How to label boxes for shifting (and find things later)

Updated 5 October 2026 · 7 min read

A good label answers three questions for three different people. The mover needs to know which room to carry it to. You need to know which box to open first. And in two months, someone looking for the pressure cooker needs to know which box it was in. Labelling for all three takes about ten seconds a box.

What to write on every box

Don’t write valuables on the outside (“jewellery”, “laptop”, “silver”). Those should travel with you, not in a carton — and a label that says what’s valuable tells everyone which box to take.

Where to put the label

• On the top and on one side. Boxes get stacked; the top label is hidden the moment another box goes on it.
• Not across the tape seam — it tears when the box is opened.
• Use a thick permanent marker, or print labels and stick them on with clear tape over them so they survive rain and handling.

Number every box — it’s the most useful thing you’ll do

Numbering is what turns a pile of identical brown boxes into something you can check. Write the number on the box and keep a list: BOX 014 — Kitchen — pressure cooker, tiffins, mixer jars. On delivery day, you count numbers off the truck instead of guessing. When something is missing, you know which box to look in.

Keep the numbers simple and unique across the whole move (001, 002, 003…). Don’t restart the numbering per room.

Colour coding by room

A coloured sticker or a strip of coloured tape per room helps when movers are carrying fast and can’t read: blue for bedrooms, red for the kitchen, green for the living room. Put a matching sticker on each room’s door at the new home. It’s useful for big moves with many helpers — for a small flat, clear room names are enough.

Handling marks that work

• FRAGILE — glass, crockery, idols, photo frames. Pack them well anyway; a word on a box is not padding.
• THIS SIDE UP ↑ — with arrows on two sides, for liquids, plants, electronics.
• OPEN FIRST — the first-night box: kettle, cups, toilet roll, chargers, towels, medicines.
• HEAVY — books and tools, so nobody lifts it carelessly.
• DO NOT LOAD — boxes that travel in your car, not the truck.

The contents list: the part people skip

A label tells you a box is “Kitchen”. It doesn’t tell you the tea strainer is in box 14 and not box 15. For that you need a contents list per box — and that is exactly what people stop writing by the twentieth box.

Three ways to keep it, from slowest to fastest:

1. A notebook or spreadsheet: box number, room, contents. Reliable if you keep it up.
2. A photo of each open box before you tape it, saved in an album named after the move. Quick, but hard to search later.
3. A photo that becomes the list: photograph the open box in WhatsWhere and the AI lists what it sees; you can tick it, rename things or just carry on. Later you can ask “which box has the tea strainer?” and see the photo.

How QR code labels for boxes work

A QR label is a printed square that a phone camera can read. Instead of writing the contents on the box, the code points to the box’s contents list, so anyone who scans it sees what’s inside — without opening it. It’s useful when:

• boxes go into storage for months and you won’t remember what you wrote;
• several people unpack and need to know where each box belongs;
• the contents change after labelling (you added something at the last minute).

Stick the QR label next to the written number and room, not instead of them — the movers still need to read the room at a glance, and not every helper will scan.

A simple labelling routine

1. Before packing, print or write a sheet of numbered labels (see printable box labels).
2. Fill the box. Photograph it open, or write the contents.
3. Tape it shut. Stick the label on the top and one side. Add handling marks if true.
4. Stack finished boxes by room, labels facing out.

Then, on delivery day, follow the house shifting checklist to count them in.

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