Using Ginkgo When Moving Home

Moving home is one of the most chaotic inventory challenges there is. Ginkgo can help you track what’s in which box, where everything has ended up, and what’s still missing.

Before the move: create a Moving project

1. Create a new project called “House move” (or your new address)
2. As you pack, add items to the project and update their location to the relevant box (e.g. “Box 7 — Kitchen”)
3. Label your physical boxes to match the Ginkgo locations

Naming your boxes

The key to this working is consistent naming. We recommend:

• A number: “Box 1”, “Box 2”, etc.
• A room or category: “Box 1 — Books”, “Box 7 — Kitchen”

Create these as sub-locations within a “Moving boxes” parent location in Ginkgo. As boxes are packed, items get moved into them.

On moving day

When boxes arrive at the new place, update their locations to reflect where they’ve been put — “Box 7 — Kitchen” might go to “New kitchen” initially, then items gradually move to their proper locations as you unpack.

After unpacking

As you empty boxes, update item locations to their new permanent homes. Items in the moving project that have been assigned to real locations in the new home can be removed from the project.

When you’re done, mark the project as complete. The location history stays with each item, so you can see when they moved if you ever need to.

Tips

Don’t try to document everything. Focus on the things that matter: valuable items, things you’ll need quickly, items with unclear destinations. Everyday items with obvious new homes don’t need tracking.

Take photos of packed boxes. Adding a photo of the box contents to the corresponding Ginkgo location gives you a quick visual reference when you’re looking for something.