, drones
• Cables and accessories — skip these unless expensive
• Gaming consoles

Garage, storage, and outdoor

• Power tools (DeWalt, Milwaukee, Makita)
• Bikes, scooters, skateboards
• Patio furniture and grills
• Lawn equipment
• Sports gear (skis, golf clubs, surfboards)

Pre-existing damage — anywhere in the house

If you’re renting, this is the most important part:

• 5–10 photos per room of walls, floors, corners, and fixtures
• The outside of the house: front door, garage, siding
• The yard condition

You want a clear record that the home looked a certain way before any mover or your boxes touched it.

High-value items: get extra proof

For anything worth more than a few hundred dollars, do this in addition to the photo:

• Video, not just photos. A 30-second panning video of the item and the room is harder to dispute than stills.
• Capture any receipt or appraisal you still have. Tape it to the photo or save it in the same album.
• Note the condition in writing. A quick note in your phone: “LG washer, SN 12345, small dent on top-left corner, working fine, photographed 8:14am.”

This is also the moment to decide what you’re carrying personally. Anything irreplaceable — passports, jewelry, original documents, original art, hard drives, backup drives — should never go on the truck.

What to do with the photos

Don’t let them rot in your camera roll for six months until you forget.

• Create a dedicated album called “Move — [Date]” the night before or morning of the move.
• Back up immediately. Upload to Google Photos, iCloud, or Dropbox. Email yourself the album link. If your phone is lost on the truck, your proof is gone too.
• Keep them for at least 12–18 months after the move — most mover insurance claims have a 9-month window, and rental security deposit disputes can come up for a year or longer.

When a damage or loss claim comes up, you’re not arguing — you’re emailing the album and letting the photos do the work.

A faster version if you’re short on time

If you can’t do the full walkthrough, this is the high-leverage minimum:

• Every room, one wide shot
• Every appliance, model/serial plate
• Every item worth more than $200, a close-up
• Every wall and floor surface that already has a mark

That gets you 80% of the protection in roughly 15 minutes.

The bigger reason this habit is worth keeping

Once you build the muscle of photographing a home before a major change, you’ll never want to do a life transition without it. Moving is one. A divorce property division is another — when one person moves out, a timestamped photo inventory is often the only proof that “this painting was always on the left wall” or “this necklace was a gift from my mother.” An insurance claim after a fire, flood, or theft relies on the same kind of record. So does settling a parent’s estate.

If you’d like a tool that walks you through this room by room, tags each item (mine / yours / shared), and produces a timestamped, attorney-ready inventory report at the end — without spending your whole weekend on it — HalfYourStuff does it in an afternoon. It was built by someone who learned the hard way that photos before a life change are non-negotiable.