A furnished home inventory template: what to write for every piece of furniture, how to use dated photos, who signs. And the inventory for a move or for storage, with a printable form.
A furnished home inventory template is a table with every piece of furniture and every object, the room, its condition when the keys change hands, dated photos, and the signatures of landlord and tenant. With different columns it also works for a move or for storage.
This post serves two uses, and I'm telling you up front because I'm an honest person and because otherwise you'd scroll away. The first is the inventory you attach to the lease when you get the keys. The second is the one for a move, when your things end up in boxes or in storage.
The printable form is right below: leave your name, email and mobile and it arrives by email. It has a table for boxes and one for furniture. It was made for moving, not for a lease, and I won't pretend otherwise: for a furnished home I'll show you how to use the Notes column.
For every object, write what it is, where it is, how many there are and what condition it's in today. «Sofa» is not enough. «Gray two-seater sofa, living room, light stain on the left armrest» is. The more boring the detail, the better: the inventory matters a year from now, when nobody remembers anything and everybody remembers something different.
I know, filling in an inventory is the least cinematic thing you can do with a pen. Nobody has ever shot a scene where the hero counts the chairs. But it's the sheet that saves you when someone swears the table was «perfect», and at that point it becomes strangely gripping.
The name of the object with one trait that sets it apart: color, material, size.
The room it's in.
How many pieces there are. Six chairs, not «chairs».
The condition at handover, in plain words: like new, signs of use, scratch, stain, doesn't work.
For appliances, whether they really work. Switched on, not «looks fine».
Keys, remote controls and spares, with the exact number of each.
For a furnished home, what matters is the «Condition» column of the furniture table: how that piece is on the day you move in, in plain words. The photo number goes in the Notes, and «Taken apart» stays on No. The rows below are examples I made up, never seen in any real home. The wobbly chair, though, exists in every furnished home: it's an unwritten law.
| Furniture or item | Room | Condition | Taken apart | Parts and screws | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Two-seater sofa, gray | Living room | Light stain on the left armrest | No | Photos 4 and 5 | |
Wooden chairs (6) | Kitchen | One wobbles | No | Photo 9 | |
Wardrobe, two doors | Bedroom | Right door closes badly | No | Photo 12 | |
Built-in oven | Kitchen | Works, the left knob is loose | No | Photo 14 |
A written line says what was there, a photo says how it was. Shoot with your phone, which usually records date and time in the file details, and give each photo the number you then write on the inventory row. That way «photo 9» finds the wobbly chair at once.
Take one wide shot per room and then the details. A defect needs two shots: one close and one from a distance, otherwise a scratch on a table is the scratch of any table, and nobody can tell whose it is. Photograph the corner you think doesn't matter too. It'll be the one that does.
Send the photos to both parties, by email or message, the same day. The date then doesn't depend on your phone's memory, which already has enough to deal with between notifications and cat pictures.
Your things won't fit in the new place?
We collect boxes and furniture at your door, keep them with a label on every item and the list in your account, and bring them back when you want.
Would you rather talk to a person?+39 02 999 444 21WhatsApp
Moving storage
An inventory has practical value when both parties sign it, with the date, in two identical copies, and when the lease refers to it as an attachment. These are common-sense tips, not legal advice: check what your own lease says and, if in doubt, ask whoever drew it up.
The Italian Civil Code, in Article 1590, says a tenant must leave the property in the condition in which it was received, according to the description made by the parties, except for deterioration or wear from use in line with the contract (Article 1590 of the Civil Code, in Italian). «The description made by the parties» is, more or less, the table you have just filled in.
I'm not a lawyer and I don't plan to become one for a blog post. I'm someone who has moved more often than he wanted to, and who, at every key handover, would have paid for a sheet saying «the table was already like this». The landlord signs to protect their furniture, the tenant to avoid paying for a scratch they didn't make: same sheet, two opposite reasons, which is why it works.
For a move or storage, the inventory is the box table: one number per box, the room, the contents in a few words, an X if it's fragile and a note. You write the same number on the row and on the box. Six months from now you'll be looking for chargers and you won't want to open twelve boxes to find them.
| No. | Room | Contents | Fragile | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Kitchen | Plates and glasses | X | Packing paper, on top |
2 | Living room | Books and DVDs | Heavy, don't stack high | |
3 | Bedroom | Blankets and pillows | ||
4 | Study | Cables, chargers, router | Bag with the yellow label |
If you take a piece of furniture apart, the furniture table has two columns for it: «Taken apart» and «Parts and screws». Put the screws in a bag, tape it to the furniture and write on the row where it is. A lost screw is never really lost: it's a screw in a box you labeled «misc».
If you'd rather not take things apart yourself, we do it on a free quote, together with a pickup or storage: it's on the page about furniture disassembly and assembly in Milan. Boxes close properly with the tips in how to pack your boxes.
If your things go into storage with us, every item gets a label and the list of your things is in your account. Your pen-and-paper sheet stays as the backup copy, the one that works without wifi. The service is described on the page about moving storage in Milan, and if you're still deciding what to bring, there's how to organize a move, with the real deadlines.
Ten minutes is realistic for a living room. For the kitchen of someone who inherited grandma's pots, allow time to count them one by one. The method is the same for both uses.
Walk into the room with the form, a pen and your phone, and start at the door going clockwise: that way you skip nothing.
Take the photo before writing the row, then put the photo number in Notes.
One row per object, and for identical pieces a single row with the quantity.
Write down defects even when they seem trivial, and mark what doesn't work.
Close the room with a wide shot.
At the end, date and signature at the bottom of every page, not only the last one.
There is no single model you must use. It's an attachment that the parties write and sign together, and Article 1590 of the Italian Civil Code speaks of «the description made by the parties». Having one avoids arguments about what was there and in what condition. If your lease requires it, the lease says so: check there.
Usually the two parties do it together, in the home, at the key handover. The landlord prepares the list, the tenant checks it room by room and corrects what doesn't match. At the end both sign.
The form is made for moving and storage: one table for boxes and one for furniture. For a furnished home you use the furniture table and write the condition in the Notes column. If your lease asks for other items, add them by hand.
No. Photos show how a thing is, the list says what should be there. Without the list you can't tell if something is missing, without photos you can't show how it was. You need both, with the same number on the row and on the photo.
Yes. The box table and the furniture table work for both. In Smoves storage every item gets a label and the list of your things is in your account; your pen-and-paper sheet stays as your own copy.
Your things won't fit in the new place?
We collect boxes and furniture at your door, keep them with a label on every item and the list in your account, and bring them back when you want.
Would you rather talk to a person?+39 02 999 444 21WhatsApp
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