We all have stuff. Yes, I’m referring to those things that you have on your table, on your shelf, in your drawers or around you. Most of you are owners of at least one type of the following gadget — phone, laptop, tablet, gaming console, speaker set, earphones or headphones and so on. And that’s just the beginning. Maybe you don’t just have the run-of-the-mill, mass-manufactured stuff. Maybe you have something unique, something you want the world to see. Boxes is an extremely beautiful app for the iPhone that allows you to document all your stuff, and maybe even put something up for sale.
This free app opens up with a rather nostalgic texture of an actual cardboard box that we could almost smell by just looking at it! It fundamentally may be skeuomorphic, but it’s done in such an elegant way that we have no choice but to hopelessly love it! Boxes will initially ask you to create an account. To ease the process a little, you can let it pick up details from your Facebook or Twitter accounts, or just fill in the details manually. While all this is happening, items people have uploaded on boxes appear in rows of a smooth alternating marquee scroll, teasing you to discover more. Once all is done — you’re greeted with a short three-step tutorial explaining what Boxes is. And maybe a little explanation is in order; what does this app do exactly?
Other than showcasing your belongings, Boxes is also a marketplace where you can put up items for sale. The app makers also suggest that the app can be used to organise stuff; especially when you’re moving, thereby becoming a digital record of your actual real-life boxes. Once you’re in the app, you have a bunch of pre-defined boxes like ‘Books’, ‘Clothes’, ‘Electronics’ and ‘Shoes’. You can create new boxes, which are nothing but categories of products you want to list.
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The “Hamburger” button to the top-left has this slick rubber-band effect to the text and icons; they bounce into place. Here, you can check out activities from other Boxes users like who liked or posted what item. Tap the ‘Boxes’ logo up top, and the first button reveals a “News Feed” of sorts; showcasing what people have put up. You can ‘Love’ items (because ‘Like’ is not enough for some of the things we’ve found here), followed by a star symbol next to add things to your Wish List. There’s also a third button to share this product with your Facebook, Twitter or Pintrest folks.
You can also add your own stuff — at first it will ask you to click a couple of photos of the item. To make them look cool, there are built-in filters as well. Next, you add some basic details like what it is, a small description and maybe even list the item for sale. Only gripe we have here is that we can’t choose Indian Rupee in the Regional Settings. Anyway, you can also choose if you’re willing to ship the item within the country or internationally too. By default, it will show the City you’re from, but you can go ahead and put in a specific address if you want to. Last, hit save and the app ‘puts it in a box’. Boxes also lets you interact with other users of the app, where you could ask them questions about a particular product in a Instant Message styled real-time conversation.
Boxes is an absolutely incredible app to document things you own, or even sell them without feeling clinical like you would when using on eBay or Craigslist. It is somewhat an exclusive marketplace; at the time of testing we’ve come across a lot of cool stuff like premium watches, action figures, vintage cameras, awesome furniture, even a Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK GTR! So, for all you materialistic item collectors (and we mean that in the nicest way), Boxes is a must-have app on your iPhone. Download it by clicking here.