Use case

Find something you put away months ago

Four wide photos of the garage shelves beat forty labelled boxes, and take a minute instead of an afternoon. Later anyone in the house asks where the tent is and gets an answer with the date attached.

Stand in the doorway and take four wide photos of the shelves — not close-ups, not one per box. Months later anybody in the house can ask where something is and get an answer that points at the shelf and tells you when the photo was taken, so you know how much to trust it.

What it looks like

You[four wide photos of garage shelving]

NexyGot it. Garage, 7 October. I can see about forty things clearly — ask me whenever.

ThemWhere's the tent?

NexyTop shelf on the right, green bag behind the two blue crates. That photo is from 7 October, so if anyone has been in there since, treat it as a good guess rather than a fact.

ThemFound it. Also took a new photo.

NexyUpdated. Garage is now current as of today.

Wide photos, not close-ups. The answer always comes with the date of the photo it came from.

How to do it

Stand back and take four or five wide photos that between them cover everything. Wide beats sharp — you are building a map, not a catalogue.
Say where it is: garage, loft, the storage unit, the cupboard under the stairs. That one word is the whole filing system.
Say who else can ask. Everyone in the house, usually. They need no app.
Months later, ask in plain words: “where's the Christmas lights”, “did we keep the spare tiles”.
When somebody is in there anyway, one fresh photo replaces the old one and the answers get current again.

Why it works

Labelling never happensEverybody knows a labelled, numbered inventory would work. Nobody has ever done one twice. Four photos is a thing you actually do.

Wide beats detailedYou are not trying to read the writing on a box. You are trying to remember which corner it was in, and a wide shot carries that better.

The date is part of the answer“Top shelf, photo is four months old” is a useful answer. “Top shelf” on its own, when somebody reorganised in March, is a wasted trip.

Anyone can askThe question stops being aimed at whoever happened to pack the car. That is usually one person in a household, and they are tired of it.

It admits when it cannot seeIf the thing is inside a closed box, it says it can see the box but not inside it, rather than inventing a confident answer.

Where it stops

It only knows what is visible in a photograph you took. It never pretends otherwise.

It cannot see inside closed boxesIt will say which box it thinks, and that it is a guess. Open the box and photograph it if you want certainty.

It is not a live inventoryIf somebody moved things and took no photo, the answer is out of date — and it tells you that, with the date.

It will not tell you what you ownIt answers “where is the tent”. It does not produce a valuation or an insurance list.

No camera in your garageNothing is watching. There are only the photos you chose to take.

Questions people ask

How do I find something I put away months ago in the garage or loft?

Take four or five wide photos of the shelves next time you are in there — standing back, covering everything, no close-ups — and say where it is. That one minute replaces the labelled-box system you were never going to build. Months later you ask in plain words where something is and get a shelf, a side and a landmark: behind the blue crates, top right.

Why wide photos rather than one photo per box?

Because you are rebuilding a memory, not compiling a catalogue. What you have actually forgotten is which corner and which shelf, and a wide shot carries that far better than forty sharp close-ups do. It is also the difference between a minute of effort and an afternoon of it, which decides whether you ever do it at all.

Can anyone in the house ask, or only the person who took the photos?

Anyone you say can. That is usually the whole household, and it is the main thing people notice: the question stops being aimed at whoever happened to pack the car. They do not need an app or an account to ask, they just ask in the chat you already share.

What if we moved things around after the photos were taken?

Then the answer is a good guess rather than a fact, and it says so by giving you the date of the photo it is working from. “Top shelf on the right, from a photo taken four months ago” tells you exactly how much to trust it. Next time somebody is in there, one fresh photo makes it current again.

Can it tell me what is inside a closed box?

No, and it will not pretend to. It can tell you which box it thinks, based on size, position and what you said when you stored things, and it will flag that as a guess. If you want certainty for a particular box, open it once and photograph the contents — then that box is genuinely known.

Does this work for a storage unit, a cellar or a shed as well?

Yes, identically. Anywhere you put things down and then stop thinking about them: a rented storage unit, a cellar, a shed, the loft, the cupboard under the stairs, a stockroom at work. Each place gets its own name, and that name is the entire filing system.

Is there a camera watching my garage?

No. There is nothing live and nothing streaming. The only thing that exists is the photos you deliberately took and sent, and if you stop taking them the answers simply get older and say so.

Is this an inventory of what I own, for insurance?

Not really. It answers where things are, which is a different question from what you own and what it is worth. If you want an insurance record you want close-ups, serial numbers and receipts — a slower, more deliberate job. This is built for the five-minute search before a camping trip.

Related use cases

Compare two photos of the same thing over time
Is that damp patch getting worse, or are you imagining it? You cannot tell, because you see it every day and your eye adjusts. Two dated photos settle in a second what weeks of squinting cannot.
Set one reminder for a group of people
One reminder, into the group once, and personally for whoever taps. The people who already did the thing are left alone — which is the whole difference between a reminder and nagging.
Check a price while you are standing in the shop
Photograph the price label instead of typing a model number with one hand. You find out what the same thing costs elsewhere right now, whether the crossed-out price was ever really charged, and what it actually sold for last month.

New here? How Nexy works explains the whole thing in a minute, and the index lists every use case.

Stay posted on Nexy

We add a new use case most days and test what actually works. Get the short version by email, or a notification the moment something ships. No account, and one click to stop.