How technology can ensure you never lose your keys or passport ever again
- New apps let you photo and log your house contents, find a book, bottle of wine, best shoes – and manage your finances
- One estimate claims we waste a year of our lives looking for things we mislay so a virtual inventory may be solution
No matter how well organised one’s life is – Marie Kondo, the-Japanese-organising-consultant-turned-Netflix-reality-television-star, being the possible exception – not everything seems to stay just where you left it.
Wallets, glasses and car keys have a habit of disappearing, and why is it that an important document you’d filed away so diligently is now proving stubbornly elusive?
Looking for lost things is not only frustrating, it’s also extremely time-consuming – a chore that, according to one American estimate, can account for a whole year of an average person’s life.
The bigger one’s home, the more places there are to store things. Even your helper can’t keep track of everything for you, especially those items you want to handle personally, such as sentimental scrapbooks or sensitive documentation.
Yet employing technology to keep your home orderly can make life easier for everyone. So, what are the ways that organisational apps and devices might spark, if not quite domestic joy, at least a sigh of relief?
Just want you’re looking for…
Creating a virtual inventory of your home’s contents is a great place to start.
With the home inventory management app, Sortly, which online reviews rate as one of the best, it’s simply a matter of taking photos of your items, or scanning QR codes and filing them in folders in a way that makes sense for you, such as by room, item type, or collection. For each item, there’s the option to add details, such as the date it was bought, estimated value, or warranty information.
Having one’s valuables stored neatly in one place is useful for insurance purposes should the worst happen, but the app’s day-to-day value is surely in the time savings. It will mean no more physically hunting through cupboards to find what you are looking for, or struggling to remember what it was your child wanted for their birthday – “wish lists” can be created in the app, too.
… with a few added details
Taking this concept a step further, Nest Egg offers the added feature of automatically filling in product information, once a barcode is scanned. Where available, this function can also check the pricing of similar products from online retailers, so if you need to buy anew, you can get the best deal.
Another handy feature is the “lending and borrowing” folder – for those times when you can’t remember who borrowed which book.
A library at your fingertips
If you have a home library, locating a single book among the many titles on your shelves can be a daunting task. You may avoid the problem once and for all with book management apps, such as Pocket Library and BookBuddy, which catalogue books by author, genre, or barcode (International Standard Book Number), or Libib, an app that will manage your whole family’s collection of books, films, music and video games in up to 100 different libraries. Seeing your inventory at a glance will also avoid anyone unintentionally buying a second copy.
App idea worth bottling
For serious oenophiles, how’s this for bragging rights: a professionally curated private wine cellar.
Those of you who are keen collectors will often store your wine in a secure (and stable) location outside the home, which is not convenient if you feel like browsing, or want to choose a bottle for dinner.
However, CellarTracker will not only make an inventory of your collection, and show its value, but place your tasting notes alongside reviews from experts, such as Jancis Robinson, Antonio Galloni and Stephen Tanzer. The app will track individual consumption, too – which is a handy feature when restocking.
Male- (female-) order catalogue
If your wardrobe is expansive, then think how handy it would be to be able to catalogue its contents.
Aside from organising all the items, the Stylebook app will keep track of what you wear – making it easier to part with whatever you don’t – and also help pull an outfit together in a flash, or plan a holiday packing list.
Shoeboxed for receipts
Who doesn’t have a drawer stuffed full of paper that can’t be thrown away? You might need a physical record of your expenses, user manuals for appliances, or proof of purchase for a warranty claim.
Apps such as Shoeboxed let you cull that clutter. You simply photograph the receipt with your phone and the data automatically gets categorised on a searchable server. The app can also collate your stack of business cards into an online database of contacts, and allows your phone’s own GPS to provide easy, accurate mileage tracking.
… without a paper trail
For sensitive documents, you want an extra level of security beyond that available with regular cloud storage.
A digital vault with strong security, such as Switzerland-based SecureSafe, which reviewers seem to recommend, is useful for managing data such as passwords, PINs, credit card details and e-banking codes, and avoids the need to leave physical copies lying around somewhere.
All-in-one travel planner
Travel documents can be organised for when you’re on the move using the TripIt app.
It helps to organise all of your travel reservations and plans in one place, while also storing scanned versions of your passport and ID.
Memories are made of this
What about all of your children’s artwork, schoolwork or mementos that you can’t bear to throw away, at least, not yet.
Beyond taking a picture to digitally preserve your little one’s creative genius, the Keepy app lets users voice record their thoughts at the time, creating a sweet time capsule of memories as the years fly by.
When-to-do manager
You often wonder when your swimming pool needs cleaning, or the air conditioner’s filter should be changed?
You can manage routine maintenance with military-like precision with a schedule of work and customised “to do” lists” using the Home Zada tool. So that everyone pulls their weight, the app will also send out email reminders and online alerts.
Digital lost and found
There are also apps designed for owners of more than one property (such as the Magic Home Inventory), which breaks down each home's inventory by room, location, and description.
If moving house, this functionality is also helpful in keeping track of which items are stored in which boxes.
There are also handy devices that literally keep tabs on easy to lose physical objects – such as remote controls, wallets or keys and, in some cases, can lead you right to where they are hiding.
You can attach a Bluetooth-connected Pixie fob to an item and, if it goes missing, the augmented-reality app guides you towards it.
A real-time compass will steer you in the right direction and, like an old-fashioned game of “you’re getting warmer”, the device beeps increasingly as you get closer.
‘Call’ a missing object
The Tile family of products and intuitive app offer similar functionality, with a new, slender Slim version designed to fit inside a wallet.
You can see the app to “ring” a missing item if it’s nearby, then just follow the sound and, if not in range, you can see its location on the map.
With the Tile, you can also ask virtual assistants, such as Siri, Alexa or Google Assistant to help you find your stuff.
If a missing item is out of Bluetooth range, you can also enable the crowd-finding feature to get others in on the hunt.
Follow the money
Finally, technology might not be able to deliver a money tree in your back garden, but gini, a home-grown Hong Kong app, at least makes it easier for everyone to keep track of their finances.
The smart spending-tracker app uses bank-level security to gather your accounts and credit cards in one spot, and offers detailed spending insights.
With US$1.6 million seed-funding investment announced in January, gini plans to be compatible with more than 3,000 overseas banks in 60 countries by the second half of this year – with over 60 banks in Hong Kong, France, Switzerland and Britain currently available.