Spaces and inventory

Use Spaces when you know the place you want to inspect. Use Inventory when you know the thing you want to find.

Find an item

Open Inventory and search by name, description, category, tag, or placement requirement. The result shows the item's location path so you can follow the same room-to-container route in the physical world.

On a phone, each compact result row keeps its checkbox, item name, quantity, and nearest space code and name visible. Tap the item summary to review the full path and details. At compact desktop widths, the same information and action stay aligned in one condensed row instead of expanding into a card.

Choose Edit / move for a record in an unfinished space. A record in a counted space instead says Review, reopen to edit because changing it makes that space's earlier count stale. Confirm Reopen capture, make the correction or move in the same dialog, then choose Mark counted again after checking the physical contents.

The item editor can:

• Change the everyday name, quantity, or Description
• Expand More item details for unit, categories, tags, or frequency
• Record placement requirements only when they affect where the item may safely go
• Move all or part of the quantity to another space
• Delete the item record with confirmation

Select several records to move them to one destination together. Records already at that destination stay put. Moving a partial quantity creates a separate record at the destination; equivalent records combine.

Browse the physical hierarchy

Open Spaces to follow rooms, zones, cabinets, shelves, boxes, bins, and containers. A hierarchy can be as simple or as deep as the physical layout requires.

Select a space to inspect its details and direct contents. On a phone, the selected row exposes Earlier, Later, Edit details, and Move. Choose Edit details to switch from the hierarchy to the focused editor, then use Back to hierarchy when you are done. Switching panels preserves unfinished editor input. The move dialog lets you choose the new parent and exact position without dragging.

At compact desktop widths, the automatic icon navigation rail leaves the hierarchy and editor side by side. The stacked layout remains available when you choose it or when the content area is genuinely too narrow.

The space editor keeps name, Short ID, type, parent, and Save space in the primary flow. Expand More space details for tags, description, suitability, and interior dimensions. A planning-review action opens the relevant details automatically.

You can also drag a space before, inside, or after another row. Stowplan prevents a space from becoming its own parent or descendant.

Describe useful storage facts

Space details can record conditions such as food safety, warmth, humidity, darkness, dimensions, and tags such as easy-reach. Item details can record requirements such as avoiding warmth, requiring food-safe storage, or staying with a group.

Only record facts that help answer a question. Dimensions are useful when fit is uncertain; they are not a prerequisite for ordinary capture.

Keep completed spaces trustworthy

Changing only the display order of siblings does not change what a completed parent contains. Moving a space to another parent does.

When a move changes the membership of a counted or known-empty parent, Stowplan names each affected parent and asks before reopening it. The hierarchy move and those status changes happen together so the first-pass record does not claim more certainty than it has.

Archive or delete a space

Archive a space when you want it out of ordinary views while preserving its history. Restore it later from the archived section.

Delete only when the physical location and the records beneath it should be removed. Stowplan shows the affected subtree for review first. Deletion remains visible in Activity and can be undone while the needed history is available.