Appearance
Boxes & Organization
What this guide covers
Creating boxes, editing them, building a hierarchy, reading the Box Management grid, and safely deleting boxes.
Prerequisites
- Logged in to ItemChaos
- Basic familiarity with the nav bar
The Box Management page
Navigate to Boxes in the top nav. The page shows a data grid — one row per box — with these columns:
| Column | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Box Name / ID | Box ID, or the Name if Display Name is on |
| Location | Parent box (if nested) |
| Processed | % of items in this box that have a name (colored: red < 40%, amber < 80%, green ≥ 80%) |
| Cropped | % of item photos that have a saved crop |
| Items (direct / nested) | Items directly in this box / total including all child boxes |
| Boxes (direct / nested) | Direct child boxes / all descendants |
| Labeled | Whether this box has a generated label image |
| Total Value | Sum of Replacement Cost across all items |
| Original Cost | Sum of Original Cost across all items |
A chip at the top shows the total box count. Sorting the grid pauses the hierarchy view and shows a chip: Sorted — hierarchy paused.
Creating a box
Click Create New Box.
Fill in the modal:
Field Required Notes Box ID Yes Unique, up to 50 chars; this is what goes on the QR label Name No Human-readable description Description No Free-text notes Display Name No Toggle on to show Name instead of Box ID in the UI Parent Box No Set to nest this box inside another Click Save. The grid updates immediately.
Editing a box
Click Edit on the row. The same modal opens with all fields editable. Change what you need and click Save.
Viewing items in a box
Click View Items on the row. This opens /box-item/:boxId/ — the box's item view — showing item cards with photos, names, and selection checkboxes.
From this view you can:
- Navigate to the previous or next box using the Prev Box / Next Box buttons
- Select items and choose Merge or Delete from the action dropdown
Naming unnamed items
If the Processed column is below 100%, the row shows a Name Unnamed Items button. Click it to open /label-item/:boxId/ — a focused view listing only the unnamed items. See Labeling Unnamed Items for the full workflow.
Downloading labels for a box
Click Download Labels on the row. The backend generates a label PDF for that specific box and downloads it. For batch labels (multiple boxes in a sequence), see Generating Labels.
Building a hierarchy
To put Box B inside Box A:
- Create or edit Box B.
- In the Parent Box field, select Box A.
- Save.
Box A's "Boxes (nested)" count increases. The counts and financial totals on Box A now include all of Box B's contents recursively.
To move Box B to a different parent, edit Box B and change Parent Box. To make Box B a top-level box, clear the Parent Box field.
Deleting a box
Click Edit on the box row, then find the delete action in the modal (or use the Delete confirmation flow). Before deleting:
Cascade delete
Deleting a box permanently deletes all boxes nested inside it at every level. Items in those boxes become unassigned (their box is cleared) but are not deleted. There is no undo.
If you want to keep child boxes, move them to a different parent first.
Troubleshooting
Box ID already exists error Box IDs are globally unique. Choose a different ID or check if the box was already created under a different parent.
Items not showing under the correct box Check the item's Box field in the item editor (/edit-item/:id). If the box was recently renamed or reparented, the grid may need a refresh.
"Sorted — hierarchy paused" chip is showing You clicked a column header to sort. Click the column header again to unsort and restore the hierarchy grouping.
Related
- Uploading Photos — adding items to boxes via photo upload
- Labeling Unnamed Items — naming items after upload
- Reparenting Boxes (Mobile) — moving boxes on mobile with a QR scanner
- Generating Labels — printing QR labels for boxes