Grocery Staples List: Keep Your Pantry Basics Stocked

What belongs on a grocery staples list

Staples are the things you reach for without thinking, the basics that many everyday meals in your home start from. They are different for every household, so the most useful list is the one built from your own kitchen rather than a printable from the internet. A simple way to start is to group the list the way your cupboards are arranged:

• Dry goods. Rice, pasta, flour, oats, sugar, breakfast cereal.
• Tins and jars. Tinned tomatoes, beans, stock, jam, peanut butter, whatever sauces you come back to.
• Oils, vinegars and seasonings. Cooking oil, vinegar, salt, pepper and the few spices you actually use.
• Fresh basics. Onions, potatoes, garlic, eggs, butter, milk, bread.
• Drinks. Tea, coffee, coffee capsules.
• Household basics. Washing-up liquid, bin bags, kitchen roll, toilet paper.

A few habits keep the list useful:

• List what you use, not what you could use. If a jar of something sits untouched for months, it isn't a staple for your household. Take it off.
• Keep fresh items you buy every week separate. Milk and bread go into the weekly shop anyway; the staples list is mostly for the things that run out every few weeks and are easy to forget.
• Put newer items at the back. When you restock, older packs move to the front and get used first.
• Review it now and then. Tastes and routines change. A quick look every season keeps the list honest.

Why a staples list is different from your shopping list

Your shopping list changes every week: this week's extras, the ingredients for Saturday's dinner, the thing someone asked for. The staples list barely changes. It is a reference you check against the cupboards, and the shopping list is what you take to the store.

Keeping them apart makes both easier. Before a big shop, someone walks past the pantry with the staples list in hand, and whatever is running low is copied into the shopping list. For sharing that shopping list with your partner and ticking items off in the store, see our guide to a shared grocery list app.

Keep your staples list as a note in Family Errands

In Family Errands, a note has no date. It simply stays there, which suits a list you use again and again. You can keep a note for yourself or share it with chosen family members, and a note can serve as a template: create an errand from it each time you need to act, and the note stays as it is for next time.

1. Write the note

   Create a note called “Pantry staples” and add a checklist with your staples, one item per line. Pick a colour or an emoji and pin it, so it is easy to find among your notes.

2. Share it if you like

   Tap the avatars of the family members who shop or cook with you. Everyone it is shared with can see and edit it, so whoever notices a new staple can add it to the list.

3. Before shopping, check the cupboards

   Open the note and walk past the pantry and the fridge with it.

4. Create an errand from the note

   A new errand for today appears with the note's title and checklist. Remove the items you still have plenty of, so only what's running low is left, and add this week's extras.

5. Share the errand and shop

   Share the errand with whoever is going to the store. The note stays untouched, ready for the next check.

Tip. If you don't shop on a fixed day, leave the restocking errand without a date: an Anytime errand is shown every day until you complete it.

Restock before you run out: stock tracking

Some staples are used at a steady pace and come in countable packs: coffee capsules, nappies, dog food. For these, Family Errands can keep count for you.

1. Create a repeating errand for the item

   — daily for coffee capsules, for example — and switch on stock tracking in its repeat settings.

2. Enter how many you have

   and how much each completion uses up, then switch on the low-stock reminder and set how many should be left when it reminds you.

3. Complete the errand when you use some

   Each completion decreases the remaining amount.

4. Get a reminder when only a few are left

   Add the item to your next shopping errand, and after you buy more, refill the stock in the app.

This suits one or two items you use regularly. For the rest of the pantry, a quick look in the cupboards with the staples note is enough.

When the list arrives in the family chat

Sometimes the staples list starts in the family chat, one item per line. Copy the message, and Family Errands offers to create a new errand from the copied text. Each line becomes a separate checklist item, and bullets like “-” or “1.” are removed for you. Share the errand with whoever is going shopping, and the request no longer sits between other messages.

Questions