NFC tags for home inventory - some field notes

[danielrosehill]

Hi everyone,

I'm in an odd period of home renovations at the moment. So while my delightful home office is temporarily out of commission, I'm finishing off little remaining parts of my home inventory project and.... figured I may as well share some stuff I've figured out for anyone interested.

Today's ramble: NFC tags. I started out using labels and then moved over to a mixture of tags and markering.

Why use NFC for home inventory?

Reasons:

• It's a little more expensive but not by a whole lot. Especially when you consider that if you already own an NFC equipped smartphone you don't need any additional hardware to get going.

• I noticed that my printed labels degraded significantly after about a year which I wasn't expecting. So far my tags are holding up a bit better. I haven't yet looked into weatherproof tags but I know that they exist.

• For those who also enjoy random tech rabbit holes, NFC is quite an interesting little niche to explore! There are washproof NFC tags, miniature ones that can even fit on cables, etc. These are some surfaces where adding labels gets tricky simply due to size and without adding things like cable tags. Speaking of which NFC cable ties exist (the NFC chip is embedded into the tie itself!)

• The main reason however was actually using my inventory.

If I wanted to return a item to the right place (which is central!)I personally find the tapping an NFC tag is quicker and more convenient than capturing a label even though the difference is only a few seconds (specifically, you can just type a tag and don't need to open up the camera app)

NFC drawbacks (vs. labels)

The downsides of NFC:

• Cost per NFC tag is higher than cost per label.
• You need special tags to adhere to metal surfaces which if you're doing a lot of tech inventory can be a problem
• If you create your labels on the desktop, options for writing and reading tags are a bit more limited.

But to state the obvious you don't need to pick one or the other. I have a mixture of both at the moment.

Buying recommendation

Bulk buy basic tags

Given that inventory is a relatively bulk oriented project, to save money, I opted for a "basic but functional" NFC tag (NTAG 213). I buy these from AliExpress usually in quantities. My first order is were in the region of 500 to 1,000!

If you similarly want to build up a large collection to give yourself plenty of tags to work with, it's worth investing the time in finding a bulk oriented supplier (if B2B platforms don't phase you, Alibaba is an option too if you can meet the moq!)

My go-to labels are simple white tags. But I purchased a few additional variants for specific purposes.

Most important of these dimension is metal safe tags. Regular NFC tags will not raise when overlaid on metal. The metal safe tags are quite a bit more expensive per units but have a ferrite backing.

But they do tend to adhere well. An example of a use I've made them is on my various VESA mounts:

Wet inlay tags

Additionally if you're planning and creating a lot of these I recommend buying some wet inlay tags (which are as close to transparent as you'll get - it's the NFC chip with transparent backing basically).

Black and white tags

And then some black tags which are handy when you want to place one on a black surface without attracting the ire or notice of less inventory-enthused significant other is or housemates ("WTF.....you put an NFC tag on the coffee maker!? Why!?")

I got a few mint containers to put them in and use the metal save tags to label them:

I useful thing I've discovered is writing the inventory asset ID on the tags to have a fail safe in case they fall off:

The batting average is pretty decent. Some do come off. But most adhere. After a while you develop a sort of subconscious knowledge of this and you'll know when to use them or not.

Writing Tags

Homebox added a copy asset URL button at some point which really speeds up the process.

I use NFC Tools Pro on Android paste the URL, write the tag, and then lock it.

The last action is irreversible and many might prefer to use a password or simply leave the tag open.

The reason I locked mine is purely to prevent accidental deletion as the cost per tag is low and I figure... If I needed to update you a new system I probably just place new tags.

NFC for shelf labeling

I jokingly tell friends that my home office is sort of a live in warehouse with a small corner to work from.

I picked up a few IVAR shelves in IKEA and store everything I need for my tech hobbies and business in boxes there.

The shelves are items boxes are nested under them and then assets within those (not the most ideal but it gets the job done).

The shelf labeling here which is replicated on the boxes is an NFC tag overlaid with a number sticker (of the type you can buy in any craft store etc):

Potential pitfalls

I have thought about the risk of deprecation for NFC or the type of tag I'm using in particular.

However this is also a risk that exists when using QR codes and just about any type of technology.

I've decided that it's not worth worrying about and that backward compatibility should probably keep the system viable for as long as I need it.

If intelligent AI robots that can create tags have arrived on the scene to replace manual Inventory management I'll probably just hand the work over to the robots. Until then NFC seems to work pretty well.

Hope this was of use to anyone thinking about adopting NFC for writing inventory.

If you do want to do this, define accessory I recommend picking up is a USB NFC reader writer.

Support for NFC is definitely mobile centric. But when I'm working at the computer I do find it more useful to use this in conjunction with NFC Tools (on the desktop).

[tankerkiller125]

Additional note for people (as someone who dealt with NFC/RFID on a warehousing level in enterprises. You can also purchase tags designed to be sewn into fabrics that are washer and dryer safe. Great for towels, clothes, etc. (and yes Hotel chains use them extensively now)

[danielrosehill]

Additional note for people (as someone who dealt with NFC/RFID on a warehousing level in enterprises. You can also purchase tags designed to be sewn into fabrics that are washer and dryer safe. Great for towels, clothes, etc. (and yes Hotel chains use them extensively now)

Very cool!

Would be very curious to get your insights on anything NFC related. I'm "winging it" but I like them!

[danielrosehill]

Additional note for people (as someone who dealt with NFC/RFID on a warehousing level in enterprises. You can also purchase tags designed to be sewn into fabrics that are washer and dryer safe. Great for towels, clothes, etc. (and yes Hotel chains use them extensively now)

And for those in Europe (I think they're in Italy), a completely unsolicited recommendation for this company. They were very patient answering questions and provided a few samples also.

https://www.shopnfc.com/en/

[tankerkiller125]

Most of the work I did regarding wireless tags (mostly RFID, but some NFC) involved very proprietary software/hardware and reading things from 6-7 ft away. So not really much use to the general home user to be honest.