The Blue Guy said:
How specific does the list of belongings have to be? What can you exclude?
Blue Guy, my husband only included big or expensive items - electronics (laptop, mobile, camera, external hard drives), jewelry and antique termeh (Persian cloth). He didn't bring any household items with him (no carpet, for example). He did not include basic items such as clothes, shoes, and translated docs (university degrees, licenses, etc.) On the regular landing card we declared that we were bringing in some food items (nuts, sweets, saffron) as we would be giving some of this away as gifts and wasn't just for personal use. I can say that at Toronto Pearson Airport they didn't even look at our list and only asked what we had included, but didn't bother to check it in detail.
If you will bring anything at a later date to Canada, you should make a list for this as well. I think this is more important than what you are bringing now as Border Services will keep this list on file (make two copies, one for yourself and one to give to the border officers). Again, I would just include big items (carpets, paintings, furniture, car, electronics, etc.) At the airport they did ask if we had anything that would be arriving in Canada at a later date and we said no.