QR code augmented storage [Updated]

My wife and I just moved appartments. It never really hit us until then, but we have a TON of stuff ! After we moved in, we realized we didn't have much room to store stuff in and when I’d need something, I'd often have to distract her from her drawing (she’s an illustrator) to ask where stuff is.

But these days are over ! Thanks to a very very wide dance around a concept lifted from Cory Doctorow’s novel Makers (free as in beer as per usual with this fine man), I decided to try and come up with a convenient way to know where stuff is in our appartment : a QR code augmented storage system. The concept : you catalog all you store in a box or boxes into spreadsheets, either on your computer or « in the cloud » as they say, and access it through your computer or one of these newfangled "smartphones" : QR codes printed to point your smartphone or computer to the URL of the relevant spreadsheet allows you to quickly browse through your boxes to either look up what's in them or update them.

Interested ? Then let's move straight on to the requirements page !

[05/04/10] Thanks to Mr.Incredible for his comments - they made me realize I should have added a picture of my own setup and more explanations regarding the "multiple sheets in one spreadsheet" option !

Step 1 Requirements

For this project, we'll need :

- A free Touchatag account ;
- Boxes (cardboard is what I’m using these days, but I'll soon switch to plastic for durability and visibility’s sake) ;
- A computer, printer, paper, scissors, scotch tape ;
- A smartphone with WiFi connectivity.

Are we good ? Then let's get started !

Comments

[uQR.me]

Think it's an awesome idea you came up with! Sorry to be late, but i'd like to suggest you to try tagging boxes with uQR.me dynamic codes. You'll be able to update your QR content in real time, each time you put in or take off something from the boxes... It's free and you can try it here: http://uqr.me
Enjoy!

[Deslivres]

Thanks for the resource, uQR.me ! Actually I use the Touchatag service, which pretty much does the same thing - but it's always nice to have several options.

[nappleapple]

 For linking to individual sheets in a Google Spreadsheet...

-Use the "Share" option and select "Publish as a web page"
-Set to publish all sheets
-Under "Get a link...", select which type (eg. Web Page) and choose which sheet you want the link for
-Copy the produced link
-Repeat for each sheet you want to publish

Alternatively, you can just get the link for one of the sheets and modify it to call other sheets.  The link should look like the one below, with an actual key and gid #...

http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=[#ABC#]&single=true&gid=[#]&output=html

The gid number refers to the sheets [in order] in your document, so sheet 1 would be gid=0, sheet 2 gid=1, and so on.

[Deslivres]

Thanks a lot nappleapple ! I had tried fiddling around with the URL for the documents without much success, I'll make sure to try your hack later today and eventually insert it in the Instructables.

[solo.card]

I'm struggling to actually get a QR code with the gid# for a sheet location to actually open the right sheet on my phone, always defaults to sheet one.

[mr.incredible]

 I like the concept but isn't is a lot more work than just listing the contents on the box? Or even better, Use your spreadsheet or database. Give each box a human readable number. Look up the item you want then go to the box with the correct number on it. You could also make a barcode to go the other way so when you find that box years from now you can say, "What the heck was in this box?"

[Deslivres]

 All good points :) As it happens (and I should add a picture of that in the Instructables for clarity) I did add human-readable numbers on my boxes. Thanks for the pointer, Mr.Incredible ! If you have other suggestions, do let me know :)