I'm very new to Arduino and I'm trying to start a project to help organize my stuff. I want to be able to take data from a spreadsheet that I've made to catalog the locations of different things and be able to flash an LED on that drawer. I can get the LED's set up and program them to blink, but I need to figure out how to type in a name, find an object, retrieve the data on it's location, and activate the corresponding LED. I'd like it to be as simple as possible so that I can just click a shortcut on my desktop and go right into typing. Any ideas? I'd appreciate the help it you can offer it.
but I need to figure out how to type in a name
Look at your Arduino. Do you see a way to do that?
find an object
As in locate that object in a database?
I'd like it to be as simple as possible so that I can just click a shortcut on my desktop and go right into typing.
Oh, so you want a PC application to do all this, and just send some information to the Arduino to tell it to turn on pin n.
The Arduino coding will be trivial. The PC end will not. I could do it, but I've been in the business for 34 years. A relational database to hold the data is needed. A PC application that is connected to the appropriate serial port and that can access the database is needed.
There are several possibilities for the RDBMS - MySQL has the appropriate cost (free) for this project.
Visual C# Express can be used to develop the application, and has the appropriate cost, too (free).
Not a particularly difficult project, except for running all the wires for the LEDs, but the fact that you had to ask means that the project is closer to the deep end than your abilities allow you to go, currently.
aerolester1:
I'd like it to be as simple as possible so that I can just click a shortcut on my desktop and go right into typing. Any ideas?
You need to write an application on the PC. You will have to choose a programming language and development environment to use to create it. I'd recommend C++ since this is essentially the same language that you're using to program the Arduino, and using Eclipse or Visual C++ Express since they are user friendly and free. I would suggest using a relational database rather than a spreadsheet since it is far easier to access programmatically and I'd suggest SQL Server Express since it's free and plays nicely with VC++.
The application would be launched from a shortcut/hotkey or however else you decide. The application would display a window which enables the user to select the item to be searched for. You could use free text entry for this although IMO this would be more user friendly if the application made it easy for you to enter valid names and prevented you from entering invalid names. For example you might present a drop-down list of defined items, or provide an 'intellisense'-like autocompletion capability. With either approach you would just need to type in enough characters to uniquely identify the item you want to select, and then press enter. You will also need to provide some way to enter the initial data, and then maintain that; once you have got the capability to display a window and access a database, providing an updat6e capability is only a small amount of extra work. Most databases come with an administrative front end that makes it easy for you to see and change the database contents if you preferred that.
Once the item has been recognised and the associated LED has been identified, the application would send a message to the Arduino requested it to flash that LED. You will need to decide how the Arduino is going to communicate with the PC. If it's going to be connected by USB then the Arduino sketch would be trivial.
Once you have got the GUI part working you might want to think about using voice recognition on the PC to launch the app and select the item to be located. Ideally, you would be able to call out "Hey, where are my socks?" and the relevant draw would blink, or perhaps pop open ...
This would probably work best if the microphone looked like this:
Thank you both for your help. I know it'll take a bit of learning on my end to make this work, but I feel like I can do it. I just didn't know where to start.
Not a particularly difficult project, except for running all the wires for the LEDs, but the fact that you had to ask means that the project is closer to the deep end than your abilities allow you to go, currently.
Gotta start somewhere! 
This would probably work best if the microphone looked like this:
I thought the same thing haha, but yes, I was thinking of expanding its capabilities afterwards.