How you keep track of your Stash?

[knw247]

I am just wondering how everyone is keeping track of what they have in their Humis? I just put together an excel sheet to help me get organized (after being inspired by another one that i saw floating around the net). It took much longer than I expected, but now i know what have, along some key infor: Size/wrapper/place of origin/strength of each cigar that I own. I'll add in the purchase date as I buy new sticks.

So how do you keep track?

 

[icehog3]

Go in my humidor every day to grab a cigar. Seriously...that's it.

 

[jimjim99]

I actually prefer not to keep track, I always end up finding a stick that I didn't even know I had, the other day I found an old mi barrio that I smoked that evening. Each to his own.

 

[slicer]

I tried memorizing once but, now i dont care. I love finding hidden away gems. On the flip side it's a little frustrating looking for a single stick you set your mind to enjoy and cant find it right away and/or got ashed already.

 

[javelin377]

I see something I forgot about each time I open the cooler. Part of the fun for me.

 

[RacFocus]

I tried keeping track on an app on my iPad. Quickly decided it was more work than anything and gave up. I enjoy being surprised now and again when I find something I forgot about.

 

[luckysaturn13]

Go in my humidor every day to grab a cigar. Seriously...that's it.

this lol
I tried keeping track in a notebook and just could tkeep up with it. Now that i have two kids my times extremely limited. I do band incoming bombs though so I know who to thank when I smoke em

 

[herfdog]

I used an app for a while, but stopped because it is more work than I like. Not only when you put sticks in, but everytime you smoke one. It is counter intuitive to do imho.

I now put bands on the sticks to remember when/where they are from.

Works better for the dog that I am. Other puppies might like differently

 

[StogieNinja]

My stash is small enough I can remember for the most part where stuff came from.

I do use a micron pen to jot dates on the back of the band in small print.

 

[sofc]

My stash is small enough I can remember for the most part where stuff came from.

I do use a micron pen to jot dates on the back of the band in small print.

Me too except for the micron pen.

 

[shadowcam]

I do it through memory. I can list off 90% of my stash which is kind of surprising to me... My memory isn't as sharp as it used to be.

 

[mdwest]

Go in my humidor every day to grab a cigar. Seriously...that's it.

^^^ this ^^^

A few years ago, when the stash was rapidly expanding, I thought I needed to "track" inventory... I tried a couple of different spreadsheets, and apps for the phone, etc..

For me.. it wasnt worth it..

Its not like I cant see 90% of what I own, any time I open the cabinet.. the boxes are right in front of me..

If I am buying something with the specific purposed of aging it.. I simply take a sharpie, and write the purchase date on the bottom of the box.. and throw it in the cabinet..

If we're talking singles.. I typically intend on smoking those in the near term (within a year).. and have a decent idea of how many of what I have on hand.. so, no real reason to track those either..

Just wasnt worth the time/energy to sit down and enter everything into the app/spreadsheet whenever I made a purchase.. and half the time I would forget to take things out of inventory when I would smoke them (the last thing I want to do when I am trying to select a cigar, sit down to relax, and smoke.. is to have to remember to go to the spreadsheet and log it out.. so.. I would intend on doing it "later" and then either never get around to it.. or simply forget.... so my inventory never stayed accurate anyway)...

 

[tadpole]

as many others have stated, i used a spreadsheet and app, but it quickly became too much work than i wanted to deal with. perhaps i was making it way too complicated - marking down the brand, line, filler, binder, wrapper, vitola, when and where it was purchsed (or who bombed it to me), etc. receiving a simple 5er took an extra 45 minutes of work.
my current method is: each drawer of my wino has specific brands. if i get too many of a certain brand, some spill over into another drawer, but i just try to smoke those a bit quicker so the spill-over is kept to a minimum. i also have 2 desktops that i treat as "drawers", each containing specific brands, as well. a 3rd desktop is used as a "mooch-a-dor" - yard gars and sticks that the i wont care about "wasting" on the once-per-year smokers.
a large cooler is used to store stuff that @Russ622 bashed over my head.
i like my current organization method - i have a very good idea of what is in each drawer/humi, but not the exact specifics. if someone were to ask me if i have a certain stick, i can find out pretty quickly. small downside is that i have to be at home - i cant check it quickly via spreadsheet/app.

if not having an app is the biggest problem i am facing, then i am leading a pretty good life.

