Loans and reminders
What left the house, what has a date on it, and when you hear about it.
Both put a date on an item: when something you lent is due back, and when something you own runs out.
Loans#
An item can carry one loan, in either direction.
- Lent out: yours, at someone else's house.
- Borrowed: theirs, at yours.
A loan records who, when it went, when it is due back, and an optional note. Tap Returned and the fields clear. The app and the web dashboard can both start a loan and end one.
How to use a due date
The app reminds you. It does not message the borrower, does not know how to contact them, and has no interest in automating the awkward part.
What a recorded due date buys you is a sentence you can send. "My inventory says the router is due back" is admin. "Do you still have my router?" is an accusation.
Date reminders#
Separately from loans, an item can carry one typed date:
| Type | For |
|---|---|
| Expiry | Things that go off: batteries, chemicals, food |
| Warranty | Cover that runs out on a known day |
| Maintenance | Servicing, blade changes, filter swaps |
| Cancel | Cancel-before-renewal dates |
The type sets the wording, on the item and in the notification: Expires Aug 3, Warranty ends, Maintenance due, Cancel by.
Reminders are scheduled locally on the device, so they do not depend on a notification server and work the same on cloud and self-hosted setups. You get one a week ahead and one on the day, both at 9am. Set a date less than a week out and you get the day-of one only. A loan due date fires once, at 9am that morning.
One date per item, and it does not repeat. "Remind me every November" is not something the app does yet: you set the next date when you deal with the current one.
Where they show up#
The bell in the app lists every active loan, anything overdue, dates coming up in the next week, and items below their low stock alert. The web dashboard shows the same list under Needs attention.
The number on the bell is smaller than the list, deliberately. It counts what you can act on now, meaning overdue loans, overdue dates and low stock, so a shelf of lent-out things does not pin a permanent number to it.
Active loans and reminders also appear on the item itself.
Which things deserve a date#
Attach a date only when missing it costs something. A warranty running out silently costs money. A blade you sharpen two weeks late costs nothing. Put a date on the first and leave the second alone.