Your inventory: what goes, what stays, and what cannot go on the truck

List every large item by room with a decision, add up the cubic feet, find what cannot ride on the truck, and set aside what you carry yourself.

Room by room: what the inventory records Understand

A household inventory is a written list of what you own, room by room. For a move, the same list does three jobs at once: it is the decision list (what moves, what goes elsewhere), the volume estimate (how much space and weight the move takes) and the claim record (what you had, and in what condition, if something is lost or damaged). Building one list for all three is our method, not a rule from any agency. This manual's convention

Your inventory is not the mover's. An interstate mover writes its own inventory at loading, with a number on every carton and every piece of furniture, and that document is the one the federal regulation names (Damage, delays and disputes explains how the two work together). Yours is the household's own record, made before anyone quotes, so you can check what others write.

What to write for each item

The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), an insurance trade association, gives the fields most home-inventory guides use: what the item is, where you bought it, the make and model, what you paid, and the serial number. It suggests counting clothing by general category rather than piece by piece, photographing whole rooms, closets and drawers, and storing a copy of the inventory outside the home. It also says an incomplete inventory is better than none (Triple-I, How to create a home inventory). For a move you need fewer fields on day one and a few new ones. The inventory sheet has these columns:

A blank in the cubic feet or value column means "not estimated yet," and any total that counts a blank says it is incomplete. A 0 means none. Keep that difference: a total that quietly treats blanks as zero looks finished when it is not.

What gets a row, and what does not

Give a row to every piece of furniture, every appliance, and every object you would carry on its own: a bicycle, a lamp, a rug, a mirror, a television, a grill. Small things do not get rows. They go into boxes, and boxes get their own numbered list, the box register. The photos cover what is in the drawers and closets for a claim. This manual's convention

Walk the rooms in the order you would show a buyer, then the places people forget: the hall closet, under the beds, the bathroom cabinet, the storage locker, the balcony, the garage and the shed. Outdoor things matter twice: they take space on the truck, and some of them fall under a pest rule when you leave one area for another (what cannot go).

Photograph as you walk. One photo of each wall of each room, one of each closet and drawer stack, and a close photo of anything already scratched or chipped. Note the photo in the "Photo taken" column. A photo dated before the move is the simplest proof of an item's condition if a claim follows. Convention

Deciding what goes

Every row gets one of eight decisions. The first seven are the ones professional organizers and move managers use: the National Association of Senior and Specialty Move Managers (NASMM) lists gifting to family, donation, sale (by auction, estate sale, buy-out or consignment) and disposal in its free consumer guide, and the credential exam for professional organizers names "removal options" such as donation, disposal, selling and shredding. The eighth, not decided, is ours: it is allowed, but only with a date beside it.

The calendar's suggestion is to start the inventory and the decisions about eight weeks out and to sell, donate and book pickups about five weeks out (The move calendar). Those weeks are our suggestion, not anyone's rule.

Sort before you pack, against a floor plan

Decide before you pack, not after you arrive. One downsizing course warns against what it calls the "Move and Decide" plan; we read that as moving everything and sorting at the other end, where the moving is already paid for and there is nowhere to put what you do not want. The trade's free guides and paid courses agree on the alternative: measure the new home and plan the furniture on a floor plan first, then decide. NASMM's guide calls this planning the space ahead. Convention

For furniture, the floor plan settles most decisions. If the new living room takes one sofa and you own two, one of them has a decision other than "move." Learn Space Planning, a sibling manual, covers measuring a room and drawing it to scale (How to measure a room and draw a floor plan to scale) and measuring furniture with the space it needs in use (How to measure furniture and the space it needs in use). For a small apartment, Learn First Home Basics covers storage that fits the space (Storage for a small apartment).

Without a floor plan, two questions do most of the work for each row: does it have a place in the new home, and would you buy it again at its price? Neither question has a right answer we can give you. They make the decision visible, and the row records it. Preference

Short sessions, easiest rooms first

Sorting is tiring in a way packing is not, because every item is a decision. Move-manager guidance runs sorting as short sessions. One Manhattan move manager, quoted in a news story NASMM reprints, puts the limit at about three hours a day for most older clients. That is one practitioner's estimate, for one group of people, but a cap of some kind helps anyone. Start with the rooms that hold the fewest memories (the storage closet, the garage, the files) and leave the photographs and letters for last. NASMM's guide makes the same suggestion: start early, in the attic, basement, garage, closets and files. If an older relative is moving, read Children, pets and older relatives before the first session. Preference

