QR box labels for DIY moves

The idea

Every DIY move ends the same way: fifteen boxes labelled KITCHEN in marker, and somebody opening ten of them at 9 pm looking for the kettle. Writing detailed contents lists while packing never happens because packing is miserable and lists are slow.

The wedge is photo-first capture: scan a QR, snap two photos into the open box, done, under fifteen seconds. Auto-captioning the photos makes them text-searchable later, so the effort lands on the machine, not the exhausted person taped into a corner. The product only has to be better than marker-on-cardboard, which is a low bar the incumbents (clunky home-inventory apps built for insurance) still manage to miss.

Who pays

The buyer is mid-move and already spending 200-plus dollars on tape, boxes, and van hire; a one-time 12 dollars per move prices against one evening of not finding things. No subscription, because the pain lasts six weeks. Distribution: SEO on moving checklist and how to label moving boxes queries, r/moving, and TikTok packing-hack content where the scan-snap-done flow demos in ten seconds.

MVP scope

• Printable QR label sheets in Avery layout plus a generic grid
• Scan-room-photos packing flow tuned to under 15 seconds per box
• Server-side photo auto-captioning feeding text search
• Search with photo results, plus scan-any-box contents view
• Partner sharing per move and per-room box counts
• Skip for v1: insurance valuations, barcode product lookup, mover marketplace, long-term home inventory features

Build BoxDex, a React Native (Expo) app that makes packing a searchable database with near-zero extra effort per box.

Setup: user creates a move, names rooms (Kitchen, Bedroom 1), and generates QR label sheets as PDFs laid out for Avery 22806 square labels (also a generic 2-inch grid), each QR encoding a box ID. They print at home or order none at all and use on-screen codes written on boxes as fallback numbers.

Packing flow, optimised to under 15 seconds per box: scan the label with the in-app camera, pick the destination room (sticky default to last used), snap 1-3 photos looking down into the open box, hit done. Optional free-text note. On upload, send each photo for auto-captioning (short object list like mugs, kettle, chopping boards, cables) stored as searchable text; run this server-side via a Supabase Edge Function so packing never waits on it.

Finding flow: search kettle, get photo results with box number and room; or scan any box's QR to see its contents without opening it. Also a per-room box count for checking nothing was left on the van.

Screens: Move home (rooms, box counts, search bar), Scan/Pack, Box detail, Label sheet generator, Search results.

Pricing: free for 10 boxes; one-time 12 dollars per move via Stripe unlocks unlimited. Shared access: partner joins the move with a code, because two people pack.