We did an international move 2 years ago, shipping a container of belongings with us and putting the rest in storage. My husband's employer required us (in other words me) to supply a full inventory of all our belongings. That was a job and a half, description, purchase date and value of everything. I also took photos. So now I keep our inventory up-to-date, adding items as purchased, removing others. I don't ever want to have to tackle such a task again.