Donating, selling and disposing: local rules

Where an item can go is set by the charity, the city or the state, not by any national rule. Some examples, to show the range:

• Charities refuse more than people expect. One regional Goodwill, Goodwill of Greater Washington, does not take mattresses, box springs or sleeper sofas, cribs, strollers or car seats, large appliances, or furniture or exercise equipment over 50 pounds (Goodwill of Greater Washington, donations it cannot accept). Other Goodwill regions set their own lists.
• Furniture, appliances and building materials go to Habitat for Humanity ReStores in many places, and many ReStores pick up large items. Habitat says each ReStore is different and to call first (Habitat for Humanity, Donate goods to ReStore).
• Mattresses. The Mattress Recycling Council runs statewide programs in California, Connecticut, Oregon and Rhode Island; elsewhere it points to recycling sites or your city or waste hauler (Mattress Recycling Council).
• Electronics. The EPA says to take batteries out of electronics before recycling them, and that lithium-ion batteries and devices containing them should not go in household garbage or recycling bins (EPA, Electronics donation and recycling).
• Food. Use up the freezer and the pantry in the last weeks. Move For Hunger works with movers who deliver unopened, non-perishable food to a local food bank at no added cost; not every mover takes part (Move For Hunger, Find a mover).

For your own area, call the charity before you load the car, and look up your city's bulky-item and household hazardous waste pages. Ask the authority

Cubic feet and weight

A cubic foot is the space of a box one foot on each side. Movers, rental companies and container companies all size a move in cubic feet, so the inventory adds up the cubic feet of everything that moves. Measuring each piece is slow and still misses how furniture stacks. Estimators use a table of measurements instead: a list of standard cubic-foot figures per item.

The only regulator-published table we found is California's. Its Maximum Rate Tariff 4, which governs licensed household movers within California, lists about 200 items in Item 410 and tells the estimator to use figures no smaller than the table's and to multiply the total cubic feet by seven to get an approximate weight (California Maximum Rate Tariff 4, 2026 (PDF)). We use its figures as the manual's estimating table, wherever you live. Some common items:

For anything not listed, pick the nearest item, or measure the piece (width times depth times height in inches, divided by 1,728) and round up. Write the figure in the cubic feet column. Then estimate the boxes: count them by size (1.5, 3.0, 4.5 and 6.0 cubic feet are the common sizes; The packing system lists them) and add them in the volume calculator. Before you pack, a box count is a guess; once you pack, the box register makes it a count.

From cubic feet to pounds: a convention

Weight matters for two reasons. A mover on a long-distance move charges by it, and a rental truck or container has a payload, the most cargo weight it is rated to carry. To estimate weight from volume, California's tariff and Washington's both use 7 pounds per cubic foot. Washington's Tariff 15-C defines constructive weight as a weight based on seven pounds per cubic foot of properly loaded van space, and says a long-distance estimate within Washington may not be based on less than that (Washington UTC, Tariff 15-C (PDF)). Convention

It is a convention for estimates, not a measurement of your goods. In a 1998 decision on a federal employee's move, the General Services Administration Board of Contract Appeals recorded carriers' own density figures of 3.06 to 5.71 pounds per cubic foot and said the 7-pound figure may be "overly generous" (GSBCA 14709-RELO, 1998). So a typical load is often lighter per cubic foot than the convention, and a box of books is much heavier: California's tariff deems a carton of books to weigh 50 pounds when it settles a claim. The volume calculator defaults to 7 and lets you change it.

What to do with the estimate:

• Size a truck or container by both its cubic feet and its payload, in Moving it yourself. At 7 pounds a cubic foot, a truck packed full can be over its own payload on some sizes; the label on the truck's door post settles it.
• Check a mover's estimate. If your total and the mover's survey are far apart, ask what the mover counted that you did not, or the reverse (Hiring a mover).
• Know which figure governs. On an interstate move priced by weight, the scale at weighing decides the charge, not anyone's estimate.

What cannot go on the truck

Three kinds of rule keep things off the truck, and they come from different places:

1. Hazardous materials, banned by movers, rental contracts and container companies, and covered by federal law when a mover carries them.
2. Plants, firewood and outdoor items, covered by federal and state pest quarantines that depend on where you leave from and where you go.
3. Valuables, documents and medicines, which a mover may carry but limits its responsibility for. Those go on the carry list in what you carry.

The what cannot go on the truck table has one row per item, whose list names it, and what to do instead. This section explains why the lists exist and where they differ.

