How to Make an Inventory Sheet for the Kitchen

An inventory of supplies and ingredients will keep your kitchen running smoothly.

Computer software programs make kitchen inventory sheets easy to make, but you can also make one by hand on paper. Whether you are trying to keep your home kitchen fully stocked or keeping track of a restaurant or institutional kitchen, the basic principles are the same. The benefits of computerized inventory sheets are that you can always print out a new one, and you can even set it to keep track of costs or remind you when you run low of a certain item.

Things You'll Need

• Spreadsheet software
• Binder

Instructions

1. Launch a spreadsheet program on your computer, such as Microsoft Excel, Apple Numbers or Lotus 1-2-3. If you do not have any of these, you can download the OpenOffice software suite for free (see Resources) and use Math, its spreadsheet program.

2. Create a tab for each category of item you want to inventory, such as "Dry goods," "Refrigerated foods," "Frozen foods," "Expendables," "Supplies" and "Other." In most spreadsheet programs, you can create a tab by locating the "Insert" menu and choosing "Tab." Double-click the tab to type your category name. You can also do this by hand using a three-ring binder with tabs.

3. Type or write "Item" at the top of your first spreadsheet column and enter the date of your first proposed inventory at the top of your next column. Add dates of future inventories to the tops of subsequent columns on each page. You can add other information like "Minimum number" or "Cost per unit" before beginning the date columns, if you like.

4. Under "Item," enter the name of each item for your inventory. The dry goods page might have items like cake mix, flour, sugar and pecans, while refrigerated items might include specific meat, dairy and produce entries. The expendables category is for non-food items that are used up during the cooking process, such as paper towels, dish soap, latex gloves and aluminum foil. You can inventory your pots, pans, storage containers and utensils under "Supplies," and anything else in the "Other" category.

5. Keep your inventory sheet on the computer to maintain an electronic inventory or print it out and store it in a binder to take inventory by hand. Fill in the quantity of each item in the correct date column each time you inventory your supplies.

References

• Microsoft Office Excel: Create a New Workbook
• Swan Shores Lodge: Kitchen Inventory List

Resources

• Open Office: The Free and Open Productivity Suite