StowcaseA moving inventory is a home inventory with two extra columns: which box it went in, and which room it is going to. Done before the packing starts, it survives the move and becomes the inventory you should have had anyway.
Why
Standard released-value protection pays by weight, not by worth, and it pays for what you can show was in the shipment. A numbered box with a recorded contents list is evidence. A box labelled in marker is not.
Things go missing quietly during a move. A list you can check against on unpacking day turns a vague unease into a specific claim while the claim window is still open.
Most movers require anything above a threshold to be listed on a high-value inventory in advance. Not listing it is usually the same as not covering it.
Knowing that the kettle is in box 34 and box 34 is in the garage is the difference between a week of living out of cardboard and an evening.
Weeks before
Once an item is in a box it takes twice as long to record and you will not open the box to check. Do the room-by-room pass first, then pack against the list.
Furniture, appliances, instruments, screens, framed art. A dated photo of an undamaged item before the truck is the whole of a damage claim afterwards. Attach it to the item as a document.
This is the one moment they are all accessible and nothing has been boxed yet. It also means a stolen item during transit is identifiable, not just missing.
Anything being sold, donated, or left behind is worth marking as such so the list you check against on arrival is the list of what should have arrived.
While packing
Sequential numbers beat descriptive labels. A number is unambiguous on a manifest, it survives being stacked against a wall, and it does not need re-reading in a dark hallway.
In Stowcase the box field stays with the item, so searching for the kettle tells you it is in box 34. A notebook list for each box only works when you already know which box to check.
The room field moves from where the item was to where it is going. Movers will put a box in the room written on it, and you will unpack in the right place.
Your mover wants a high-value declaration and your own list wants a note. Both come from the same pass if you do them at the same time.
On delivery day
Not the contents, the numbers. A missing box is discovered at the truck, when it is still the mover's problem, rather than in week three when it is yours.
Damage noted on the delivery paperwork is a different conversation from damage reported a week later. Do the furniture, the appliances, and the screens first.
The room and box fields stop being a moving tool and start being a home inventory the moment you re-point them at the new house. Nothing needs re-entering.
Which fields to use
physical_location: the roombox: the box numberreplacement_cost: what it costs to replaceAll three are columns in the home inventory template, so a list you build in a spreadsheet during the move imports without rework. When the boxes are unpacked, the same records become an insurance schedule for the new address.
Keep reading
The whole idea in one page: what belongs in a home inventory, why an undocumented claim gets paid at the adjuster’s number instead of yours, and the room-by-room method that gets it finished.
What an adjuster actually asks for, how replacement cost differs from what you paid, which categories hit a policy sub-limit, and how to produce a schedule you can email.
List and value household contents for probate, an executor, or a family division while keeping one clear record.
Room by room, the things people forget: the garage, the attic, what is inside closed drawers, and every serial number worth photographing.
A spreadsheet template with the exact column names Stowcase reads, so a list you already keep imports in bulk instead of being retyped.
Start your inventory