How Blue Dots works
One room, one photo, seven steps. Work through them in order and you end up with a storage area you can search instead of hunt through.
- Time
- 20–40 min
- You'll need
- Phone, the room, the boxes
- Outcome
- Searchable storage
1 / 7
Set the stage
Snap the room.
Stand back. Get the whole storage area in a single, well-lit photograph — wide enough that you can see every box, shelf, and drawer at once.
TipDaylight is your friend. Turn on every light. Move the chair.
2 / 7
Compose
Frame the reality.
Boxes, shelves, drawers — all in frame. If something's hidden behind a door, prop it open. The photo becomes your map; nothing on the map can be invisible.
RuleOne clean shot per zone. If it's not all in frame, take it again.
3 / 7
Map
Tap to place dots.
Open the photo in Blue Dots. Tap each storage spot. A dot lands. Repeat until every box, drawer, and shelf has its own bright-blue marker.
TipYou can move the dots onto a new image later if you reorganize.
4 / 7
Numbering pass
Match numbers.
Label each physical box with a marker — 1, 2, 3. Then name each dot the exact same number, so every box has one name in the room and the same name on the map.
TipName the dot the same as the box, and you can reposition it in the app afterwards.
5 / 7
Inventory pass
Open the boxes.
Lift the boxes down. Open them. This is the patient part. Take every item out — the next step is photographing what you find.
TipMake tea. Put on a podcast. The boxes won't open themselves.
6 / 7
Capture
Capture each item.
Tap a Blue Dot. Photograph the items, then put them back in the box. Later, when you search a name, the matching dot turns yellow on the photo — that is where it lives.
TipYou don't have to be neat. Lay things out, snap, move on.
7 / 7
Reset
Restore the order.
Put each box back exactly where it was. The dot on your photo only stays accurate if the physical world keeps matching it. Same shelf, same side, same orientation.
DoneWalk straight to the yellow dot. Your item is waiting there.
always findable.
That's the whole ritual.
Seven steps, one room, one quiet afternoon. After this, every misplaced lamp, every winter coat, every tax binder is two taps away — search by name, and the dot lights up on the photo of the wall it lives on.