How it works

Have your mess and clean it too.

The dream is to clear your clutter quickly, without thinking about it — but in a way that doesn't cause you pain later when you're trying to find your stuff. It's actually possible, and big logistics companies like Amazon use this exact strategy.

But you have to follow the rules of the system or it doesn't work!

A man sweeping clutter into a box
Step 1 · Store

Hide your junk

In other words, your stuff needs to go in a box or a bin or a drawer or a shelf or a kayak — some kind of trackable container. In the app we call this a "Box" because cardboard is the most common storage medium, but there's nothing stopping you from using bins, trunks of cars, under your bed, or any other creative container you want. It's all "boxes" to us.

Cartoon: two couples stand in a tidy living room. One says "Wow, your house is so nice!" The other replies, "Thank you! We have things, but have hidden them."
Inspired by Strange Planet

The box · Rules 1–2

Rule 1

Your container has to have a name or number

This is so you can find it later! Every container needs to be numbered or named. If it's a box, write the box number on multiple sides of the box and the top with a permanent marker. If it's something you don't want to write on, put some blue painters tape on it and write on that, or use a labelmaker. If it's something you can't label at all, describe the container well enough to find it: "the red kayak" or "the bottom shelf."

An open cardboard box with A12 written on two sides, and a permanent marker resting beside it
Rule 2

Your container has to have a location

Good luck finding Box 45 if you don't know whether it's in the garage, the shed, the crawl space, the attic, or the closet! Create a location for every room where stuff is stored, and connect it to your box.

The item · Rules 3–4

Rule 3

Take a picture of your item before you put it in the box

We'll analyze your picture and automatically generate a title, description, and keywords. These come in handy later when searching. They won't always be completely accurate and they won't understand your personal context — that's OK. We're just generating some baseline info that lets us categorize. You provide the most important information with the recording.

Rule 4

Don't skip recording a note

Technically, you can skip this. But the recording is how we know that your teddy bear is named "Miss Snuggles" or that these scissors are "mom's sewing scissors." The note is your chance to describe what this is in the way you think about it — which makes it much more likely to match when you search for it later. Your recording should answer the question: "How would I describe this if I was asking someone in my house if they knew where it was?" We'll transcribe it and save it.

The flow · Rules 5–6

Rule 5

Skip the other stuff

Technically, you don't have to skip the other stuff. But taking time to fill out the tags and notes and everything else is a lot of work and requires thinking, and that's exactly what we're trying to avoid. Tags are there in case you have an extremely important category or label for certain items that will help you find them later. Most of the time it's best to just skip it.

Rule 6

Put your item in the box and move on

Move on with your day, or move on to the next item — it's up to you. We'll assume that subsequent items are all going in the same box until you tell us to switch to a new box.

An open empty cardboard box
Step 2 · Find

Find your junk.

Time has passed. Where's Miss Snuggles the teddy bear? Open the app and type your search query. If you're getting too many results, keep typing — the more you type, the narrower your results get. We'll tell you exactly which room and which box your item is in.

An attic stacked with numbered storage boxes. Box A04 glows, with a map pin hovering above it.

Grab it and go

Don't bother with marking it as "out and about." Who's got time for that? The next time Miss Snuggles gets tidied, the Things of Mabob app will notice that it's the same item you already scanned in before, and it will update the location to whatever box you put it in.

Step 3 · Let go

Get rid of your junk.

Let's admit it: you have too much junk! You just don't have the time to go through it all and clear it out. Well, technically you do have enough time, but you prefer to spend that time scrolling through your phone on the couch.

Productive doomscrolling

Perfect! Use the app to scroll through your junk and make decisions about each item: give it, sell it, toss it, or keep it.

Gather your junk — or even better, make someone else do it

Now that you've decided what you're getting rid of, use the app to collect all of the stuff and deal with it accordingly. This time you do need to mark in the app that you've pulled it out of the box — just do it one item at a time as you go.

Eliminate

Your stuff stays in the app until you confirm that you've done the deed — thrown it in the trash, delivered it to Goodwill, shipped it to that eBay buyer. Thank it for the joy it gave you, and thank us for the $100/hr you didn't have to pay an organizer!

Ready to box something?

Download on the App Store Get it on Google Play

Available on the App Store and Google Play.