The magic cupboard
This is a fairly serious suggestion.

I am, it's fair to say, not the world's most organised or tidy person. Without external pressures*, I tend to live amongst piles of stuff - I put things down, then if they don't move for a day or two, I stop seeing them. I don't think I'm actually a hoarder, though it probably depends on your precise definition.

So, I have formulated a cunning plan, if I ever find myself in the financial position to carry it out. It's called the Magic Cupboard.

Imagine that there is, in every room, a cupboard with a touch screen just above it. When you want an item of property, you use the screen to locate it in the inventory, using all the usual favourites / recent items / search that you'd find on an online store. Once you've identified the item, you hit "get", and a few moments later a soft ping lets you know that the item is available in the cupboard.

When you've finished with it, simply put it back in the cupboard, and it will just disappear.

You wouldn't need any other storage in the house; everything would be available via the cupboards. No shelves, closets, wardrobes or cabinets. Your whole attitude to where things "live" would change.

To make this work, the house would have a fully automated robotic warehouse next door, which would do all the getting and putting. This is completely feasable using current technology - it's just a matter of having enough money to be able to afford it.

* the WIFE, generally
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Thu 5 Jul 2012, 17:03, 13 replies)

Or, as Mrs Vagabond has it
"You were looking for it like boys do."

Well - yes, dear.
( Je suis un vagabond is an unfunny, up your own arse middle class knob, Thu 5 Jul 2012, 17:07, closed)

or you could just remember where you put things

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Thu 5 Jul 2012, 17:26, closed)

So you mean...
... a personalised version of Argos and the Argos return desk?
(FUXTIX Not my words, Carol, Thu 5 Jul 2012, 17:28, closed)

So what you're saying is that you should never have moved out of your mummy's house.

( Dr. Shambolic je suis charlie, Thu 5 Jul 2012, 18:10, closed)

Sounds like The Luggage.

(bat_fudgie, Thu 5 Jul 2012, 19:31, closed)

except with less feet and malice

( Smash Monkey lowering the tone of the whole internet, Thu 5 Jul 2012, 20:04, closed)

You called?

(The Luggage is haunted..., Thu 5 Jul 2012, 21:00, closed)

I'm not sure that today's tech is up to the task,
unless you fancy adding bar codes to everything you own. Maybe in a few years, but your wife should have buried your corpse under the patio, before then.
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 5 Jul 2012, 20:31, closed)

Barcodes? Are you from the 80's?
I'd go with an RFID system. The problem I can see is that you'd have to get up to get things out the cupboard, then go to the cupboard again to put things away. I tend to throw stuff on the floor next to the sofa.

The answer is of course a touchscreen by the sofa, and a monkey butler.
( The Awful Puppy Bakery is still bored, Fri 6 Jul 2012, 1:29, closed)

Yes, I'd assumed RFID
Which would also allow you to ask where in the house an object was (if not in the Cupboard).

A later version would have a roombot collecting items and putting them back in the cupboard at night. You'd have to have some way of nominating items to not be collected, or that could get annoying.

I like the monkey butler refinement, though... [strokes chin thoughtfully]
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Fri 6 Jul 2012, 9:53, closed)

Strokes own chin....
Well, I'd get smacked if I stroked anyone else's.
Add in 'Banjo playing' just before and 'equipped with a hover pack' after monkey butler and you've sold me on the idea.
( moonbadger Doesn't judge a fish by its ability to climb trees, Sun 8 Jul 2012, 10:15, closed)

...or rfid tags
you can buy hundreds of them for a few quid on ebay, and the readers are around 4 quid each.
(dchurch bah, Fri 6 Jul 2012, 12:44, closed)

Game changer...
if you could get it to work. Maybe use the loft as storage and have all items piped down from there? Make it fit in the average house. In fact, having just one 'magic cupboard' would change my life drastically. Just have a wardrobe in one of the upstairs rooms, that reaches all the way up to the ceiling, and all the fancy robotics and RFID stuff and a computer brain running everything (on it's own personal UPS/gen-set/solar panel power supply of course). I'd end up living in that one room, with a desk and a big chair and a bed and the magic cupboard.
(Ktulu O'Ryleh float like a turd, sting like chlamydia, Wed 11 Jul 2012, 23:11, closed)