Sunday afternoon I drove across the Monongahela River to the Waterfront at Homestead, PA and did a little grocery shopping.
When I wheeled my cart to load the car, I saw this little list on the pavement of the parking lot.
I used to photograph found lists, little wrinkled slips of paper, write poems about them. Some lists abandoned in a cart- seemed like poems when I found them.
I’d think about the people who wrote them. Sometimes they’d written the oddest mix of items.
I have a friend who keeps a magnetized shopping list pad on her fridge and when she uses something up, she writes it down immediately so she can replenish the larder. I’m not that disciplined. I’ve written a list and then left it at home but it can help when trying to remember what I’d written down.
There are even tablets of preprinted lists and you just check the boxes of what you need to get at the store. That’s not my style of list, either. When I entertain I’m more likely to write a menu AND a shopping list. Cross things off as I put them in the cart.
What is your “list style”?
My husband converted me from a paper handwritten list, to a list on my iPhone. I rebelled at first, but now find it super handy; it’s an app called Reminders, you type your items in, then can check them off at the store as you go along. I usually never forget my phone when I go out, so always have my list with me.
I have Reminders App on my iPhone and should give it a try. Thanks for the tip.
I write a list. I often leave it at home, so I call my daughter and she would text it to me. I think the person who dropped this list was going to see a tearful movie at the nearby theater. The popcorn there is too expensive.
BE ENCOURAGED! BE BLESSED!
I like your story of the list owner and what they needed at the store, Francine! Good one.
I’m no where near as organized as your friend, keeping an ongoing grocery list on the fridge. I’ll make a list before leaving for the store but, no kidding, I usually forget it on my desk when I leave. This App sounds like a good idea and I’m going to get it now. First thing on the list? Cannoli. Because I can. 😉
I have several lists at all times. When I was still working I made a list of everything I needed to do at work each day. I have a list of summer outdoor projects. I have a list for household projects. I have a list of writing projects, a list of fun stuff to do when the grandkids come in the summer, a list of bookkeeping tasks for our business, grocery lists.
I just write them down on a legal pad and cross them off when finished. When the list gets too messy, I recopy… one because it looks nicer (maybe a bit OC) and two because when I write things down I remember. I am obsessed with legal pads of every color! lol
My husband makes lists too.
I think as we age, lists are necessary…at least for us!
I think the person who dropped the list in your picture is going home to watch a sad movie….
I was sure as I scrolled down that list would be mine. I usually write it on a piece of scratch paper and I probably have a bunch in my purse.
We have a board on the fridge and to the list when we think of it. Then we have to transfer the list to paper. Of course like you we have left the list on the counter. Glad we have cell phones so if only one of us went to the store we can call home.
I also write down things as I use them up, but I often forget to take my list with me. I manage to remember most of the things, but not everything. Love the photo. I think the person who dropped it must have been about to watch a sad movie at home. 🙂
Looks like a list for a Saturday afternoon of Lifetime Movie watching.
I hope they dropped the list on the way out of the store not on the way in – lists are very important, they are like best friends – you would be lost without them.
I couldn’t function without the magnetized list on my refrigerator. I just added two items to the list before I checked today’s blog. However, I have one further step before I go shopping. I recopy the list onto a new sheet of paper and I place the items in order according to the layout of the store. This means I have to remember the layouts of three different supermarkets — Whole Foods and two different Giant Eagles. I know it must seem a little OCD, but it makes my life so much easier.
Looks like a list for watching a tear jerker at home, from Netflix.
I write things down as I use them up. Then I add other items before heading to the store. I am another reader who thought of a tearful movie in the future for the shopper who lost the list! 😉
p.s. I use the phone app for keeping a list of errands and misc shopping, so when I’m out and about I can check for possible errands in the same part of town. It helps save time AND gasoline!!
I have a bad habit of going to the gigantic supermarket to get one or two things and the next thing I know, I’m checking out with $100 worth of groceries!! My mother used to give a grocery list to my dad every morning and he’d head out to find everything with a few coupons. Mother might have 3 items on the list and daddy would go 3 different places to get the stuff. He was a real people person and knew people who worked at the store or people shopping inside the store. My mother was a huge list maker!
Such a cool find.
One time a guy at Trader Joe’s left his list in his cart while he checked out and Katherine was reading it. He looked at her and snatched it back. It didn’t contain state secrets as far as we know. Still grocery lists are fascinating.
I use my iPhone, actually depend on it 🙂
I keep a “master list” (Word document) on my computer. It contains every food item I use with any semblance of regularity (“regularity” being at least once every month or so).l On shopping day I make a copy of the master list, then just delete the items I don’t need, press print, and off we go! (I do also keep a simple paper-based running list on the side of the fridge; the rule in our house is that whomever uses the last of something has to write it down, so I make sure to get more of it at the next grocery run.)
I write down what we use and then leave the list lying in the bottom of the shopping cart dammit!