Hazardous materials

A hazardous material here means anything flammable, explosive, corrosive, poisonous or under pressure. California's tariff prints the only regulator-published household list we found, in the consumer booklet at Item 470: rubbing alcohol, motor oil, antifreeze, acids, drain cleaner, bleach, wet or dry batteries, pool chemicals, fireworks, small-arms ammunition, lighter fluid, matches, paint and paint removers, garden sprays, butane, propane and gasoline in garden equipment, flares, charcoal, aerosol cans, fire extinguishers and scuba tanks. The companies' own lists overlap with it and go further:

Which list applies depends on who carries the goods. When you hire a mover, its list applies, and so does federal law: the federal booklet movers hand out says federal law forbids shipping hazardous materials in your household goods without telling the mover (FMCSA, Your Rights and Responsibilities When You Move (PDF)). The penalty statute provides for a fine and up to five years in prison for a knowing violation (49 U.S.C. 5124), and the federal mover regulation lets a mover decline liability for hazardous items packed without its knowledge, and for the damage they cause. When you rent a truck or container, the rental contract's list applies. Ask the authority

Propane. Each list above bans propane from the cargo area, by name or as a flammable. If you take a grill cylinder with you, it rides in your car, by its supplier's or the cylinder maker's instructions. The only industry transport guide we could fetch is Canadian: disconnect and cap the cylinder, keep it upright with the valve on top, carry it on the floor of the passenger area with the windows open (or with the trunk lid propped open), and do not leave it in a parked car with the windows up (Canadian Propane Association, Handling and transporting propane cylinders). Giving it away or exchanging it are the other choices. Ask the authority

Lithium batteries. PHMSA, the federal pipeline and hazardous materials agency, says lithium batteries are regulated as hazardous materials when transported in commerce, that damaged or recalled ones carry more fire risk, and that households should recycle them rather than putting them in the trash (PHMSA, Transporting lithium batteries). The rules treat a battery installed in a device differently from a loose one: in a 2021 letter to an e-bike shipper, PHMSA said a loose lithium battery needs specification packaging that a battery installed in the bike does not (PHMSA, Interpretation 21-0037). That letter answered a commercial shipper, not a household. For your move, ask the mover or container company what it accepts, loose and installed, and follow the device maker's instructions for carrying the battery. Ask the authority

What to do instead. Use it up, give it to a neighbor who will, or take it to a household hazardous waste collection: the paint, cleaners, oils, batteries and pesticides that the EPA says states and cities handle through local drop-off sites and collection days (EPA, Household hazardous waste). The EPA notes that some garages accept used motor oil. Put a collection day on the move calendar; they are not held every week.

Plants, firewood and outdoor items

Pest rules depend on where you leave from and where you go. A quarantine area is a place an agency has designated because a pest is established there; moving certain things out of it needs an inspection or a certificate. Three rules reach households most often.

Firewood: leave it. USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says moving firewood even a short distance can spread tree pests, that several states restrict how untreated firewood moves, and that people should buy firewood where they burn it and not take leftover wood home (APHIS, Buy firewood where you burn it, October 1, 2026). Don't Move Firewood, a Nature Conservancy campaign, warns that "kiln-dried" wood is not the same as wood certified as heat-treated (Don't Move Firewood, FAQ). Burn it before you go, or give it to a neighbor.

Outdoor household articles and the spongy moth. The spongy moth is a tree pest, formerly called the gypsy moth, established across the Northeast and in parts of the Midwest. A federal rule says an outdoor household article may be moved from a quarantine area into or through an area that is not quarantined only with a certificate or an inspection document (7 CFR 301.45-4). The rule's list of outdoor household articles includes awnings, grills, bicycles, boats, dog houses, firewood, garden tools, trailers, outdoor furniture and toys, recreational vehicles and tents. For a household, the document is a self-inspection checklist, PPQ Form 377, that you fill in and sign; you can also hire a qualified certified applicator to inspect. APHIS's flyer and the form say what to do:

• Inspect everything that was stored outside, and scrape off any egg masses (buff or yellowish patches) with a putty knife or stiff brush into hot, soapy water.
• Between April and August, inspect on moving day if you can, or keep the items under a sealed tarp, indoors or in a closed truck after you inspect.
• Keep the signed checklist in the vehicle carrying the goods, give the driver a copy if you are not driving, and keep it for at least five years. APHIS calls it an official certificate.

