7 ms·

It's also not a surprise when cleaning supplies run out, they're used at a fairly steady rate; like you have weeks of notice if you see the bottle/box is runnin

by sct202 6y ago

It's also not a surprise when cleaning supplies run out, they're used at a fairly steady rate; like you have weeks of notice if you see the bottle/box is running low.

Swizec 6y ago
Yeah resource management is really not that difficult for this kinda stuff. 1. Do dishes 2. Oh there’s fewer than 7 tabs left 3. Buy new pack on your next weekly trip to get groceries You can eyeball the number 7 and you even get a daily reminder.
- Johnny555 6y ago
  The problem is the gap between 2 and 3 -- unless you keep a list (and follow it when you're at the store), you may still run out. Online shopping has helped me with this -- I usually add it to my online cart as soon as I'm running low. I think this is the problem the Amazon Dash buttons were supposed to solve -- keep a Dash button in the cabinet with the dish detergent, and when you see that you're running low, hit the button to order a new one.
  - jeffrallen 6y ago
    Kitchen chalkboard + mobile phone camera. Bonus points if your wife sends you the picture of the shopping list with a cute emoji. Adulting: it's not that hard, but it's not kid stuff either.
    - Johnny555 6y ago
      Yeah, there are lots of ways to do grocery reminders, I'm just pointing out that when the OP said "resource management for this is easy", he omitted the hard part. "Buy more when you're low" is the easy part, the hard part is how do you go from "I need more" actually buying more.
    - kalleboo 6y ago
      Yeah this is the solution my family has restored to, after trying all kinds of grocery list apps etc.
  - refurb 6y ago
    Pro-tip for folks with multiple adults in the household - Google Keep makes for a super easy way to manage shopping lists. I created (over time) a list of things we buy, in order of how you'd shop for them and shared it on Keep. Basically me or my wife can pull open the app, check a box. Get to the store and just go down the list as you walk through the store. I'm sure others have better ideas - this one works for us!
    - jimmyswimmy 6y ago
      We do the same thing. Keep is superior to a written list - you can organize it, so apples don't end up near the top of the list, and oranges at the bottom, and you end up walking back and forth through the store. You can have sub-items in Keep, by dragging items beneath a "heading" item, and so we have a bunch of major items (meat, fruit/veg, breads, paper, cleaning, etc.) that stay on there, and we add subitems to the list. It makes it much easier to shop, and as we shop, we check items off. It's too bad Google separated Keep from their assistant function. You used to be able to say "ok google, add cheese to the shopping list" and it would go in the Keep shopping list. Now it goes in a shopping list that is somewhere else, that I can't share. Not very useful. Keep is also easily replaced by a variety of open source solutions, whenever Google decides to deprecate it. It is simple, and it works for now.
      - refurb 6y ago
        We have a similar system! I know you can also do it through Apple Notes. It's a bit clunky to share the note with someone else, but once you've done it, it works very similar to Keep.
      - mook 6y ago
        FWIW, Google Assistant can now use custom list apps (and Keep is an option), so "ok google, add cheese to the shopping list" is a thing again. Under assistant settings, it's in the Services / Notes & Lists heading.
  - rurp 6y ago
    In my house I'm the one who cares the most about running out of things so I keep a list on my phone. When my fiance or I notice something is low, it goes on that list. Since it's on my phone, I'll almost always have it at the store.
- 082349872349872 6y ago
  > You can eyeball the number 7 Supposedly, Henry Ford ran F by eyeballing the height of various stacks of papers on his desk. GM made fun of him for doing so (because they had "scientific management"), but I wouldn't be surprised to find out the numbers on the pieces of paper in each stack were generally for the same order of magnitude, so he really could get actionable "Business Intelligence" by comparing stack heights. (Are there any other practices on which astrophysicists and Henry Ford could agree?)
zo1 6y ago
Another option is to do things on a schedule. E.g. you work out how much of something you need per month, and make sure that you order that much every month (if you order/buy every month). Sometimes you use less, sometimes more, but then you just take one order to "skip" if you have too much, etc. Also, it helps with consumption on some level. You start adjusting your consumption based on how low/high you see your stocks. Other than that, make sure you always have a bit of a buffer and you'll be fine. Especially now with the pandemic, lockdowns and supply-chain irregularity.

by sct202 6y ago

It's also not a surprise when cleaning supplies run out, they're used at a fairly steady rate; like you have weeks of notice if you see the bottle/box is running low.

