How to prepare for a video moving walkthrough

Home › Blog › How to prepare for a video moving walkthrough

2026-09-21 · Trinity Movers

You don't need to tidy up or be good with a camera. You just need to show the right things. Here's how to film a walkthrough that gets you an accurate moving estimate.

Before you start

When you request an estimate from Trinity Movers, we text you a link that opens in your phone's browser, with no app to download. You can do the walkthrough live with one of us, or record it yourself and send it in.

You don't need to clean. We're looking at furniture and boxes, not housekeeping. A few minutes of preparation helps, though.

Turn on every light and open the blinds. Dark video hides things.

Decide what's going and what isn't. If the washer stays with the house or the old sofa is headed to the curb, you'll want to say so.

Charge your phone, and if your signal is weak, connect to wifi.

Have both addresses handy, along with anything you know about the new place: which floor, stairs or elevator, and where a truck could park.

Film in a sensible order

Start at the front door and work through the house room by room, in the order you'd give a tour. It keeps you from skipping anything, and it helps us understand the layout.

In each room, stand in the doorway and pan slowly from one side to the other. Then step in and show anything that was hidden from the door. Say the room's name as you enter: primary bedroom, office, upstairs hall.

Hold the phone sideways if you can. A wide picture shows more of the room and is easier for us to review.

Open things as you go. Closets, kitchen cabinets, the pantry, the linen closet, the entertainment center. We don't need a close look at every shelf. We need to know whether it's packed full or nearly empty, because that's the difference between five boxes and twenty-five.

The kitchen deserves an extra minute. It almost always takes more boxes and more packing time than people expect.

Don't skip the forgotten places

This is where estimates go wrong. Film the garage, including the shelves and whatever is hanging on the walls. Film the attic if anything is stored there, even if you only show it from the ladder. Film the shed, the patio or deck furniture, the grill, the playset, and the potted plants.

If you have a storage unit that's part of the move, tell us, and film it on another day if you can.

Narrate as you go

The camera can't tell us what something weighs or whether it comes apart. You can. Useful things to say out loud:

This dresser is solid wood and very heavy. That table has a glass top. The bed frame comes apart, but the desk doesn't. This mirror is an antique. Everything in this room goes to storage, not to the new house. We're not taking the refrigerator.

Point out anything heavy, fragile, or unusual, such as pianos, safes, antiques, large TVs, aquariums, and exercise equipment. We handle delicate and heavy items, and knowing about them ahead of time lets us plan the right crew.

Show us the way out

Finish by walking the route your furniture will take. Go from the farthest bedroom to the front door, then outside to where a moving truck could realistically park. Show the stairs, tight corners, low ceilings, the front steps, the slope of the driveway, and any gate.

In an apartment, film the hallway, the elevator or stairwell, and the walk to the parking lot. Access has as much effect on a move as the furniture does.

Common mistakes

Going too fast is the big one. A slow pan is far more useful than a quick sweep. The others: filming in the dark, leaving closets shut, forgetting the outdoor items, and not mentioning what's staying behind.

If you realize later that you missed something, just tell us. We'd much rather update the estimate now than find out on move day. To learn what happens after you send the video, read our guide to how video moving estimates work, or see our video estimates and packing services pages.