Creating a box

A box is anything that holds multiple items as a unit — a moving box, a plastic bin, a toolbox, a drawer, a banker's box of papers. Creating a box gives you one QR sticker that, when scanned, shows everything inside.

Create the box

Go to Inventory → Boxes in the navigation, then + New box (or open /boxes/edit.php).

The form is short:

• Label — required. The name on the sticker. Kitchen 1, Childhood photos, Garage shelf B. Keep it short — there's a limit of about 60 characters and the label is what shows on the printed sticker.
• Location — optional dropdown. Pick which of your locations the box is at. You can leave this blank for boxes that move around.
• Description — optional free text. Anything that doesn't fit the label. "Pots and pans wrapped in newspaper", "Don't ship — fragile".
• QR Label — pick one of your unattached codes from the dropdown, or leave it blank to auto-generate.

Hit Save and you're redirected to the box's view page. The QR Label is now reserved for this box and ready to print.

Add items to the box

Two ways, both equivalent:

From the box

On the box's edit page (click Edit on the view page), there's an Items in this box fieldset with a multi-select list of all your items. Tick the ones that are in this box. Hit Save. Done.

The list has a search filter, Select all, and Clear buttons. If a ticked item is currently associated with a different box, you'll see a ⚠ warning under it — saving will move it to this box. Items left unticked that were in this box will be removed from the box (they don't get deleted; they just stop being associated with this one).

From each item

When creating or editing an individual item, the In box dropdown lets you pick a box. Saving the item updates the same association.

Use whichever feels right for what you're doing. When you're packing one box, the box-side picker is faster (tick-tick-tick-save). When you're cataloguing one item that you're putting in an existing box, the item-side dropdown is faster.

When you scan the box

Scanning a box's QR opens its view page, which leads with Items in this box at the top. Each item shows with its title, brand, and model — click any of them to drill down.

This is the main payoff of putting QRs on boxes: scan a box, see what's inside without opening it.

Bulk-moving items

If you've already created a bunch of items and now want to move several into a new box at once, see Bulk-moving items between boxes.

Photos on boxes

Boxes have their own photo section on the view page. The first photo is what you'd put in a marketplace listing if you ever sell the box-as-a-unit. Most people don't bother taking photos of boxes — the items inside are what matters — but a quick "what does this box look like" photo is occasionally helpful when you're in a storage unit looking for the right one.

Print the label

On the view page click Print label to open the print page. See Printing labels for the printer setup. You can also add a short readable code in the centre of the QR — see QR centre labels.