How to Inventory an Estate: A Step by Step Guide for Families

When someone passes away or moves into care, the family often inherits a house full of belongings and no clear starting point. An inventory is the first step that brings order to the process. It tells you what’s there, what it’s worth, and what to do with each item, whether you keep it, sell it, donate it, or pass it on.

You have two good options. You can do the inventory yourself with InventoryHub, a tool built to photograph, describe, and value your belongings so you’re ready to sell them. Or you can bring in a professional estate team that handles the walkthrough, photos, and sale for you. The steps below are the same either way.

1. Start with the paperwork

Before you touch a single box, find the estate’s key documents. Look for the will, any trust documents, the deed or lease, and insurance policies. Insurance policies are especially useful because they often list major items like jewelry, art, and collectibles along with their declared values.

2. Walk through room by room

Pick one room and work through it completely before moving on. Start at the door and move in one direction, so nothing gets skipped. Record everything you find, from furniture and appliances to kitchen tools, garage tools, and items in closets and attics. Don’t try to value anything yet. Focus on capturing what’s there.

3. Photograph and label as you go

Take a clear photo of each item, along with any maker’s marks, serial numbers, or damage. Good lighting and a plain background make a big difference. If you’re working with a lot of items, use painter’s tape or sticky notes to label each piece with a number that matches your list. You can also photograph items directly into InventoryHub, which keeps each photo tied to its record from the start.

4. Write a short description for each item

For every item, note the type, material, brand or maker, approximate size, condition, and any markings. A short, specific description like “Walnut side table, mid century, scratch on top” is far more useful later than “small table.” InventoryHub can help draft these descriptions from your photos, so you can review and adjust them instead of writing each one from scratch.

5. Sort items into categories

Once the walkthrough is done, group items into categories:

• Keep: items the family wants

• Sell: items with resale value, such as furniture, art, jewelry, tools, and collectibles

• Donate: items in good condition with no resale value

• Dispose: broken or unusable items

Set aside anything valuable for a closer look. Jewelry, art, coins, firearms, and collectibles often need an appraisal or specialist review before they’re sold.

6. Research values

For items you plan to sell, you can research values yourself by checking recent sold listings on auction sites and marketplaces, not just asking prices. Sold prices show what buyers actually paid. InventoryHub can also do this research for you. After you photograph an item, the app helps research its value and includes it in your report, so you’re not searching item by item. For higher value pieces, a qualified appraiser is still worth the cost, especially for jewelry, art, coins, and firearms.

7. Turn your inventory into sales

A complete inventory makes selling easier. Each item already has a photo, a description, and a value, so you can move straight into listing it for an online auction, a sale, or a buyer who asks what you have. InventoryHub keeps everything in one place, so you can export the report to share with buyers, an attorney, or family members who need to see what’s available.

Option one: Do it yourself with InventoryHub

If you want to work through the estate at your own pace, InventoryHub is built for that. You photograph each item, and the app helps write descriptions, research values, and build a professional report you can use to sell, share, or keep for insurance. It works well for estates and for households that simply want a complete record of their belongings.

Many homeowners wait until a claim or a move to document their belongings. Starting a record now means it’s ready when you need it.

Option two: Let our team handle it

If the job is too big to handle alone, or you’d rather have experienced people do the work, Estate Inventory Services can take it on. We do on site estate and home inventories across Northern Colorado and the Front Range. We walk through the home with you, photograph and catalog the contents, and organize everything by room and category. We then handle the sale, online auctions, and pickup, and we keep you informed at every stage. Our team is small, so you work directly with the people doing the job.

Get started

To book an estate inventory with our team, visit estateinventoryservices.com. To start documenting your belongings yourself, visit inventoryhub.app.