Can Evernote help organize/file/find household items?

[livemusic 0]

In addition to filing a bazillion documents for my home-based business (paper copies), images, photos, and audio files, I would like to have some type of system to organize general household items. Any one of us owns a lot of stuff and I would prefer it be kept in one location. For small items, I have clear plastic stackable plastic bin filing cabinets that hold lots of various doodads and items. But I have to visually search the contents to find what I am looking for. It would be nice to have a database to be able to find where I put the metal ruler, or the old Nikon camera, or the power supply for the cordless weedwacker, etc. Is Evernote a good choice for this? For documents, I looked at Paper Tiger, but I don't know what would be best. I would rather have one system if possible. (To catalogue documents/photos/images/audio and general household items.) I don't mind paying for something to get me organized. I have a Doxie scanner and also a scanner on my HP AIO printer. Thanks.

[DTLow 5,736]

5 hours ago, livemusic said:

In addition to filing a bazillion documents for my home-based business (paper copies), images, photos, and audio files, I would like to have some type of system to organize general household items. Any one of us owns a lot of stuff and I would prefer it be kept in one location. For small items, I have clear plastic stackable plastic bin filing cabinets that hold lots of various doodads and items. But I have to visually search the contents to find what I am looking for. It would be nice to have a database to be able to find where I put the metal ruler, or the old Nikon camera, or the power supply for the cordless weedwacker, etc. Is Evernote a good choice for this? For documents, I looked at Paper Tiger, but I don't know what would be best. I would rather have one system if possible. (To catalogue documents/photos/images/audio and general household items.) I don't mind paying for something to get me organized. I have a Doxie scanner and also a scanner on my HP AIO printer. Thanks.

 

I use Evernote as my database for everything

For paper documents, I scan and discard the original
For physical stuff, you have an additonal piece of information - which bin is this stored in
- My approach would be to have a tag for each bin

For bonus points, I would generate a TOC note for each bin
I would generate a link, create a QR code, print and paste to the outside of the bin
A simple scan from my phone would give me a list of all items in the bin

[gazumped 11,666]

I have only myself to blame.  I wrote a nice long reply here and then tried to add a picture - at which point the internet barfed and now I get back to the page but there's nothing here...  <sigh>

So again!  I've always been fascinated by small drawers like the set in the picture.  They're called Apothecary drawers (apparently) and while my version is a lot less classy it's on the same principle.  I have everything from glues to paintbrushes in small cardboard boxes that used to hold contact centre headsets.  The headsets get batched in larger boxes 12 at a time,  and I have about 20 boxes (but no headsets).  I label each box with the contents,  or take a picture of the insides and put a more generic label on the front.  All the boxes have an ID,  and I take a pic of each box when it's set up and if anything changes.  Searching for something like 'staple gun' gets me a short list of notes for things like a user guide,  plus one containing the box label,  from which I can tell where to start looking.

There's a similar system for the garage - bigger boxes with more pics of what's inside. Those notes need keywords so I can search for contents individually.

Documents - definitely: scan to Evernote,  shred everything you can.

Pictures - I plan to scan a lot of pics into Lightroom so I can find and print off a copy if and when I need it.  The originals (some up to 100 years old) will go into boxes with individual serial numbers in case I need the original again.

The one major recommendation:  keep a local backup!  There's no reason to expect problems,  and Evernote has your back with their copy of your notes on the server;  but it's a lot of information to lose if you ever have a disk crash or something.  Better safe than sorry.

( @DTLow already said it better while I was flailing away at that,  but I wrote it once so I was determined to get it out there... )