Contents Pack-Out on a Water Loss: A Field-Tested Checklist

Pack-out is where jobs get won or lost with the customer. Their memories are boxed up and driven off in your truck. If your inventory system is sloppy, you'll spend the next 90 days answering "where is my grandmother's ring?" emails. Here's the workflow that keeps you clean.

Before You Pack a Single Box

• Establish scope in writing — which rooms, which contents, what tier of cleaning.
• Walk the space with the homeowner and photograph high-value items in situ.
• Confirm insurance authorization for pack-out (adjusters sometimes decline if not pre-approved).

Inventory Standards

Every item gets a photo, a room-of-origin tag, a condition note, and a barcode or numeric ID. Software like Encircle or MICA speeds this up considerably. Group by cleaning tier: dry-clean textiles separately from smoke-affected books separately from electronics.

Cleaning Tiers

• Tier 1 (unaffected): Wipe-down, transport, return.
• Tier 2 (Cat 1 wet): Clean, dry in a controlled environment, return.
• Tier 3 (Cat 2/3): Ultrasonic or specialty cleaning; some items non-restorable.
• Non-restorable: Photograph, log, get customer signoff, dispose per Cat 3 disposal rules if applicable.

Transport and Storage

Climate-controlled storage is a hard requirement for Cat 1+ contents — humidity swings during storage cause secondary damage you'll be blamed for. Track chain of custody at load-in and load-out.

Billing the Job

Pack-out is priced by cubic foot of packed material plus labor per hour. Cleaning is per-item or per-tier. Storage is monthly. See our water damage pricing guide and the Xactimate beginner walkthrough for the exact line items.

What Adjusters Want in Your Package

A single PDF with inventory list, room-of-origin photos, cleaning-tier assignments, and pack-out crew log. That plus your daily drying documentation closes claims faster than anything else you can do.

Stop Rebuilding This in a Spreadsheet

If you're still tracking pack-out inventories, cleaning tiers, and chain-of-custody in Excel, you're leaving hours on the table every job. Purpose-built contents-tracking software handles the inventory-to-invoice chain — photo attachment, cleaning-tier assignment and an adjuster-ready export — in one place. Worth a look before your next big pack-out.