Tips for Organising Your Locations

There’s no single right way to organise locations in Ginkgo. Here are some approaches that work well for different types of homes.

Start with rooms, add specifics as needed

The simplest approach: one location per room. Add more specific sub-locations only when a room has enough items to warrant it. This keeps the structure light and easy to maintain.

A kitchen with five items doesn’t need sub-locations. A kitchen with fifty items probably does — “Kitchen > Top drawers”, “Kitchen > Cupboard under sink”, “Kitchen > Pantry shelves”.

Use plain language, not perfect taxonomy

Location names should be how you’d describe the place to another person. “The big cupboard in the hall” is better than “Hall storage unit A”. You don’t need a filing system — you need something you’ll remember.

Think about how you search, not just how you browse

Some locations are more useful as search terms than others. “Garden shed > Right-hand shelves > Middle shelf” is very specific, but when you’re looking for something you’ll probably just search for the item name rather than navigate the hierarchy. Extreme specificity in locations adds maintenance overhead without much retrieval benefit.

Give unusual locations distinctive names

If you have a location that’s non-obvious — an under-stairs cupboard, a storage unit off-site, a rarely-used attic space — give it a name that flags its unusual nature. “Attic — Christmas things” is more useful than just “Attic” when you’re scanning a list.

Review your locations occasionally

Over time, some locations become unused (because you reorganised), some names become unclear (because you’ve forgotten the context), and some become overcrowded (because you added too much to them). A ten-minute review once or twice a year keeps the structure useful.