A key ingredient to feeling organized is having a space that’s organized. That logic also helps explain the ubiquity of the junk drawer. It’s simply not realistic to have a dedicated spot for every item you own, so assigning a single destination where you can house all the leftover stuff makes sense. That is, until you can’t find your utility scissors or flashlight or stamps or favorite highlighter or double-sided tape when you need any of those things.
Regular organizing conventions won’t help you keep track of everything in your junk drawer—or any other storage area, for that matter. For example, nicely labeling your boxes is great, but if you lose track of where you put them, you’re toast. Also, that box labeled “kitchen stuff?” You definitely don’t know every item that’s inside. The clever SmartLabels system, which uses a QR code sticker for the outside of a bin, box, drawer, or other location and a companion app to keep a digital inventory of its contents, could help with each of these organizational pitfalls.
The system is simple to use, but its value in functioning as an up-to-date digital inventory of your belongings depends heavily on how often you update the app. The app won’t know, for instance, if you absentmindedly stow away your double-sided tape with your wrapping paper instead of putting it back in the junk drawer where it is cataloged. You’ll also need to remember to add new items to the app as you add them to a bin in question. But if you’re a gold-star user of SmartLabels, they do stand to help you keep track of your treasures.
Photographic Memory
Photograph: Alexis Berger
Each package of SmartLabels includes 48 unique QR-code stickers (four sheets of 12 codes each). After you download the free SmartLabels app (compatible with iOS and Android), fire it up and select the QR code sticker you want to use for the bin in question. The app will prompt you to take a photo of the QR code, then it’ll ask you to photograph the contents that you’re going to store. Every item must be clearly visible, so you can’t simply dump random products in a box and snap a photo. If the camera can’t see an item, the app won’t be able to catalog it. The app is free, but you can opt for a premium subscription ($15 per year) that offers exportable PDFs and spreadsheets of your SmartLabel inventory, among a few other benefits. Businesses might be interested in this capability, but the average home organizer doesn’t need it.