Bear is great for organizing ideas, writing, and even files. Turns out, it can also help track and organize your stuff in the real world.

Zowie, a member of our Shiny Frog team, recently had one of her regular strokes of brilliance. She wanted a way to keep track of where things are, or where they’re supposed to be, in her home. Then it hit her: rooms, closets, and boxes in a house are kinda like nested tags in Bear—places within places to organize things. It was time to experiment.

After some tinkering, Zowie devised a rather clever solution for organizing her real-world house with notes and nested tags in Bear. As you can see from the screenshot, she created a nested tag system that modeled the way her home is built and organized—rooms, shelving units, drawers, closets, and so on.

Within each section (#tag), Zowie then created one or more notes that contain lists of the things that are organized in those sections. So far, it’s been a great way to find things, and know where to put them back when she needs the reminder.

When it comes time to find a household item or a note, Bear’s powerful search features come in handy. Notes will instantly filter as you type your search query, and the tag in each note will quickly tell you where that item should be or where to put it back.

This system might also be great for people who have trouble with organization, forgetful people, and even families with kids who have a knack for misplacing toys.

Of course, you could get as granular as you like with your own version of this. Maybe a nested tag system of just rooms would be enough for you, or maybe going all-in with drawer tags would be worth it.

If you’re getting inspired by this idea, we’d love to hear your thoughts or see how you set up your own home organization tags. Reach out to us on Reddit, Twitter, Facebook, or directly at bear@shinyfrog.net.