The checklist reaches further than patio furniture: it lists outdoor refrigerators and washing machines, propane and oil tanks, storage sheds, house plants that spent the summer outside, swing sets, and cars and trucks. The rule applies only if you are leaving a quarantine area. APHIS publishes the areas in a list last updated April 15, 2026: all of Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont, and parts of Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin (APHIS, Spongy moth quarantine areas (PDF)). The form is PPQ Form 377 (PDF); APHIS has asked the Office of Management and Budget to renew it, and the form stays in use while that request is pending. APHIS's spongy moth page has the map and an online version of the checklist.

House plants and state borders. Some states inspect plants at the border. California, as an example, runs border protection stations where inspection is voluntary but vehicles are not allowed in until an inspector releases them (CDFA, Border protection stations FAQ). Its house plant guidance says plants should have been grown indoors in sterile, packaged commercial potting mix, strongly discourages bringing citrus, pine and fruit or nut trees, and asks movers to put house plants at the top of the inventory and near the van doors (CDFA, House plants into California FAQ). Plants with pests can be refused. Movers' own rules on plants differ; ask yours. For other states' rules, CDFA points to the National Plant Board. Ask the authority

What you carry yourself

Some things are better in your own hands than on a truck, whoever drives it. The carry list is the short list of what travels with you: in your car, your bag or your pocket. We found no agency page that lists what to carry; the default below comes from the federal mover rules on valuable articles and from the movers' and regulators' own lists. This manual's convention

• Documents: passports, birth certificates, deeds, wills, the lease or closing papers, school and medical records, and the moving paperwork itself. North American lists deeds, wills, negotiable papers and moving documents as things to carry.
• Medicines and anything you need daily: glasses, chargers, a phone. North American advises against shipping prescription drugs needed for immediate use.
• Jewelry, money and keys. California's consumer booklet tells movers' customers to keep jewelry, money and vital documents separate.
• Anything worth more than $100 a pound. The federal mover rules call this extraordinary value. When an interstate shipment moves under full value protection, the mover can limit its liability to $100 a pound for an article worth more than that unless you listed it in writing (49 CFR 375.201 and 375.203). A 2-pound watch worth $3,000 could recover $200. Either list such items with the mover, which Hiring a mover covers, or carry them.
• The open-first and essentials boxes you will need before the truck is unloaded: Unpacking in order lists what goes in them.

State tariffs say the same in their own way. Washington's in-state tariff, as an example, says the carrier is not responsible for coins, currency, valuable papers, jewelry, precious metals, items of extraordinary value, pets, live plants and perishables, and adds furniture made of pressboard or particle board. Your state's rule may differ; the mover's paperwork states it. On a self-move, carrying these in the car rather than the truck box keeps them with you if the truck is delayed, and Triple-I says homeowners and renters policies cover belongings in transit but will not pay for damage done while movers handle them: ask your insurer what your own policy covers. Ask the authority

Mark carry items "Carry myself" on the inventory sheet, put them in one place in the home (a closet with a sign on the door, or the car), and pack that place last. Moving day covers traveling with them.

See it: Noor's list, the Brandts' patio set, Jun's plants See it

In the volume calculator, 392 cubic feet is about 52 percent of the truck's listed 760, and 2,744 pounds is about 46 percent of the listed 6,000-pound payload. Under these assumptions the truck has room on both counts; the door-post label, not the listing, is the figure that settles the payload. Her cannot-go sweep finds a can of spray paint and two aerosol cleaners under the sink (fictional), which go to the city's household hazardous waste drop-off. Her carry list holds her documents, medicines, keys and jewelry. The bicycle is an outdoor article, but she is moving 6 miles within one state, so the federal spongy moth rule does not reach it.

On the morning of June 21, Elena inspects the grill, both bikes and the patio set against PPQ Form 377, scrapes one egg mass off the underside of a patio chair into soapy water, and signs the form. David gives the mover's driver a copy, as the flyer says to do when you are not driving, and the signed form rides in their car to the new home, where it goes in the moving binder for five years. On the inventory sheet, the four rows read "move," with "PPQ 377 signed June 21" in the notes.

Jun keeps the eight houseplants in commercial potting mix, rides with them in the car, and puts them where they can be reached at the border station. A potted citrus tree stays behind with a friend. The e-bike's battery comes off and rides in the car, carried as the bike maker's instructions say; the frame goes in the container. Jun's inventory sheet has the plants and the battery as "carry myself."

