Here’s what happens:

1. New “stuff” comes in the house
2. You now have a paper user manual and an old-school postcard to register the product with the manufacturer.
3. The manual goes in a drawer and the postcard may get mailed, but mostly likely not. (The postcards usually have a web address to register, but the effort to sign up at every manufacturer’s  disparate website doesn’t justify the effort.)

So here’s what I would like to happen:

1. New “stuff” comes in the house
2. I grab my “smartphone”, fire up an app.
3. Scan the barcode, or just take a picture of the box, or the product itself.
4. Since the app has my info (email and address?), the product gets registered with the manufacturer and the item goes in my “personal inventory”.

Now I have a digital inventory of this newly acquired “stuff” including the digital user manual and the manufacturer can contact me with warranty and recall information (important for kids’ stuff.) Here’s the thought experiment part of this post…. could this idea extend beyond kids’ stuff? Uh yeah, certainly for electronics, appliances, tools, yard equipment, possibly furniture?

Ultimately, I could see this solution connecting consumers with the brands and manufacturers in a mutually beneficial way. I would not mind if Stokke (who made our daughter’s high chair) sent me an offer to buy the accompanying tray a week after we bought the high-chair, because guess what…. we bought that tray eventually anyway. We definitely would have bought it sooner with a coupon. Finally, like most stuff, you eventually want to get rid of it for a fair price. Could this app let you “post on craiglist, sell on ebay, post on zaarly” with a flick of the finger and set a market price (which you could change of course) based on similar sales? Sure, why not? And maybe “transfer ownership” to the kind person taking this stuff off your hands assuming they have the app? Sure, why not? The point is that the consumer gets enough benefit in the way of discounts, product recommendations, and an effortless way to sell items.

Okay, I had to get this off my chest to hear some thoughts from people smarter than me. I would love to hear if this resonates with you or how you manage your personal inventory. Could this work? Would people use it?