5 Apps That Make Creating A Self Storage Inventory A Snap

Use your phone to track what you own! Living in the digital age allows us to use our phones to find a date (both the calendar and romantic types), call an Uber, deliver our groceries, record our sleep patterns, and even control our TVs. And now, with smart inventory and self-storage apps, you’ll be one step closer to organizing (and dominating!) that daunting residential move, overwhelming office relocation, or long-term storage situation. As the saying goes, whatever your need, “there’s an app for that!”

Have you begun to embrace minimalism at home, Marie Kondo-style? Is your family relocating to a new place but taking their time getting there? Do you know exactly what you own? Or have you lost track of everything under your roof? Most of us could use a little help getting organized, especially when it comes to our homes and belongings. Whether you’re taking steps to “spark more joy” or streamline your life (or both), the stuff you hold onto needs to go somewhere. Luckily, in 2024, there are plenty of great apps that will help you tackle your inventory and storage woes. 

Search your phone’s app store for “self-storage apps” and “inventory apps,” and you’ll be amazed by the array of options. We’re familiar with a good number of these apps, so we’ve taken the time to curate a short list of our favorites just for you. We know that coordinating a move or decluttering project is overwhelming enough; choosing a self-storage inventory app shouldn’t be. 

Our Top 5 Self-Storage Apps

BEST FOR DECLUTTERING

NEST EGG: Intelligent Inventory

Why We Love It: Barcode Scanner | Highly Customizable | User-Friendly

Nest Egg is a comprehensive, extremely user-friendly inventory app with convenient automation, like barcode scanning for easy item logging. Users can customize their experience and improve organization with colored labels, tags, categories, sub-categories, locations, sub-locations, and more! Plus, reorganizing is super simple, thanks to the batch edit feature. 

We liked the ease of use of this app and the ability to take a picture of an object or scan its barcode. With Nest Egg, instead of folders, there is a category-based system where you choose one of their predetermined categories or create your own. These categories are useful because you can add subcategories to organize your inventory list further. We also liked the ability to specify if an item is owned, rented, borrowed, or under warranty. 

Nest Egg is also an excellent resource for hobbyists and collectors looking to organize their storage unit because it allows you to input the item's value in addition to up to 10 images per item - perfect for logging item quality. You can also track serial numbers and keep track of warranty and insurance information. Plus, you gain peace of mind with easy cloud backups of your data, so you never lose all the hard work you put into organizing all your items!  

If packing up and storing clothes is in your future, utilize this app to catalog apparel, shoes, and accessories while optimizing decluttering. Nest Egg can estimate an item's donation value, making it easy to clear clutter while creating an expertly organized self-storage inventory.

Several impressive features do make it feel like a more "intelligent" storage inventory app. If you've been tracking items the old-fashioned way, this app supports CSV importing and exporting. Nest Egg is currently available in 32 languages, including English and Spanish. 

BEST FOR HOMEOWNERS

UNDER MY ROOF: Home Inventory

Why We Love It: Makes Insurance Claims a Breeze | 3D Scans of Your Home

Under My Roof Home Inventory simplifies your life by storing warranty and purchase information, assessment history, square footage, photos, receipts, descriptions of household items and serial numbers, and anything else you need to keep track of. Owning a home is a lot of work—and a lot of paperwork.

Under My Roof can also keep track of contractor info and the renovations you’ve had done. And the best part? With a LiDAR-ready iPhone or iPad, you can create 3D scans of your house to make a to-scale layout you can use in Under My Roof. Then, use the handy Virtual Tape Measure feature to get dimensions and area so you’ll know if a piece of new furniture will fit or if you’ve gotten enough paint for that wall. This feature is especially useful when planning the layout of items in a storage unit.

You can also snap before-and-after photos of your belongings for insurance or assessment purposes. Under My Roof also creates maintenance schedules for your home and its appliances. And you can securely share inventory and information with family members via iCloud.

You can even input your insurance policy and coverage info — the app will determine if your coverage is adequate. If you do need to file a claim, Under My Roof will document all the information during the process, such as expenses, damage, estimates, and images. You can also store info related to your health and auto insurance.

Got hobbies? Under My Roof is fantastic for collectors of just about anything, with built-in valuation methods and room for photos, notes, receipts, etc. Paired with a storage unit, this app is a powerful tool for maintaining and protecting a collection.

BEST FOR COLLECTORS

iCOLLECT EVERYTHING: Inventory

Why We Love It: Well-Designed Photo-Taking Interface | Ideal for Collectors

iCollect Everything offers an integrating sharing feature, for synced desktop or mobile access to all your collections, all the time. Track your comic books, movies, dolls, music, video games, action figures, wine, watches, art, and anything else that is your passion. Scan items by barcode or use database search. iCollect Everything will even estimate the value of your collection — and keep track of your wishlist.

