A pantry inventory answers one question before you shop: what do we actually have? Without one, it's easy to buy a third jar of cumin and forget the rice. This guide covers a few simple ways to set one up, then how to keep it on your phone with Inventory Cat, our stock counter for iPhone and iPad.
Decide what's worth counting
You don't need to count every spice. A pantry list works best when it's short enough to keep up to date. A few ideas:
- Staples you run out of: rice, pasta, flour, oil, tinned tomatoes, coffee.
- Things you buy in bulk: a box of 12 cans or a big bag of rice is worth tracking, because it's easy to lose count.
- Things kept somewhere else: the spare shelf in the garage or the chest freezer is the stock you forget about.
Skip the things you can see at a glance, like the salt on the counter. Add more later if you find you need them.
Set up your shelves as places
Inventory Cat groups your list by place, so start by thinking about where things live. A place can sit inside another place, like:
- Kitchen › Pantry › Top shelf
- Kitchen › Cupboard by the oven
- Garage › Spare shelf
- Garage › Chest freezer
When you add an item, type its place into the Location box. You can type › or / between the parts, so "Garage/Spare shelf" works too. Once a place is in use, Pick a place in use lets you choose it again instead of retyping it.
Add what you have
On the main screen, tap Add item. Give the item a name, set How many now, and add its location. Then tap Save.
You can also scan. Tap Scan, then Use camera (the app asks for the camera only then), and point it at the barcode on the packet. If nothing in your inventory has that code yet, you'll see New barcode and Add as a new item, with the code already filled in. If the camera isn't an option, type the code into Type a barcode and tap Find.
A few things to know:
- A barcode is optional. Loose rice in a jar or home-made jam can be an item with no code.
- One barcode belongs to one item. If you keep the same tinned tomatoes in two places, give the item one place, or add the second one without its barcode.
- There's no limit on how many items you add.
Inventory Cat keeps a name, a count, a place, a barcode and a low-stock number for each item. It has no fields for prices or use-by dates, so keep checking dates on the packets themselves.
Count as you cook and shop
The count only helps if it changes when the pantry does. There are a few quick ways:
- Swipe a row in the list: Add 1 on one side, Remove 1 on the other.
- Open an item and tap − or +, or Set count to type the number you see on the shelf.
- Scan the packet on the Scan screen, then tap − or +. After a big shop, scan one can, turn on Add 1 on every scan of this code, then scan each can of the same thing as you put it away, taking each one out of view before the next. Each of those scans adds 1.
Every change to a count is saved in the item's History, like "Was 5, now 3". If you tapped the wrong one, Undo last takes back the latest change.
See what's running low
This is where a pantry list pays off. Open an item, tap Edit, turn on Flag when running low and set the number, like At 2 or fewer for tins of tomatoes, or 1 for olive oil.
When an item gets there, it shows a Low badge, and the main screen shows how many items are running low. Tap that line, or open More (the ⋯ button) and choose Low stock, to see the list. The item furthest below its low-stock number comes first, so the top of the list is the top of your shopping list.
Share the list or back it up
Under More › Export and backup:
- Export CSV makes a spreadsheet of every item, with its barcode, quantity, location and low-stock number. It opens in Numbers and Google Sheets, so you can send it to whoever is doing the shop.
- Make a backup file saves your whole inventory, history included, to Files or sends it by AirDrop to another iPhone or iPad. Restore from a backup file brings it back.
Both are free.
What Inventory Cat Pro adds
Everything above is free. Inventory Cat Pro is an optional one-time purchase that adds:
- Low-stock reminders: a daily notification at a time you pick, like "3 items running low", sent only on days when something is low.
- Stocktake: count a whole shelf or the whole pantry, then compare what the app expected with what you counted before you apply it.
- Import a spreadsheet: bring items in from a CSV file, if you already keep a list.
- Barcode labels: print sheets of barcode labels as a PDF, for A4 or US Letter label paper. An item needs a barcode to get a label, so for a jar or tub with no code of its own, type one in under Edit first.
For counting a big pantry or a shop in one go, see how to do a stock take.
Quick answers
Do I have to scan barcodes?
No. Scanning is a shortcut. You can add and count every item by hand.
Can two people share one pantry list?
Not live. The list is kept on one device. You can send a CSV or a backup file to someone else, and they can restore the backup on their own iPhone or iPad. Restoring replaces whatever inventory is on that device.
Does it know when food expires?
No. Inventory Cat counts how many you have. Check the dates on the packets.
Where is my list kept?
In the app's own words: "Your items are kept on your device and in your own backups unless you share, save or print them."
Try Inventory Cat
Try Inventory Cat: free, no watermark, no sign-up → iyio.com/apps/inventory-cat