Guides
Guides to keeping track of what you own
Guides from Waoo Storage, the home inventory app: what to photograph, how to label a bin so the label still makes sense in two years, and what an insurer actually asks for.
Documenting valuables: what an appraiser actually wants
For jewellery, art and collections, the photograph is only half of it. The other half is a set of details that take a minute each and are impossible to reconstruct later.
Storage when there is genuinely no space
Small-space advice usually assumes you can buy more furniture. Here is what works when the constraint is real: vertical space, dead space, and being honest about what leaves.
Storing decorations so next year is not an archaeology dig
Decorations are stored for eleven months and used for one, which makes them the worst-organised category in most homes. Two hours in January fixes it permanently.
QR code labels for storage bins: how they actually work
A printed square that opens a list of what is in the box. No app for the person scanning, no typing, and the label never has to be rewritten when the contents change.
Clearing a parent’s house without losing track
This is the hardest inventory anyone ever does, and usually the one with the most people involved. A shared record removes most of the friction that is not actually about grief.
What to put away before the first cold week
Autumn storage is mostly about moisture and mice. Do it in the fortnight before the weather turns, not in the fortnight after, and most of the annual damage does not happen.
What size storage unit do you actually need?
Facility size guides are written by people who sell space. Here is how to work it out from what you own, plus the three factors that make a nominally adequate unit too small.
Packing fragile things so they survive the journey
Most breakages are not impacts. They are things touching each other, or a box that was allowed to flex. Both are solved by how you fill the space rather than what you wrap in.
Why home inventory spreadsheets get abandoned
Almost everyone starts with a spreadsheet, and almost everyone stops. It is not a discipline problem — it is that the two hardest parts of an inventory are the two things a spreadsheet is worst at.
Seasonal storage: the twice-a-year swap that takes an hour
Half of what a household owns is out of season at any moment. Treating that as a scheduled rotation rather than a permanent overflow gets a lot of space back.
Decluttering: how to decide what is actually worth keeping
The hard part is not throwing things away. It is the small pile of things you cannot classify, where every decision costs real effort. Here are the questions that resolve them.
How much contents insurance do you actually need?
Most households are underinsured, and not by a little. The reason is that people estimate from memory, and memory systematically forgets whole categories.
A garage organisation system that survives a winter
Garages do not get untidy gradually. They get untidy every time something is put down rather than put away, and the fix is deciding in advance where "away" is.
How to organise a storage unit you can actually walk into
A unit packed to the door is a unit you cannot use. Leaving a walkway costs you about fifteen percent of the floor and gives you back everything at the back.
A packing checklist that survives moving day
Most packing checklists are lists of rooms. The useful version is a list of decisions — what gets packed last, what never goes in the van, and what you will need before the boxes are unpacked.
How to label storage boxes so the label still works in two years
Descriptive labels rot. "Kitchen misc" was accurate the day you wrote it and meaningless the day you need it. Here is what to write on a box instead.
What to photograph for a contents insurance claim
Adjusters do not want a photo of your living room. They want proof of ownership, condition and value — which is four specific pictures per item, taken before anything goes wrong.
How to make a home inventory you actually finish
Most home inventories die somewhere around the third drawer. Here is the order of work that gets one finished in an afternoon rather than abandoned over a month.