{"id":28083,"date":"2023-04-07T15:49:17","date_gmt":"2023-04-07T22:49:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/?p=28083"},"modified":"2023-04-07T15:49:17","modified_gmt":"2023-04-07T22:49:17","slug":"under-my-roof","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.podfeet.com\/blog\/2023\/04\/under-my-roof\/","title":{"rendered":"Track All of Your Stuff with Under My Roof"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most important applications I use is called Under My Roof from Binary Formations<\/a>. Under My Roof helps you keep track of everything<\/em> to do with your home through a beautiful user interface. Under the hood it’s a powerful database but that is hidden from the user so you don’t have to worry your pretty little head about it.<\/p>\n

\"Under
Not Really My Home (But I Wish)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It takes some time investment to populate Under My Roof but in case of fire, flood, tornados, earthquakes, or theft, you\u2019ll be glad you have all of your records in one place. Speaking of insurance, you can keep track of insurance policies and coverage information for your home in Under My Roof.<\/p>\n

I use it to keep track of all of my electronics; adding warranties, serial numbers, and photos. You can use it to track collections of Pokemon cards or Bernstein Bears or Tiki mugs. Jewelry is another big thing people might like to keep records of in Under My Roof. You can track maintenance tasks too. Anything that\u2019s under your roof whether it\u2019s a house or an apartment can be maintained in Under My Roof.<\/p>\n

When it comes time to move, Under My Roof helps you by letting you record what you put in each box with photos and when you arrive in your new home you’ll be able to find that spaghetti strainer you need on the first night.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m betting that a significant number of you are thinking this sounds like too much work. But Under My Roof has such a great interface that makes it so easy, it\u2019s actually kind of fun.<\/p>\n

As Jill from the Northwoods says on her podcasts<\/a>, start with small steps. I recommend starting out by just putting in new stuff when you buy it. Once you get the hang of it, you\u2019ll find you want to go back and start entering things you\u2019ve had for a long time.<\/p>\n

Pricing<\/h3>\n

Let\u2019s get pricing out of the way. Under My Roof is a very moderately priced subscription at $25 USD per year. For that price, you get the app and your synced inventory on your Mac, iPhone, and iPad.<\/p>\n

If you’d rather pay month-to-month, you can do that for $4\/month, and when you stop paying the subscription you can still access all of the data in your inventory. Let me repeat that: you never lose access to your data. You can even get a free trial with 10 items so you can kick the tires yourself and see if Under My Roof is as easy to use as I claim.<\/p>\n

Under My Roof also supports Family Sharing which means you can share your inventory (and the app subscription) with your family members. I used to have to do all of the work to maintain our Under My Roof database, but when the fine folks at Binary Formations added Family Sharing, Steve was able to start maintaining his own items. It’s so easy to add new items that he picked it up really quickly and doesn\u2019t ever drag his feet about keeping the database up to date. You can also share an inventory with other people who aren\u2019t in your family.<\/p>\n

Data Security<\/h3>\n

I\u2019m itching to tell you about the fun stuff, but I\u2019m betting a fair percentage of you are wondering how secure the data will be that you enter into Under My Roof, seeing that you can share it between users and between devices.<\/p>\n

Binary Formations is adamant that they do not maintain any<\/em> intermediate servers. All syncing and sharing is done through iCloud. If you want a bit more security from prying eyes on your devices, you can also set an inventory password through the options panel.<\/p>\n

Under My Roof Interface<\/h3>\n

When you search for Under My Roof in one of the App Stores, you\u2019ll notice that it\u2019s called \u201cUnder My Roof Home Inventory+\u201d. The reason for that is they used to have a product called Home Inventory, and Under My Roof is the grown-up version of the same concept. By adding Home Inventory to the name, they ensure people searching find the new application. I was an avid user of Home Inventory and talked about it on the podcast nine years ago, so it’s well past time for me to tell you about Under My Roof.<\/p>\n

Starting Under My Roof<\/h3>\n

When you first launch Under My Roof, you name your inventory and then create a home. You may have multiple homes. Maybe you have a home in Houston and a home away from home in Austin, perhaps you manage rental properties, or you have a vacation cabin. Under My Roof can handle as many homes as you need.<\/p>\n

The Browse Bar<\/h3>\n
\"Browse
Browse Bar<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The left sidebar of Under My Roof is called the Browse Bar, and it allows you to browse your inventory from a bunch of different perspectives. You can browse by Location, Category, Collection, and more.<\/p>\n

I normally browse my inventory by Location so I can look at just what\u2019s in my office, Steve\u2019s office, the family room, or our bedroom. In the bedroom, for example, we have some electronics like a HomePod, a TV, and a receiver, but we\u2019ve also got jewelry. I can see all of those items if I browse by location.<\/p>\n

You can also browse by Category, so I could see all of my jewelry, or all of my electronics regardless of location in my home. You can even tag items and then browse by those tags.<\/p>\n

You can also browse by All Items if worrying about organization isn\u2019t on the agenda for a given session with Under My Roof.<\/p>\n

There are a lot more ways to browse your items, but let\u2019s jump ahead to how to enter items into Under My Roof. I promised you it was easy so I\u2019d better hurry up and prove it.<\/p>\n

Adding Items<\/h3>\n

There are a lot of ways to start entering items into Under My Roof so you can pick the way that\u2019s easiest for you. There\u2019s a pretty-obvious plus button to create a new item. From there you can enter the details about the item – things like price, purchase date, serial number, who you bought it from, and you can add the location and category.<\/p>\n

\"Entry
Entry Fields for New Item<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you’re using a Mac or iPad with a keyboard, starting with all this text entry works really well. If you\u2019ve already taken a photo of the item, you can import the photo from your Photos library into the item<\/p>\n

\"Add
Add Photos from Library<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

There is<\/em> an option to add a photo using the camera from your device, but the Mac or iPad isn\u2019t the most convenient way to take a photo.<\/p>\n