How to make an inventory for my text advenutre?

I am creating a text adventure game, and using strings and text instead of traditional objects. Below I have my script that handles all events/searches for items in game (It probably looks very intimidating since it is made to work for many different scenarios).

What I would like to happen when an "item" (string) is found in game, for it to be added to the inventory, which would be a separate scene that can be reached from any scene, but the inventory contents itself would be an object in every scene, for use in gathering items/selling/buying etc. Here is my code and how I load my scenes:

 using System.Collections;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using UnityEngine;
 using UnityEngine.UI;
 
 //IMPORTANT NOTE TO SELF: REPLACE ITEMSFOUND LIST WITH INVENTORY LIST, SO THAT ITEMS MAY BE ADDED TO INVENTORY
 
 //NOTES ON THIS SCRIPT: this script may seem uneccesary, and is fairly complicated in the number of public variables being thrown about,
 //but I am using many public variables to maximize reusability and in the long run reduce the file size of this project.
 
 public class itemGenerator : MonoBehaviour {
     //sound plays on find items
     public AudioSource items;
     //sound plays on finding nothing
     public AudioSource noItems;
 
     //The following 3 strings are so that I may use this script for other items in the future
     //item1 to find
     public string item1;
     //item2 to find
     public string item2;
     //item3 to find
     public string item3;
 
     //text in the button to continue may change depending on the situation, these strings handle that
     public string textInButton0;
     public string textInButton1;
 
     //allows me to drag any text from my scene to use as the textInButton text
     public Text textInButton;
 
     //allows me to drag any text from my scene to use as the displayItemsFound text
     public Text displayItemsFound;
 
     //list to display items found
     public List<string> itemsFound = new List<string>();
 
     //this will handle how many items will be found during each run of the script
     int numberOfItems;
 
     //makes sure the right amount of items is spawned
     int itemsSpawned;
 
     //uses integer values and assigns them to a string name for the items
     int itemType;
 
     //min range is usually set to 0, unless I always want the player to find an item or have an event occur
     public int minRange;
     //max range is equal to one more than the number of items I want
     public int maxRange;
 
     //these options are made public so that I may use this script for different items in different scenes
     //startStatement allows me to manipulate what the text says before displaying items/events
     public string startStatement;
     //the 0th item which is what will display if nothing is found
     public string itemType0;
     //first item/event to add to the displayItemsFound text
     public string itemType1;
     //second item/event to add to the displayItemsFound text
     public string itemType2;
     //third item/event to add to the displayItemsFound text
     public string itemType3;
 
     //this int lets me choose how many times to increment the amount of itemsSpawned, which will make the function itemTypes run more or less
     public int itemSpawnedNumberToAdd;
 
     void Start () {
 
         //the amount of items spawned will be set to zero
         itemsSpawned = 0;
         //the number of items found on each run of the scene will be chosen here
         numberOfItems = Random.Range(minRange,maxRange);
 
         //if one or more items is found, the itemTypes function is run
         //a positive sound is played
         if (numberOfItems >= 1) {
             textInButton.text = textInButton1;
             displayItemsFound.text += (startStatement);
             itemTypes ();
         }
         //if no items or events occur, the game notifies the player accordingly via the itemType0 string, and the button text is changed as well
         //a negative sound is played
         if (numberOfItems == 0){
             displayItemsFound.text = (itemType0);
             textInButton.text = textInButton0;
             noItems.Play ();
         }
     }
 
     //this function handles which items (strings) are displayed, and how many
     //remember that this is a text adventure, so I may use strings instead of instantiating physical items via prefabs
     void itemTypes(){
         //if the amount of items spawned is less than the required number of items to be found, throw out a random number in the range
         //the random number will decide which items are found
         if (itemsSpawned < numberOfItems) {
             itemType = Random.Range (minRange, maxRange);
             items.Play ();
 
             //if the itemType int equals 1, "spawn" the item assigned to itemType1 and add it to the items list
             if (itemType == 1) {
                 itemsFound.Add (itemType1);
                 displayItemsFound.text += (itemType1);
                 //itemType
                 itemsSpawned = itemsSpawned += itemSpawnedNumberToAdd;
                 //itemSpawned++
             }
             //if the itemType int equals 2, "spawn" the item assigned to itemType2 and add it to the items list
             if (itemType == 2) {
                 itemsFound.Add (itemType2);
                 displayItemsFound.text += (itemType2);
                 itemsSpawned = itemsSpawned += itemSpawnedNumberToAdd;
             }
             //if the itemType int equals 3, "spawn" the item assigned to itemType1 and add it to the items list
             if (itemType == 3) {
                 itemsFound.Add (itemType3);
                 displayItemsFound.text += (itemType3);
                 itemsSpawned = itemsSpawned += itemSpawnedNumberToAdd;
             }
             //runs the itemTypes script again, this will loop until the number of items spawned is greater than the amount of items needed
             //the number of itemsSpawned will equal one more than needed, but the function will not run again at this point
             itemTypes ();
         }
     }
 }


 using System.Collections;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
 using UnityEngine;
 
 public class buttonScript : MonoBehaviour {
 
     public string sceneToLoad;
 
     void OnMouseDown(){
         Application.LoadLevel (sceneToLoad);
     }
 }