How to label moving boxes

What to write on a moving box label

Four things, in this order of importance:

1. A number. It’s what makes the box unique. “Kitchen” written on eight boxes tells none of them apart; there’s only one “12”.
2. The destination room. Where the box goes in the new house or apartment — not where it came from. It’s what the movers need to read as they unload.
3. The warnings. “Fragile”, “Heavy”, “This side up”.
4. The priority. A mark on the few boxes you’ll open first.

What’s not worth writing is a list of what’s inside. It doesn’t fit, it ends up unreadable, and it tells anyone walking down the hallway which box has the valuables. The list lives somewhere else — the number is what ties it to the box.

Where to label moving boxes so movers can read them

The best place for a label is wherever it can still be seen once the boxes are stacked:

• On two sides and on top. When boxes are stacked, you only see one side, and it’s never the one with the label.
• Always in the same corner, so your eye finds one label after the next.
• Big letters. A number has to be readable from across the room.
• One color per room, if you like: a strip of colored tape or a different colored marker for each room. It’s a big help to whoever is unloading.

Labels, or mark the box with a marker?

A marker is faster and doesn’t peel off. On new cardboard boxes, it works well.

Printed labels and number stickers pay off in three cases: when the boxes are used and already have writing on them; when they’re plastic, where a marker doesn’t hold; and when you want every box to look the same and be easy to read — a printed label is always legible. Our moving box labels tool makes them for free, numbered and with the room, ready to print on A4 or Letter paper.

If you write on a reused box, cross out what was there first. Two rooms written on the same box is worse than none.

Why the number is what matters

With numbered boxes, you can keep a list: box 12, kitchen, the coffee maker and the mugs. In the new home, when you need the coffee maker, you don’t open all eight kitchen boxes — you go to 12.

The list can live in a notebook. The trouble with a notebook is that only one person has it, and looking for “coffee maker” across forty handwritten pages is almost as slow as opening the boxes.

When a QR code is worth it

A label with a QR code is a number your phone can read. Point the camera at the box and up comes the list of what’s inside — with photos.

It’s worth it when the move is big, when more than one person is packing and unpacking, or when some of the boxes will stay closed for months, in the basement or in a storage unit. For a ten-box move, a marker is enough.

See how the app’s QR code labels work.