I need it, but I don't know what it is
or, I have this idea about an app. I can't really describe it but it will solve a lot of my problems...
Have you ever felt like this
where you have the complete vision of what this app or product or program can do and how many of your problems will be solved by it… and then when you want to start describing it, you can’t.
As humans we want to find patterns and similarities in things. Saying stuff like “We are the Uber of ‘this’ or the AirBNB of ‘that’. The app that I am thinking of, I don’t know if there it is like something else.
I should describe my problems first.
I am sure you went through this
You cut your hand while in the kitchen. Hasn’t happened to you in a while. So you go to the first aid kit box to find some ointment and bandages. You notice that both of them are expired.
How often are you supposed to switch your filters for your air conditioning unit?
Did you know you are supposed to change like the filter thing for your hot water supply? (Someone told me this when we bought our house and I forgot about)
Do you remember when most of the medicine in your house will expire and need replacement?
When was the last time you cleaned that packed closet of yours?
Did your floor tile break but it doesn’t look that serious and you will get it fixed one of these days? How long ago was that?
How often should you vacuum floors, hardwood, concrete, or carpet? Once a month? Every week?
You see where I am getting at?
At it’s simplest it’s like a reminder app or something that will go on a calendar.
It’s pretty easy if you have something that will need monthly or yearly reminder. Doing a routine home inspection or change the AC filter or adding mulch to your garden every six months (we have a garden).
But it can get overwhelming. If I add all this to my personal calendar, it will just stack up. Take another look at the list on top. That’s an overload of tasks for the user
So if the app existed, how would it work?
Buy a new first aid kit. Open it up and inspect the items. Get the names, quantity, purchase date and the expiration date. Log it on this hypothetical app. The app knows when this item expires so a month before the date, it will send you a notification asking you to check.
Did you refill the product? Have you been using it? Is there still some left? Based on the answer it will either ask you to update the purchase date if you already refilled it, or you will go ahead and throw it away and buy a new one.
For things that are not products i.e. the AC filter that has to be changed every month, you will have to do the same. As simple as creating a reminder to replace the filter every month (Houses can have two).
Am I overthinking this?
Does everything need an app? Maybe not. But not everyone is great at remembering everything around the household (Hello, mom).
But then another question arises. Will I even remember to log in the item? I can’t really think of a solution for that.
I came across the same first aid kit situation mentioned above, and I also one day noticed my Biofreeze expired… and I really really needed it. I was thinking of this idea before all this and it felt like the right opportunity to execute it.
So I did. I hopped on Glide and prototyped what I was thinking. It's how I operate.
I know it doesn’t look like much. I ended up abandoning it. So how would it “remind” me? Glide can integrate with Zapier. Since Glide works with Google Sheets, every time you add an entry to the table, it will trigger the “Zap”.
In this context, it will take the expiration date of the item from Glide, and add it to my Google Calendar, which will have a default reminder notification that will go off a month before the date.
Problems
I wasn’t too passionate about this and well… like most side projects, it’s in my graveyard. At the time, it did not look scalable. I wouldn’t be able to update the item when I would refill it and still have a way to record that. It’s more or less an issue in Glide that I will have to find a way to figure out.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed reading this and maybe sympathized even a tiny bit with me. If you know of an app out there that does this, or even a method, please reach out to me and let me know.