• California Maximum Rate Tariff 4, 2026 (PDF): the Item 410 table of measurements, the 7-pound rule and the Item 470 hazardous list in one regulator document.
• APHIS, Spongy moth: the quarantine map, the self-inspection checklist and what egg masses look like.
• CDFA, House plants into California: one state's border rules for plants, written for people moving.
• EPA, Household hazardous waste: what counts and how to find a local collection.

Practice: one home, one evening Practice

Minimum: one walk through your home with every piece of furniture and large item on the inventory sheet, each with a decision, cubic feet on the rows that move and a total, and the cannot-go and carry lists written down. Noor's list above is a model you can copy. Time: one to two hours for a 1-bedroom home; a session per two or three rooms for a larger one. Materials: a phone for photos, the inventory sheet (or paper), the table in cubic feet and weight, the volume calculator and the what cannot go on the truck table.

1. Walk and list. Start at the front door and go room by room, closets and outdoor spaces included. One row per piece; number the rows as you go. Photograph each room and each closet.
2. Decide. Give every row a decision. Where you cannot decide, write "not decided" and a date in the notes, and put the date on the move calendar.
3. Add cubic feet. For each "move" row, write the table figure. Read the total at the bottom of the column; if it says incomplete, find the blank.
4. Estimate the boxes. Guess a count per size for each room and enter the counts with the furniture total in the volume calculator. Write the total cubic feet and the estimated weight in the notes of the inventory's first row, with the date.
5. Sweep for what cannot go. Under the sinks, the garage, the balcony, the hall closet. Each find gets a plan: use up, give away, hazardous waste collection, carry, or ask.
6. Write the carry list. Mark each carry item "Carry myself," and choose one place in the home to gather them.

Your move Your move

Check your work Check your work

Criteria

• Does every piece of furniture and every large item, from every room and outdoor space, have a row and a decision?
• Does every "not decided" row have a date to decide by, on the calendar?
• Does every "move" row have a cubic-foot figure, and does the total say complete?
• Is the weight estimate written with the convention it used (7 pounds a cubic foot, or your own figure)?
• Has each item on the cannot-go list got a plan that is not "the truck"?
• Is the carry list written, and is there one place where its items are gathered?
• If you are leaving a state, have you checked the pest quarantines at both ends?

Worked example

Noor's sheet passes: nine furniture rows, all decided, all with Item 410 figures and a complete total of 260; her box estimate brings the move to 392 cubic feet and about 2,744 pounds, written as an estimate at 7 pounds a cubic foot. Her cannot-go list has three cans with a drop-off date, and her carry list exists. It does not tell her whether the truck's payload is enough under the real load; the door-post label and Moving it yourself do. The Brandts' sheet passes for the outdoor items because the four rows carry the PPQ Form 377 note and the grill's cylinder has a plan. Jun's passes because the plants and battery are on the carry list and the citrus tree has a decision.

Common mistakes

• Skipping the outdoor spaces. The grill, bikes and patio set are both truck space and, leaving a quarantine area, a federal form.
• Deciding in the new home. Everything that moves undecided is paid for twice: once to move it, once to get rid of it.
• Reading the weight estimate as a weight. It is a convention; real loads are often lighter per cubic foot, and books heavier.
• Treating a blank as zero. A total with blanks is incomplete. Fill them or say so.
• Packing the propane cylinder "because it is empty." The rental and mover lists ban cylinders, and U-Haul says a nearly empty one is as dangerous as a full one.
• Putting the passports in a box. Documents, medicines and anything over $100 a pound go on the carry list.

What is still unresolved

Which truck, container or mover carries the total is settled in Moving services compared, and whether a truck's payload holds the real load in Moving it yourself. A mover's survey, its own inventory and the valuation you choose are in Hiring a mover. Packing the boxes against a numbered register is The packing system, and appliances, pianos and art are in Fragile, heavy and awkward things. What a charity takes is settled by the charity; whether a quarantine applies, by APHIS's list and your destination state's plant office; what an item is worth for tax or sale, by an appraiser or the buyer, not this manual.

Knowledge check and scenario

Checklist

• Every piece of furniture and large item, outdoor spaces included, is on the inventory sheet with a decision.
• The items that move have cubic feet and a complete total, and I wrote down the estimated weight and the convention behind it.
• The cannot-go list exists, and each item on it has a plan that is not the truck.
• The carry list exists, and its items have one place to gather.
• I photographed each room and closet and filled in values for anything I would claim for. (Go deeper; optional)
• I checked the pest quarantines at both ends of an interstate move. (Go deeper; optional)
• I worked out one large item's share of a weight-based quote. (Go deeper; optional)