How Box Roster works

Every number is a transparent estimate built from your inventory and a few stated assumptions. You can change all of them.

Volume

• Item volume = quantity × length × width × height. Items with no size are counted separately as "unknown size", never as zero.
• Geometric capacity = a box's listed length × width × height (sources on the box sizes page).
• Practical capacity = geometric × practical fill (default 75 %). Real contents never fill a box perfectly. The default is an assumption, not measured data.

Boxes for unboxed items

• Hanging clothes: one wardrobe box per line, following the "1 box per 2 ft of rail" guidance.
• Fragile kitchen items: dish pack.
• Dense items (over 0.35 kg per litre): small box (imperial) or book carton (metric).
• Everything else: the smallest standard box the item fits in any orientation.
• Count = the larger of ⌈volume ÷ practical capacity⌉ and ⌈weight ÷ min(carry limit, box rating)⌉, with at least one box per group.

Checks on each box

A box shows an error if an item can't fit in any orientation, if the contents exceed its geometric volume, or if the estimated weight is over the maker's rating. It shows a warning above the practical fill, above your carry limit, or when it holds fragile items but isn't marked fragile.

Materials

Tape: an H pattern on the top and bottom with 10 cm overhangs. Paper: 3 sheets per fragile piece plus 2 per box. Bubble wrap: 1.5 × the surface area of fragile pieces, on a 30 cm roll. These are rough planning numbers.

Numbering

Each new box gets the next number after the highest ever used, which is stored with the project. Numbers are never reused, even after deletes. Imports that contain duplicate numbers are renumbered and reported.

Tests

The engine tests include hand-calculated volumes and box counts, geometric vs practical fill, weight limits, numbering after deletes, JSON and CSV round trips, hostile files, and a 1,000-item performance test. Browser tests run on desktop and mobile layouts with every network request logged, to confirm nothing is sent anywhere.

Limits

• This is not truck or container loading, and furniture isn't planned.
• Accented letters are simplified in PDFs (é → e), and other non-Latin text prints as "?". CSV and JSON exports keep the full text.
• No photos, QR codes or syncing between devices.