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Whether you’re brand new to Plan to Eat or a long-time customer, you may have come across the Staples List and wondered what it’s for and how best to use it. Today, we’re diving into the Staples List and answering all your questions about this feature!
What is the Staples List?
The Staples List is a list of frequently purchased items or a household inventory (more on that below), so you can quickly add multiple items to your Shopping List at once. The Staples List is a “static” list, meaning the items on the list aren’t affected by your meal planner, like the Shopping List. While you can add, edit, and remove items on your Staples List, none of that happens automatically.
Where do I find it?
On the app, you’ll find the Staples List by tapping the Shopping List header on the Shop tab. On the website, you’ll find it in the upper left corner of the Shop tab.
How do I use the Staples List?
There are two main ways to use the Staples List (although we welcome creativity, if you have other ideas):
1) Frequently Purchased Items
Fill your Staples List with all your frequently purchased items and ingredients that might not make it to your Shopping List from recipes. Things like toilet paper, orange juice, oatmeal, or shampoo. When you go to create your finalized Shopping list, you can quickly add any additional items by bulk selecting them from your Staples list. This is a time saver compared to manually adding multiple shopping list items.
2) Staples List as an Inventory
The Staples List can also be an inventory of what you already have at home. You can fill up your Staples List with all the items you already have at home, including quantities and any additional notes, and then keep track of quantities as you use items. When you run out of something, you can quickly add it to your Shopping List.
This is not an automated inventory system, so items will not be automatically removed from your Shopping List, but this gives you a place to manually track what you have on hand.
You can also use the With Ingredient filter on the website to find recipes with the items you know you have and want to use!
Can I have more than one Staples List?
You only have one Staples List, but you can create multiple stores within it, just like your Shopping List. The two lists stay in sync, so any store you add to your Staples List can also be found on your Shopping List and vice versa.
If you use special stores in your Staples List, like “Garage Freezer,” you may not want those items copied directly to your Shopping List since they would stay assigned to that same store. When adding items to your Shopping List from the Edit menu, you can choose a different store so the items show up where you actually plan to buy them, but this won’t affect where they live in your Staples List.
I hope this overview of the Staples List helps answer any questions you have about this feature! If you still need help, you can always email us at [email protected]. You can also watch our YouTube video on this feature, if you prefer a visual guide.