You can use iCollect Everything on your phone when you’re out and about, then seamlessly shift to iCollect Everything on your desktop at home for simpler data input and modifications. Every field is editable, making customization easy, which is great for use at home and at other locations like your storage unit. iCollect Everything will keep all your belongings perfectly organized and cataloged with ease.

BEST FOR BUSINESS STORAGE

SORTLY: Stay Updated Anytime, Anywhere

Why We Love It: Great for Collections | Low Stock Alerts 

Sortly is a customizable inventory tracking app that helps you quickly organize the quantity, location, and condition of stored items. This app allows you to attach multiple tags per item and has a built-in search function, making it easy to find an item in a pinch. You can generate barcodes, QR codes, and status reports, making this app an excellent solution for small businesses. 

There's no question why this app has been featured in Forbes, ABC News, Inc., and other reputable publications. Its comprehensive features work well for personal or business use, making the experience and price point customizable based on each user's needs. A unique feature of Sortly is the ability to have teams access the inventory rather than just one user. Share select lists or the entire inventory—it's up to you! Device accessibility is another unique feature of Sortly because you can access the app on web, tablet, or mobile device! To make things even more business-friendly, when you're ready to generate and share reports, you can export them to CSV, PDF, or Dropbox. 

The app provides flexibility in how items are organized using folders. There is space for adding a picture, price, total value, or notes. Another excellent feature links to the product’s URL, which fills in the object’s price or value. Sortly also allows you to include several pictures of each item and customize folders by adding notes or picture labels. 

No matter where you are or what kind of connection you have, like in a storage building with bad cell service, Sortly allows you to log items even when you're offline. And you can recover lost data within 90 days, which can be a saving grace.    

Sortly is built to be up and running in minutes, so don't worry. There's no need for complex training.

BEST OVERALL

EVERSPRUCE: Inventory Storage Organizer 

Why We Love It: Passcode-Protected Entries for Privacy | Quick Filter Options | Fun Design 

Everspruce is designed for the homeowner who wants to tackle their overstuffed guest room or clear out space for a new hobby at home. When paired with a self-storage unit, this app will allow you to conquer that clutter and start living your best life. 

In Everspruce, everything begins with a photo, including the initial step of photographing the whole storage room. Next, you photograph the individual box, then onward to the items inside. Having these nesting dolls of photos attached to item entries is a unique method for visualizing your unpacking process without visiting your storage unit.  

This app combines the best features of its competitors into a powerhouse for personal organization—batch edit entries, track item quantities, search custom labels, export to PDF and CSV, and generate printable QR codes to track your items. Everspruce does it all in a user-friendly, secure, and cloud-backed up package. The best feature? Subscribers can use the app on unlimited devices, making it easy to organize by yourself or with a group. Android users shouldn’t have to miss out much longer, as the company expects to release an Android version of the app in early 2024. 

HONORABLE MENTIONS

HOME CONTENTS

Why We Love It: Security for Your Valuables in Case Disaster Strikes

Home Contents is another great app worth a mention if you’re looking to catalog your home and belongings. Do you have everything documented in your home in case of emergency? Snap rooms in just minutes with the zippy camera entry mode. Then, fill in the details: add receipts, purchase dates, serial numbers, warranty info, and value. There are built-in smart categories to keep an eye on your warranties and items of changing value. The app also creates attractive PDF reports with info on location, category, price, and more.

BOXORGANIZER: Organize Just Everything!

Why We Love It: Fun and Functional QR Code Generator That’s Easy to Use 

The name of this app says it all! BoxOrganizer delivers what it promises—a straightforward way to organize your boxes! Open the app, pack virtual boxes corresponding to real-life boxes, and instantly generate a printable QR code for the box. Then print out the QR code, stick it to the real-life box, and store it until the next time you need it. 

Upon download, after a helpful guided tutorial, the app prompts you to create “projects” that you place boxes inside. That way, you can easily organize projects by location, purpose, or whatever else you’d prefer. Once you create a project and add your first box, you virtually “pack your box” with photos and notes about the items inside.

When you’re ready to look up what’s inside a box, use the app to quickly scan the QR code pasted to the side and instantly find out what’s inside! Taking the guesswork out of organizing a lot of boxes makes maintaining a self-storage inventory uncomplicated and, dare we say, fun.

Final Thoughts

A self-storage unit is the ideal short- or long-term solution for getting organized during that stressful home or office move. Keeping an inventory of stored items will give you peace of mind and make the unpacking process a breeze — especially when technology makes it easy to track everything right at your fingertips. So download one or all of these apps, dive into your pile of stuff, and make tracking your self-storage inventory less of a headache. Embrace the power of automation to make organization simple — you might even have fun doing it!