Checklists & smart packing

Checklists are how GearCache pays you back for the inventory work. They’re the part of the app that turns a tree of items and locations into a small, focused list of “what do I still need to put in the car?” — and keeps your inventory accurate after the trip.

Inventory and checklist are the same data#

A traditional packing list is a separate thing you maintain in parallel to your stuff: you write down “tent, sleeping bag, stove” and tick them off, then forget about it until next time.

GearCache flips that. Your inventory is your packing list, viewed through the lens of a specific trip. If you already know your camp stove lives in the trailer’s kitchen drawer, you don’t need a packing list to tell you to bring it — you need a list of the things that aren’t in the trailer yet.

That’s the whole feature.

Creating a checklist#

Open the Checklists tab and tap New checklist. You’ll be asked for:

• Name — Easter camping trip, 4WD weekend, Sunday day-walk. Whatever you’ll recognise later.
• Departure date (optional) — useful for at-a-glance triage in the checklist list.
• Destination locations — the most important field. See next section.

Save, and you have an empty checklist ready to populate.

Destination locations#

A destination is a place items “count as already packed” for this trip. If you set Trailer as a destination, every item currently stored anywhere under Trailer (kitchen drawer, canopy, roof rack — see Locations & hierarchy) is auto-checked when you add it to the list.

You can pick one destination or several. A typical setup:

• Weekend in the trailer → destination: Trailer
• Day trip in the car → destination: Car
• Big trip with both → destinations: Trailer, Car
• Hike-in camp from a base → destination: Backpack

Pick at the level of detail that matches how you actually pack. A whole Trailer works for most trips; finer destinations (Trailer > Kitchen drawer) are useful when you’re only loading a subset.

Adding items#

Tap Add items and browse. You can:

• Filter by category to grab everything in a group at once
• Search by name
• Filter by tag to pull all the essential items, all the winter kit, etc.

As you tap each item, GearCache flags whether it’s already at the destination or still needs to be loaded — you’ll see this immediately, no extra step.

The split view#

Once a checklist has items, it shows two stacks:

• Already packed — auto-checked because their location is at or under a destination. You don’t need to do anything.
• Still to pack — the actual to-do list. These are the items the trip is missing.

Most of your time on a checklist is spent in the bottom half. The top half is the satisfying confirmation that the trailer is doing its job.

Checking off as you pack#

Walk through the Still to pack list and check items off as you load them. The check is just a check — GearCache doesn’t interrupt you to ask “do you want to update this item’s location?” That conversation happens once, at the end.

Items in Already packed can be unchecked too, if you discover something isn’t actually in the trailer (someone borrowed the lighter and didn’t put it back). Unchecking moves it down to Still to pack.

The batch location update#

When you mark the checklist complete — or just open the Done action partway through — GearCache shows the batch location update screen.

It’s a list of every item you checked off whose location isn’t at the destination yet. For each one, the app suggests the destination as the new location. You can:

• Confirm all — apply every suggestion in one tap
• Confirm individually — review and approve one by one
• Skip — leave inventory locations as they were

This is where checklists earn their keep as an inventory tool, not just a packing tool. After the move, your inventory accurately reflects where things actually are.

Post-trip review#

Open a completed checklist when you get home and tap Post-trip review. The app walks you through unpacking:

1. Batch location return — the reverse of the packing flow. The app lists every item that moved to a destination and suggests its original location. Confirm all, individually, or skip.
2. Condition updates — the gas canister is now consumed, the tent pole needs_maintenance, the first-aid kit needs replacement after the snake bandage came out. Update conditions in one place rather than chasing items across the inventory.
3. Archive — once the review is done, archive the checklist. It stays searchable but drops out of your active list.

The pre-trip and post-trip flows are symmetric on purpose: every trip starts and ends with a one-screen confirmation that your inventory matches reality.

What to learn next#

• Item dependencies — how to make sure the camp stove never travels without its gas canister.