Ten minutes with your phone before the crew arrives is the difference between a damage claim that gets paid and one that turns into a back-and-forth about what you actually owned. Here's how to build a home inventory that holds up.
Do You Need a Home Inventory for a Local Move?
Most people assume a home inventory is for cross-country moves with a shipment that disappears onto a truck for a week. It's not. A local Boston move still means your dresser goes down a narrow stairwell, your TV rides in a truck with everyone else's boxes, and your crew is handling dozens of items in a few hours. Damage happens on short moves too, just less often than people expect and usually to something specific rather than the whole shipment.
The Insurance Information Institute recommends a home inventory as standard practice for homeowners and renters generally, move or no move, precisely because proving what you owned after a loss is harder than most people assume until they're trying to do it. A move just adds a specific date and a specific list of people who handled your stuff, which makes it a natural time to finally finish the inventory you've been meaning to make anyway.
What Actually Goes Into a Home Inventory
You don't need an appraisal-level catalog. You need enough to prove ownership, condition, and rough value if something goes wrong.
For most items, a clear photo or a few seconds of video is plenty. For higher-value or fragile pieces, go further: photograph any existing scratches, dents, or wear before the move (proof it wasn't the crew's fault), note the brand and model on electronics and appliances, and keep receipts or serial numbers for anything you'd actually file a claim over if it broke.
Skip the effort on anything low-value and easily replaced. Nobody needs photographic proof of a $12 lamp from a big-box store. Spend the time on furniture, electronics, and anything sentimental or irreplaceable instead.
The Room-by-Room Video Walkthrough
The fastest method, by far, is a single narrated video walkthrough, done a few days before move day while everything is still roughly where it normally lives. Walk into each room, say the room name out loud, and pan slowly across what's there. Call out anything with a serial number, anything already damaged, and anything genuinely valuable as you go.
Move.org's inventory guide recommends exactly this approach over a written list for one simple reason: a video captures ten items in the time it takes to type one line describing a single item. For a typical Boston one- or two-bedroom, the whole walkthrough runs 10-15 minutes. That's a smaller time investment than most people assume, for documentation that's genuinely difficult to argue with later.
Photos, Video, Spreadsheet, or App: What Actually Works?
Each method has a real tradeoff. None of them is wrong, but picking the right one for your situation saves time you don't get back once the truck is loaded.
| Method | Time Investment | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Video walkthrough | 10-15 min, one pass | Whole-apartment coverage, fastest overall |
| Individual photos | 20-40 min, item by item | High-value pieces needing close-up detail |
| Written spreadsheet | 30-60 min | People who already track receipts and values |
| Inventory app | 15-30 min setup | Anyone who wants it organized for future use, not just this move |
If you only have ten minutes, do the video. If you have more time and higher-value belongings, layer in close-up photos of specific pieces on top of it. A spreadsheet or app is worth the extra setup mainly if you want the inventory to keep serving you after the move, for renters or homeowners insurance generally, not just this one claim window.
Does This Matter More in a Boston Walk-Up or High-Rise?
Boston's housing stock makes this a bigger deal than it is in a lot of other markets. Triple-deckers and walk-ups in Somerville, Allston, and Jamaica Plain mean furniture goes down narrow stairwells that already have decades of scuffs and dings on the walls and banisters. Without a "before" record, it's genuinely hard to prove whether a fresh scratch on your dresser happened on the third-floor landing or was already there.
High-rises and managed buildings add the opposite version of the same problem: the building wants proof nothing in the lobby or elevator got damaged by your move, while you want proof your own furniture didn't arrive that way. A quick video of your belongings before the crew starts loading, and another of the empty apartment once it's clear, covers you on both ends.
September 1st makes this worth the extra ten minutes more than any other date on the calendar. Crews are running back-to-back jobs on Boston's biggest lease-turnover day, moving fast because everyone else is too. Fast moves are still careful moves with a legitimate crew, but more items change hands in less time, which is exactly when a documented "before" picture earns its keep.
How This Connects to Your Moving Insurance
An inventory doesn't upgrade your coverage. It's what makes the coverage you have actually usable. Every mover regulated in Massachusetts includes released value protection by default, which pays out at $0.60 per pound per item rather than what the item is worth. Whether you're relying on that baseline or you paid for full value protection, the insurer or the mover still needs proof of what existed and what shape it was in. That's your inventory, not a verbal description after the fact.
We tell every customer the same thing before a move: take the video walkthrough before we show up, and take another once your old place is empty. It costs you ten minutes and it's the single easiest thing to do that actually helps if a dispute ever comes up, whether that's with us or with a building's management company.
What If You Actually Need to File a Claim?
If something does turn up damaged or missing, your inventory is the evidence that turns "I think that was fine before" into a claim that gets resolved without a fight. Massachusetts movers give you nine months from your delivery date to file a written damage claim, under both DPU rules for in-state moves and FMCSA rules for interstate ones. That's a long window, but the claim itself moves faster, and the number you're offered tends to be closer to fair, when you can point to a timestamped photo or video instead of describing the item from memory months later.
Didn't make an inventory before your move? You're not out of options. Pull whatever photos you have, even old ones from social media or past listings, and describe items as specifically as you can. It's a weaker position than a dedicated walkthrough, but the claims process still works without one.
Where to Store It So It Survives the Move
An inventory that's only saved on the phone that ends up buried in a moving box, or a laptop packed onto the truck, defeats the purpose. Before move day, email the video to yourself, back it up to cloud storage, or text a copy to a family member. It should exist somewhere you can reach it even if every device you own is currently in transit.
Keep it for longer than just the move, too. A home inventory built for moving day doubles as the same documentation renters insurance or homeowners insurance would ask for after a fire, flood, or break-in. Ten minutes of video, saved somewhere durable, keeps working for you long after the truck pulls away.
NoTimeMover is fully insured, and every quote locks in your budget before the crew shows up, so there's no incentive to rush through a job the way an hourly clock can create. Do the walkthrough, submit your move, and let us handle the rest.