SmartLabels Review: Use QR Codes to Organize Your Junk Drawer and Storage Bins

Important ingredients To feel organized, you need an organized space. That logic helps explain the ubiity of junk drawers: It isn’t practical to create a dedicated place for every item you own, so it makes sense to designate one location for assorted leftovers—until you can’t find the all-purpose scissors, flashlight, stamps, favorite highlighter, or double-sided tape you need.

Traditional organization methods don’t always help you keep track of everything in a junk drawer or other storage areas. Labeling boxes is useful, but if you can’t remember where you put them, you’re still stuck. Even a box labeled “Kitchen Supplies” may contain a mystery assortment of items.

SmartLabels aims to solve these problems with QR code stickers and a companion app. You can place the stickers on trash cans, boxes, drawers, and other storage locations, then create a digital inventory of the contents. Scan a label to see what belongs inside without having to search through every container.

However, the system’s usefulness depends on keeping the app up to date. If you accidentally store double-sided tape with wrapping paper instead of returning it to the cataloged trash can, SmartLabels won’t know. You also need to remember to add new items whenever you place them in a labeled container. For Gold Star users, though, SmartLabels can be a helpful way to keep track of household belongings.

SmartLabels Uses Photos to Catalog Your Belongings

Each SmartLabels package includes 48 unique QR code stickers—four sheets of 12 codes each. After downloading the free SmartLabels app for iOS or Android, open it and select the QR code sticker you want to use for a storage container. The app will prompt you to photograph the QR code and then take a photo of the contents you want to save.

Every item must be clearly visible in the photo, so you can’t simply throw objects into a box at random and expect the app to identify them. If the camera can’t recognize an item, the app can’t catalog it.

The app is free, but a Premium subscription costs $15 per year. It includes benefits such as exportable PDFs and spreadsheets of your SmartLabels inventory. Businesses may find those features useful, but the average home organizer probably won’t need them.