Swizec 6y ago

Yeah resource management is really not that difficult for this kinda stuff. 1. Do dishes 2. Oh there’s fewer than 7 tabs left 3. Buy new pack on your next weekly trip to get groceries You can eyeball the number 7 and you even get a daily reminder.

Johnny555 6y ago
The problem is the gap between 2 and 3 -- unless you keep a list (and follow it when you're at the store), you may still run out. Online shopping has helped me with this -- I usually add it to my online cart as soon as I'm running low. I think this is the problem the Amazon Dash buttons were supposed to solve -- keep a Dash button in the cabinet with the dish detergent, and when you see that you're running low, hit the button to order a new one.
- jeffrallen 6y ago
  Kitchen chalkboard + mobile phone camera. Bonus points if your wife sends you the picture of the shopping list with a cute emoji. Adulting: it's not that hard, but it's not kid stuff either.
  - Johnny555 6y ago
    Yeah, there are lots of ways to do grocery reminders, I'm just pointing out that when the OP said "resource management for this is easy", he omitted the hard part. "Buy more when you're low" is the easy part, the hard part is how do you go from "I need more" actually buying more.
  - kalleboo 6y ago
    Yeah this is the solution my family has restored to, after trying all kinds of grocery list apps etc.
- refurb 6y ago
  Pro-tip for folks with multiple adults in the household - Google Keep makes for a super easy way to manage shopping lists. I created (over time) a list of things we buy, in order of how you'd shop for them and shared it on Keep. Basically me or my wife can pull open the app, check a box. Get to the store and just go down the list as you walk through the store. I'm sure others have better ideas - this one works for us!
  - jimmyswimmy 6y ago
    We do the same thing. Keep is superior to a written list - you can organize it, so apples don't end up near the top of the list, and oranges at the bottom, and you end up walking back and forth through the store. You can have sub-items in Keep, by dragging items beneath a "heading" item, and so we have a bunch of major items (meat, fruit/veg, breads, paper, cleaning, etc.) that stay on there, and we add subitems to the list. It makes it much easier to shop, and as we shop, we check items off. It's too bad Google separated Keep from their assistant function. You used to be able to say "ok google, add cheese to the shopping list" and it would go in the Keep shopping list. Now it goes in a shopping list that is somewhere else, that I can't share. Not very useful. Keep is also easily replaced by a variety of open source solutions, whenever Google decides to deprecate it. It is simple, and it works for now.
    - refurb 6y ago
      We have a similar system! I know you can also do it through Apple Notes. It's a bit clunky to share the note with someone else, but once you've done it, it works very similar to Keep.
    - mook 6y ago
      FWIW, Google Assistant can now use custom list apps (and Keep is an option), so "ok google, add cheese to the shopping list" is a thing again. Under assistant settings, it's in the Services / Notes & Lists heading.
- rurp 6y ago
  In my house I'm the one who cares the most about running out of things so I keep a list on my phone. When my fiance or I notice something is low, it goes on that list. Since it's on my phone, I'll almost always have it at the store.
082349872349872 6y ago
> You can eyeball the number 7 Supposedly, Henry Ford ran F by eyeballing the height of various stacks of papers on his desk. GM made fun of him for doing so (because they had "scientific management"), but I wouldn't be surprised to find out the numbers on the pieces of paper in each stack were generally for the same order of magnitude, so he really could get actionable "Business Intelligence" by comparing stack heights. (Are there any other practices on which astrophysicists and Henry Ford could agree?)

zo1 6y ago

Another option is to do things on a schedule. E.g. you work out how much of something you need per month, and make sure that you order that much every month (if you order/buy every month). Sometimes you use less, sometimes more, but then you just take one order to "skip" if you have too much, etc. Also, it helps with consumption on some level. You start adjusting your consumption based on how low/high you see your stocks. Other than that, make sure you always have a bit of a buffer and you'll be fine. Especially now with the pandemic, lockdowns and supply-chain irregularity.