 

[mdwest]

my current method is: each drawer of my wino has specific brands.

I do this as well...

Ive got 10x trays inside the cabinet.. there are certain trays set aside for certain brands that I tend to smoke a lot of or have a significant number of singles of..(a tray for Tat, a tray for DE, a tray for CC's, etc..).. and several trays set aside for "1 off's" were Ive got 1 or 2 of something obscure, or something I dont regularly smoke, etc..

If Im looking for something I "know" or want something I am familiar with.. I typically reach for one of the "brand" trays.. when I want to try something different.. I reach into the "1 off" trays...

Boxes remain intact until a tray starts to get a little on the light side.. then I select a box that has been laying down for a while.. and move its contents into the open tray... (this lets me know its time to buy another box... ).... I almost never smoke from the box.. and only smoke from the trays (thats the stuff that is ready to smoke.. the rest is laying down, aging, waiting its turn, etc..etc..)...

 

[jerseyjetset]

I print custom bands for everything that gets bombed to me so I can remember who to thank. Beyond that, I have few enough that I just wing it. I tried an app but like others have said, it's too much upkeep. I sometimes smoke 2-3 sticks a day in the summer and I just don't wanna make a chore of it.

 

[rdomfoto]

When I first started, I kept meticulous track of every single cigar using the iPad app, Cigar Boss HD. It works reasonable well but it hasn't been updated in quite a while so new cigars have to be manually entered into the database. Then, I'd have to remember to remove the cigar once I smoked it.

It became a lot of effort and started to remove some of the joy of smoking cigars. So I tried a few other apps, even creating my own Google Doc form/database. But, in the end,I just let it go and now, every so often, I get to be surprised by grabbing a great stick that I had forgotten I had.

 

[knw247]

I print custom bands for everything that gets bombed to me so I can remember who to thank. Beyond that, I have few enough that I just wing it. I tried an app but like others have said, it's too much upkeep. I sometimes smoke 2-3 sticks a day in the summer and I just don't wanna make a chore of it.

Where do you pick up the blank bands.

 

[knw247]

When I first started, I kept meticulous track of every single cigar using the iPad app, Cigar Boss HD. It works reasonable well but it hasn't been updated in quite a while so new cigars have to be manually entered into the database. Then, I'd have to remember to remove the cigar once I smoked it.

It became a lot of effort and started to remove some of the joy of smoking cigars. So I tried a few other apps, even creating my own Google Doc form/database. But, in the end,I just let it go and now, every so often, I get to be surprised by grabbing a great stick that I had forgotten I had.

So it would appear I am at that earlier stage that many veterans have " been there stopped doing that". We'll see how long I keep it up. One benefit is I nice have a better idea of what's in their so when someone says they want s mild gar. I can see which ones foot the bill. I am guessing in time il won't need that written down to know. But I am still new into the hobby.

 

[jerseyjetset]

Clint @cgraunke sent me an Excel spreadsheet he had formatted with 3 band sizes that correspond to different RG ranges, and I modified it for my own purposes. I used to band everything I owned, listing the "make/model", vitola, where/from whom i got it, whether it was a bomb/purchase/MAW/etc, and the date i got it (with the date it was made in parentheses for anything that got to me w. some age on it). Now I just record bombs so I can give thanks where they're due

 

[herfdog]

I subscribe to the wino drawer/box separation method too. I sort them so when I am about to smoke, selection is easy. I choose the box, then the stick.

However while I remember most what I have; I'd be hard pressed to figure out a number estimate.