Gadgets to Help You Find the Things You Lost

If you tend to misplace items and would like some tools to help you find them — rather than just search strategies — you’ve got lots of options. I’m going to group them into two major categories: those that use a smart phone app, and those that don’t.

Finding things without an app

You’ll find a lot of these on offer; I’m just going to mention a few, to give you an idea of what’s out there. The one at the top of this post comes from Loc8tor, which has a number of products. This one is the Loc8tor Lite; there’s a also the Loc8tor Plus, with additional functions. The Loc8tor Lite comes with two locator tags, and you can buy two more. Just be sure not to misplace your Loc8tor! [via Clutter Diet and Ask Metafilter]




And then there are products like the Find One, Find All key finder; it doesn’t use a base station — but it has larger tags. “Use your wallet to find your keys, your keys to find a misplaced remote control, or any of them to find an uncharged or muted cell phone.” [via Sharb Organizing Solutions]




And for a totally different approach, there's Fetch My Keys — “a dog-shaped key ring designed to fetch your keys (or at least alert you to where they are) should you lose them down the back of your couch. Whistling sets off a beeper inside the key ring, and causes the dog’s nose to flash, guiding you to them.”


Finding things with an app




StickNFind, with its Bluetooth-powered small location stickers, was funded through IndieGoGo. The campaign raised $931,870 when the goal was only $70,000 — it seems lots of people want help in finding lost items! The stickers are about the size of a quarter and come in six colors. They have both a buzzer and a light to help you find things even in the dark.

StickNFind works on “iOS devices with Bluetooth 4.0 (iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, new iPad, New Touch, mini iPad). It also works on Android devices from Samsung (Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S4 Mini, and Note 2.” [via Better Living Through Design and numerous other sites]





Tile isn’t out yet — the expected shipping date is Winter 2013/2014 — but it’s available for preorder. This is an iOS-only product; it works with the iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad Mini, iPad 3rd and 4th generation, and iPod Touch 5th generation. [via Bos Organization and Uncrate]


The rest of the "lost things" series:
How to Avoid Losing Your Keys, Phone, Etc.
Strategies for Finding Lost Things: Phones, Keys, Etc.