Set up your first list

InvenDo is most useful when its structure mirrors your home: the places you actually look in, and the kinds of things you keep there. If you chose Add Samples on first launch you already have a sensible starting structure — four storage places and eight categories — and can skip to step 5. If you started empty, this page builds one in about ten minutes.

Everything below lives in the menu ☰ → Manage, and applies to the list you’re in. See Manage overview for the map.

1. Switch off what you won’t use

Open Manage → Features and Fields. Every feature is on to begin with; untick the ones you don’t need and the matching fields disappear from every form, which makes adding items quicker:

• Stores and Price — if you don’t plan to use the Shopping List for budgeting.
• Unit of Measure — if “3” is all you need and never “3 kg”.
• Minimum quantity — if you don’t want low-stock reminders.
• Expiry date (and Shelf life after opening under it) — if this list holds things like tools or clothes.

You can turn any of them back on later. See Features and Fields.

2. Create your storage places

1. Open Manage → Storages and tap +.

2. Type the name in Storage, pick a colour, and tap ✓. Icons and photos are Premium extras.

3. For a place inside another — a shelf in the garage, a drawer in the fridge — open the parent first, then tap +.

Start with the places you’d list if a friend asked where things are: Fridge, Freezer, Pantry, Bathroom, Wardrobe, maybe Garage. Fewer is better; you can always add a drawer later. See Storage places.

3. Create your categories

1. Open Manage → Categories and tap +.

2. Type the name, pick a colour, and tap ✓.

3. Under Enabled fields, untick what doesn’t apply to this kind of thing — Expiry date for Clothes, say — so those items get a shorter form.

Broad categories work best: the sample set is Dairy, Drinks, Tea and Coffee, Bakery, Toiletries, Cleaning, Clothes and Shoes. Subcategories go two levels deep for free, five with Premium. See Categories.

4. Check your units

Manage → Unit of Measure starts with pcs, pack, kg, g, L and ml. Add anything you use — bottle, roll, bag — with +, and delete the rest if you like. Items don’t have to have a unit at all: choose None when adding them. See Units and unit size.

5. Add stores (optional)

If you shop in more than one place, add each one under Manage → Stores — just a name. Give items a preferred store and the Shopping List can be grouped by store, so you see what to pick up where. See Stores.

6. Start adding items — and let the app do the rest

You don’t have to finish the structure first. When you add an item, the category and storage pickers each have a + for creating a new one on the spot, and InvenDo pre-fills the category and storage place you used last. See Getting started for your first item and Scanning barcodes for the fastest way to add packaged goods.

The sample structure, if you’d like to recreate it

The one-time Add sample items? question can’t be brought back, but the structure it creates takes a couple of minutes by hand:

Storage place	Categories	Example items
Fridge	Dairy, Drinks	Milk, Yogurt, Butter, Eggs · Orange juice, Sparkling water
Pantry	Tea and Coffee, Bakery	Coffee, Tea, Sugar · Bread, Cookies
Bathroom	Toiletries, Cleaning	Shampoo, Soap, Toothpaste, Toilet paper · Bathroom cleaner, Sponge, Laundry detergent
Wardrobe	Clothes, Shoes	Winter jacket, Raincoat · Brown shoes, Sandals

One list at a time

Storage places, categories, units, stores and the feature switches belong to the list you’re in. If you keep a second list — for a holiday home, say — it gets its own set. See Multiple lists.