Woodlands, Locations & Items

Three Intuitive Levels

MononoMori translates real-world storage relationships into three simple, everyday concepts:

• Woodland: A broad territory or life domain (e.g., Home, Office, Vehicle, Storage Unit).
• Location: A specific physical storage spot within a Woodland (e.g., Wardrobe, Desk Drawer, Tool Box).
• Item: The physical object you want to record, track, and locate.

A typical hierarchy looks like: “Home → Study → Desk Drawer → USB-C Adapter”. This is just an example—you can shape names and depths to fit how your own memory works.

Woodlands Don’t Have to Mirror Floor Plans

If organizing by physical space feels natural, name Woodlands after rooms (Living Room, Bedroom). If you prefer organizing by lifestyle domain, you can create Woodlands like “Camping Gear” or “Photography Equipment”.

For beginners, we recommend starting with a single primary Woodland named “Home”. Once you develop a steady rhythm, you can decide whether to split into multiple Woodlands.

Locations Answer “Where Does It Live?”

Locations are designed to answer where you will look for an item in the physical world—“Entryway Credenza”, “Bedside Table Drawer”, “Winter Storage Bin”. If a spot holds only a few items, you don’t need to subdivide it into “Top Shelf / Left Bin”.

Use names that point directly to real-world objects. “Bookshelf Bottom Shelf” is infinitely more helpful than “Location 1”.

Items Do Not Require Immediate Location Assignment

While locations make finding physical items easy, assigning one is never mandatory. You can record an item’s name first and assign its physical storage spot later when you do a deeper clean.

Category, Tags, and Status Are Not Locations

Each attribute answers a distinct question:

• Location: Where does it physically reside?
• Category: What kind of item is it fundamentally?
• Tag: What personal themes or activities does it relate to?
• Status: What phase of its lifecycle is it currently in?

For example: “Home → Storage Closet → Camera Battery” describes its physical home. Its category is “Electronics”, its tag might be #travel, and its status is “Active”. Avoid cramming category or tag words into location names.

Recommended Starting Workflow

1. Create one primary Woodland that feels natural.
2. Create Locations only for spots where you truly need physical precision.
3. Add your first item and assign its location (or leave it blank for now).
4. Add tags as you notice recurring themes across different rooms.
5. Update locations whenever real belongings move, without needing to overhaul your entire structure.

See Create Your First Woodland and Add Your First Item to begin.