---
title: "Contents estimates"
description: "Scope pack-outs, storage, and pack-backs in the same conversation: crew, days, and what's moving in — Wave builds the labor, materials, and dated storage lines."
group: "estimates"
lane: "how-to"
status: "published"
publishedAt: 2026-07-31
sidebarOrder: 47
tags: ["contents", "pack-out", "how-to"]
relatedSlugs:
  - "estimates/start-an-estimate"
  - "estimates/chat-questionnaire"
  - "concepts/what-wave-does"
sidebarLabel: "Contents estimates"
---

Wave scopes contents jobs the same way it scopes water and mold: tell it about the job, answer its questions, get a complete estimate.

## Starting a contents job

Say it in the composer: "pack-out for a 3-bedroom house, water loss" or "contents job — pack-out, 60 days of storage, then pack-back." Wave asks about the crew, the days, and what's moving, then builds the estimate:

- **Packing labor and supervision**
- **Tagging and inventory**
- **Boxes, paper, and materials**
- **Vans and transport**
- **Monthly storage**

## Storage lines are dated automatically

Say "storage for 3 months" and the storage line carries the computed date range as a note — so the estimate documents *when* storage starts and ends, not just how much it costs.

## What's covered (and not, yet)

Pack-out, storage, and pack-back are supported end to end. **Detailed contents cleaning** — itemized cleaning of individual contents — isn't supported yet.

An estimate carries one service at a time: water, mold, or contents. A loss that needs both mitigation and a pack-out is two estimates today.

## Related

- [Make your first estimate](/docs/estimates/start-an-estimate): the scoping flow end to end
- [The chat questionnaire](/docs/estimates/chat-questionnaire): how Wave asks
- [What Wave does and doesn't do](/docs/concepts/what-wave-does): scope, honestly