Keeping track of your home’s appliances, bills, maintenance, and schedules can be overwhelming. Fortunately, there are digital solutions that simplify this process and help you make informed decisions about everything from insurance claims to watering plants.
Unfortunately, the HomeServe app referenced in the video above no longer supports the digital home organizer functions that home technology expert Ross Trethewey describes to This Old House host Kevin O’Connor. However, we’ll recommend some other home organization apps to help you manage your household.
Benefits of Home Organization Apps
A wide variety of apps claim that they can make your life easier by helping you get organized. Here are some of the features they offer.
- Appliance tracking: There’s no need to remember maintenance schedules or model or serial numbers if an app keeps track of it for you.
- Document or project tracking: Instead of hanging onto paper receipts, warranties, manuals, schedules, contact information, or other documents, you can input the information into the app or simply take a picture.
- Financial management: Make and stick to your budgeting goals by tracking your accounts, mortgage, insurance, expenses, and property values.
- Home inventory: Having an inventory of your important possessions will come in handy if you ever have to file an insurance claim, or simply if you move.
- List making: If your checklist is on your mobile device, you always have it with you.
- Reminders: From changing filters to watering plants, these apps can help you keep up with maintenance in many areas of life.
- Scheduling: Many of these apps allow you to integrate maintenance schedules with your mobile calendar so you can better plan your time.
Unfortunately, no single app offers all of these, but many offer several of them. Think about which features will be most helpful to you as you read our list.
Top 6 Home Organization Apps
The following apps offer variations on the above features and are available on most mobile devices. Most have free versions with paid upgrades.
Centriq
The Centriq app does the best job of replacing the functions of the HomeServe app in the video. This iOS and Android app allows you to snap a pic of the product label on your appliance or device and add it to your inventory. From there, you can access user manuals, keep track of receipts and warranties, match parts for repairs and replacements, and connect to relevant do-it-yourself (DIY) videos.
There is a free version of this app that encompasses the appliances for a single property. However, the developer warns that certain information is not guaranteed to be in the free version’s database, and you may need to upgrade to premium to find it. This will cost $32 per property per year and unlocks the full app search. However, the free version still allows you to add photos, documents, receipts, and purchasing information for your own organizational purposes.
Sortly
We always recommend maintaining an up-to-date inventory of your belongings, but this becomes especially important if you’re moving or putting items in storage. Sortly is an inventory app that’s primarily geared toward businesses, but it can easily act as home inventorying software, too. You can add pictures, descriptions, and unique details, then organize items into collections or virtual rooms. You can also create barcodes and QR codes to label moving boxes so you know what’s in them with a quick scan.
The free version of the app allows you to add up to 100 items, but there are also several paid tiers that greatly increase item count and the custom data fields you can create for items. Note that the QR code function is only available with paid tiers. You can get Sortly from the Google Store or Apple App store.
HomeZada
HomeZada bills itself as an all-in-one suite of apps for comprehensive home management. It has a home inventory feature like Sortly, but it also boasts financial management features like estimating and tracking your home value and easily accessing the details of your mortgage and home insurance. You can also create reminders and alerts for home maintenance tasks and track your various home improvement projects, including budgets, receipts, photos, and more.
The free version only allows you to track home inventory and documents, but the rest of the features can be unlocked for $79 per year or $11.95 per month. The major drawback seems to be that the app is most functional on a laptop rather than a phone or mobile device. Users also report that the scheduling feature doesn’t sync with all calendars.
Sweepy
If keeping up with household cleaning and maintenance tasks is a primary concern, Sweepy is an excellent option. Now available on both Apple and Google devices, Sweepy boasts that it “helps turn your chores into a game.” You can track when you last cleaned and use the app to generate a cleaning schedule that will fit with your calendar. But it’s not just for cleaning—you can include important home maintenance tasks such as changing air filters and scheduling inspections.
Sweepy’s free version allows for unlimited tasks and cleaning history, though you’ll need to pay $8.99 per month to generate a cleaning schedule and allow multiple household members to use the app on their devices. Once you do, however, you can use it as a family to assign chores and check what’s been done. You earn points for completed tasks, so family members can compete to stay atop the leaderboard.
S’moresUp
Another dedicated chore app perfect for families is S’moresUp for iOS and Android. This family organization app assigns and reminds users of chores as well as offering rewards when they’re completed. Parents can also manage schedules and allowances and can communicate securely with kids and other parents through the app. Reviews are generally positive, though customer service seems to be spotty.
Unfortunately, there is no truly free version of this app, only a free trial period of 45 days. After that, you’ll need to upgrade to either the standard version for $2.99 per month or the premium version for $9.99 per month. Both paid versions offer unlimited family members and devices, and the premium version allows for advanced chore types and scheduling.
Planta
If you’ve always wanted to get into gardening but have a bad track record with plants, Planta may be just what you need. This app for Apple and Android creates individual care schedules for each of your plants and sends you notifications when it’s time to water, fertilize, or more. You can also use your camera to identify unknown plants and test the light conditions to see which plants would grow best in particular areas of your home.
Scheduling, tracking, and community message board features are available with the app’s free version, but you’ll need to upgrade to the premium version for everything else. For this, you can pay either $9.99 per month or $35.99 per year. If you do, you’ll also have access to Dr. Planta, a program to diagnose and treat sick or ailing houseplants.
Expanding the Use of Home Organization Apps
We’ve given you a quick overview of some of the prominent features of our recommended apps. Now here’s some more in-depth tips for getting the most out of them.
Organizing Home Improvement Projects
Home organization apps can help you keep track of ongoing and planned home improvement projects. You can do the following:
- Create to-do lists for each project
- Store before and after photos
- Keep track of paint colors and other materials used
- Set reminders for regular maintenance tasks
Managing Home Inventory
Beyond appliances, these apps can help you maintain a comprehensive inventory of your home’s contents, which can be invaluable for insurance purposes. You can do the following:
- Catalog valuable items with photos and descriptions
- Store purchase receipts and warranty information
- Update values of items over time
Tracking Home Systems
In addition to appliances, you can use these apps to manage information about your home’s major systems, including the following:
- HVAC systems
- Plumbing
- Electrical systems
- Roofing
By keeping track of installation dates, maintenance schedules, and repair history, you can ensure these critical systems receive proper care and attention.
Enhancing Home Security
The apps we’ve recommended in this article don’t require you to have external smart home devices. However, if you do, you can often integrate them for better functionality from both the app and the device. With smart home devices such as security cameras, smart locks, and alarm systems, you can monitor your home in real time, receive alerts about any unusual activity, and even control security settings remotely. This integration adds an extra layer of convenience and peace of mind, allowing you to oversee your home’s safety from anywhere.
Facilitating Energy Efficiency
Similarly, with smart appliances and sensors, you can track your appliances’ and systems’ energy usage, helping you identify areas to improve efficiency. By monitoring energy consumption, you can make informed decisions about upgrades or changes that could reduce utility bills and environmental impact. Note that your utility company may offer an app that gives you some general information about your resource usage to help you create a more energy-efficient home.
Our Conclusion
No matter the features, the best home organization app for you is the one you’ll actually use. All the smart algorithm-backed reminders in the world won’t help much if you find the notifications annoying and simply swipe them away. Thus, take some time to consider what you need before signing up for a subscription. If it provides what you need, a home organization app can be an invaluable asset in maintaining and improving your home.
