How to Create Grocery List in iPhone?

iPhone comes with lot of default apps and the pity is that many users do not even know the apps exist on their phone. Reminders is one of the beautiful apps in iOS (also available for iPad and Mac) that allows you to manage all your task lists in one place. In addition, you can also easily create groceries list and share with others using Reminders app in iPhone. Learn more on how to use Reminders app in Mac as the features are same in iPhone app. In fact, all items in the app will be synchronized across your devices.

Creating Groceries in Reminders

The feature is only available from iOS 17 and hence make sure to update your iPhone to the latest OS.

• Open Reminders app and tap on “Add List” link showing at the bottom right corner.

• First, tap on one of the icons showing in the list to assign it for your list. Let me select the carrot icon to match the grocery list.
• Next, select the color that you like from the palette.
• After that, type the name for your list, let me name it as “Groceries”.

• Tap on “List Type” and select “Groceries” from the dropdown.
• Finally, tap on “Done” link showing on top right corner of the screen.

This will create a list named “Groceries” and Reminders app will automatically open it for adding items.

Adding Grocery Items in List

As mentioned, the list will open automatically, otherwise, tap on “Groceries” list name in your list to start adding items.

• Tap on “New Item” link showing on bottom left corner of the screen.

• The beauty is that Reminders app automatically create sections when you add items. For example, add Onion and press the return key and the app will automatically group it under “Produce” category.

• Let me add onion, chicken, pasta, milk, walnut and fish oil. The list look like below with automatically created sections. You can also add more details with the item name like “Onion 1KG”.

• You can expand or collapse each section to keep the list readable in the small screen. Alternatively, tap on the three dots inside a circle (Action) icon showing on top right and select “View as Columns” option to change the list to column view.

Generally, you do not need assign a due date/time or location to grocery items in the list. Since the app is basically for task management purpose, you will still be able to do so. Tap on the items showing just above the keyboard to assign date/time, location, tag, flag and take a picture. You can later use the due date for sorting the items in the list.

Managing Sections Manually

If you do not like the automatically created section names, simply tap on it and change the names. For manually creating a section:

• Tap on the Action icon on top right and select “Manage Sections”.
• You will see two options for creating and editing section and select “New Section” option.
• Type the name for your section and start adding the items.

Changing Order of Sections

If you want to rearrange the sections, select “Action > Manage Sections > Edit Sections” option. On the next screen, hold a section name till the time it separates from the list. Now, you can drag and move the item to rearrange the order.

For sorting the groceries list items, tap on “Action” icon and select “Sort By” option. You will see a list of options like due date, creation date, priority and title. Select the parameter based on which you want to sort the list.

Deleting Sections and Groceries List

For deleting the entire list, simply tap on “Action” icon and select “Delete List” from the menu. If you only want to remove a section from the list, swipe the section heading to left and select “Delete” option.

Creating Groceries List Template

If you are frequently going to market for buying the items, it makes sense to save the groceries list as a template. You can open the template anytime and edit its items whenever you want to use.

• When your groceries list is ready, tap on “Action” icon and select “Save as Template” option.

• Enter the template name and tap on “Save” link.

• When creating a new list, go to “Templates” tab and select your grocery template.

• Name your new list and tap on “Create” button. This will create a duplicate of your template with all the grocery items which you can edit and reuse quickly.

Sharing Your Grocery List

Sometimes you may want to share the grocery list with your spouse or maid for purchasing items when they come home.

• Open your grocery list and tap on “Share” icon showing on top left.
• Select the way you want to share the list. Let me send a message of the grocery list by tapping on “Messages” icon.

• When the Messages app opens, add contacts and send the list to them.

• Once the list is shared, you will see a small profile icon appears next to the share icon.
• Tap on the profile icon and select “Manage Shared List” button.

• From here, you can remove access to previously shared contacts or share the list with new persons.

Note the grocery list can be edited by all the shared contacts. You will get a notification if someone edit or completes the item in the list.

Closing Remarks

It is super easy to create groceries list in iPhone using Reminders app. The app will automatically group your items in sections or you can also manually create sections. I would recommend creating grocery template list so that you can simply reuse when needed instead of creating from the scratch.