The Power of a Master Grocery List.

In the early weeks of Supply by Kara (when it was just an idea), I was thinking a lot about pantries, refrigerators, and the food we store inside. I was interested in understanding how a household decides what to buy and how much overlap there was household to household. I was also interested in finding a way to (greatly) improve upon the classic method of created a grocery list - often from memory on a scrap piece of paper just before shopping. Some of those early Google searches included “list of pantry essentials” and “complete grocery list”. Tons of resources appeared for the first question and not much appeared for the second. So I spent a few weeks making one myself. I call it the Supply by Kara Master Grocery List. I wanted a Master Grocery List because to me it felt like a non-negotiable, initial step in a successful pantry and refrigerator clean out and organization. This list would not only aid during the shopping process but serve as the inventory list for a household’s food.

An organized pantry and refrigerator is not just about the aesthetics. A pantry and refrigerator ought to have the ingredients your family wants to have to make the foods you want to eat. And when you have the right ingredients organized well, it becomes a source of inspiration and is the foundation for happy cooking and eating. A successful grocery list reduces the mental load of trying to keep track of what’s needed, what’s running low, what you usually purchase. And it can help inspire creativity in the kitchen when you are able to quickly scan a list of your favorite ingredients.

It’s so exciting to see more and more pantries and refrigerators being overhauled by organizers. However, when traditional home organizers take the same approach to pantries and refrigerators as they do a closet or garage, the fundamental question of “is the food currently in your pantry/fridge the food you want to have?” is not answered. To answer that question, we have to go all the way back to the beginning. During the Supply by Kara Consult, we uncover what a family eats during the week, what their schedule looks like, what their tastes and meal favorites are. Then we have them check every food item on the Supply by Kara Master Grocery List that they enjoy and would like to have in their home. This is then condensed into a custom grocery list for the family.

The information collected then become the North Star in which we build a plan for the pantry and fridge, not whatever the current contents are. Of course we would expect a lot of overlap between current contents and ingredients selected on the Master Grocery List but current contents only tell a partial story. It is really easy to collect food over the weeks, months, years that are not wanted and building a system that includes all of this is counterproductive.

Here is a sneak peek:

Here are some Grocery List tips whether you are a client or not!

• Create a running list of items you buy, bonus points if you break it up by store. Using the Notes app on an iPhone is great for this. Then every time you need to go to __X__ store, you can review the list and not have to start from scratch.

• Have somewhere to note items that have run out during the week - a list on the fridge, chalkboard, or shared note on our phones work well.

• Using the categories of the Master Grocery List named below, take inventory of the items you have in your pantry and refrigerator right now. Do you have a few vinegars to make salad dressings? Do you have a few types of grains (quinoa, sushi rice, brown rice, etc) to cook? Do you have at least 15 different dried herbs and spices? Do you have a few types of canned beans and tomatoes? Do you have a few frozen vegetables (peas, carrots, edamame) for end-of-week meals when fresh vegetables are running low? Regardless of preferences, a well stocked fridge and pantry is a lifesaver.

  • The categories of the Supply by Kara Master Grocery List are the following:

    • Fresh Vegetables

    • Fresh Fruit

    • Fresh Herbs

    • Dried Herbs/Spices

    • Dry Goods

    • Baking

    • Bread

    • Oils/Vinegars/Sauces

    • Cans/Jars

    • Snacks

    • Dairy & Refrigerated

    • Meat & Meat Substitutes

    • Frozen

Hope is helpful! If you are not a client of Supply by Kara, you can still download the Fruit, Vegetable, and Herb page of our Master Grocery List by subscribing to our newsletter.