Stuff for iOS: Keeping Up With the Joneses

intro

Managing a household is never easy when lots of people (4 in my case) with busy lives are involved. For the past 15 years it was slightly easier because of working mostly from home (as far as both my wife and I are concerned). That meant there was lots of space for in person communication in the moment, as things happen. We've got 2 adults, 1 teenager and one (almost) tween which means there is lots going on, always.

Our typical plan got quite a bit more hectic a few months ago when my wife moved from a fully remote job to a hybrid job which had me on the look out for an app to help keep things straight: after school activities, doctors and orthodontists, groceries, etc, etc, etc.

We've tried several apps to help over the years but none were perfect. I'm not sure such a thing exists to be honest. The one that has stuck though and is quite helpful is Stuff by the Mity Company.

I've tried more than one. Standouts include Notion (all around too much), Twos (too complicated for my wife), Anylist (not complicated enough for me), just a calendar (doesn't work for stuff). And others too that just aren't worth mentioning.

stuff

Stuff is a mobile app focused on lists. They can be lists of tasks or lists of "stuff". But at its core - it's focused on lists. It has several features though that makes it stand out:

Separate User Accounts. My wife has her account. I have mine. If we wanted to add our kids we could (although we don't currently have them on it). This makes it super easy to share just what we want to share. And potentially continue to use it individually for our own stuff.

The Ability to Deadline Any Item. One of our shared lists is "In the Fridge". We can add leftovers and items we get at Costco and easily add a "must use or throw out by" date on it. Or if there is a particular item with a more immediate need on the shopping list, we can denote it and prioritize one of us getting it. I really like being able to base everything in time as it helps me know what to do with it.

Quick "Calendar" Views. At the top of the main screen is a big "Today" bucket that will quickly show any item with a date of today (or earlier). Plus, there is a "Collections" section under it with three time based views: "Someday", "Upcoming" and "Deadlines". I like being able to quickly see items mapped with time across my workspace.

Ability to Divide Lists Up Into Spaces. It's nice to be able to categorize lists (in my case into areas: family, personal, work). I can drill into the space I need and just see that info.

Tags. I can also tag anything for easy categorization. When I go to Costco I can select to just view the Costco tag.

Family Sharing on the Subscription. This is really nice and makes it practical - both my wife and I can use it with one subscription.

❗

Note: I learned with Stuff that iOS now has you turn on Family Sharing per app. It's not an automatic thing. It's easy to do though - open up the app store, go into your subscriptions and select Stuff and from that screen toggle Family Sharing.

Inbox Quick Entry. It's on the homepage and you can launch it from a widget on the home screen making entry a breeze.

wishes

For all of the good, it's not perfect. There are some things I wish it did (or did better):

Shared Spaces. I think shared spaces are at the top of my list. I don't want to have to individually share all of the lists in my family space with my wife - I'd love to just share the space! She's an integral part of that space so manually doing each list is a bit tedious.

Easier Tag Filter. I'd love to be able to easily filter by tag at the list and space level. Currently to see the tags I have to go through the tags section on the main screen. To get practical, I tag my shopping list by store I need to go to; I'd love to be able to then go to the store and filter that list by it's tag directly.

List Update Notifications on Shared Lists. I'd love to know when my wife adds something without having to always be looking at the app. I know what you are probably thinking: we don't need more notifications. You aren't wrong but I can in modern iOS choose to digest them and get just a block of updates in the evening to quickly scan.

Comments. For shared items/lists/spaces, comments would be nice. Sure we have messaging apps but making a quick note here (or asking a question) could be nice. Technically we can make notes and that works but a nicer experience for comments could be helpful to sort out the chaos.

how I'm using it for my family

Before closing things out, I wanted to share just a little about how I'm using it with my family. This is just a few-months-old process so things are ever evolving but here's how we are starting:

As you can see in the screenshot, I've got 5 shared lists: Kids stuff, Meals, Shopping, Social Stuff, "In the Fridge".

Kids stuff is for quick items about the kids - a scheduling thing, a note that they need something for school, etc - the possibilities with kids are endless (something is always coming up). There can be so many moving parts when dealing with kids that its nice to have a space to quickly make a note for the other partner.

Meals is a running list for meals we have planned and have the stuff for. That way, as dinner approaches, we can look and see and know what's available to make. We find have a list of possibilities works much better than a rigid schedule because, at the end of the day, we never know how much energy we'll have to cook; having options lets us meet the mood of the day.

Shopping is a running list of things we need to get. I tag the store so I have a running idea of "where" and can filter based off of that. It's increasingly a habit when I go somewhere to check this list to see if I need to pick up anything specific (and it's the same for my wife).

Social stuff is a place for my wife to keep me up to date on her busy social life. She's an extrovert with lots of friends and lots of stuff going on so this helps me keep it straight. I could do that too but let's be honest - I don't really have a social life.

"In the Fridge" is a place to mention any leftovers and items with expiration dates in the fridge so we can plan around using them up!

closing thoughts

Stuff is good! It works well and lets us connect. It's still a young app and there is lots of room for growth but it's already been a big help for us, in keeping a handle on things. I'm sure more uses will emerge and are use cases with shift but honestly it's a big help to have a place we can easily connect asynchronously about these kinds of things as it records the sort of things we think about at odd times and will forget to tell the other person if we don't make note of it somehow.