an app that stemmed from a very hungry villager

If you know me you would know I eat a lot.

I am always hungry.

And my biggest fear in life is opening the pantry and realising there’s no food.

My mother jokes that we have enough to feed a village at home. What she doesn’t realise is: I am the village.

So yes, I stockpile. Coconut milk, almond milk, rice noodles, oats — my pantry is a revolving door.

But chaos creeps in.

Sometimes I’m at the shops wondering: how many do I actually have left?

Do I need to buy more, or am I about to come home with my 12th backup pack of soba noodles?

That’s where minimally shelf was born.

1. Fear of Scarcity, Reality of Chaos

Here’s the cycle: I get hungry, I panic about running out, I buy too much, I forget what’s in the cupboard, and then I buy again. It’s not hoarding; it’s survival. I’m the kind of person who can demolish five almond milks in three days.

Expiry dates? Irrelevant.

Things don’t last long enough to expire in my house.

Psychologists call this scarcity anxiety — when you’re so worried about running out, you end up overbuying anyway. W

hich is basically my entire almond milk strategy.

But not knowing what I already had at home created mental clutter.

It’s the same anxiety loop every time I walked into Woolies:

Did I finish the coconut cream?

Do I still have rice paper rolls?

How many iceblocks are left?

My brain does not need another guessing game — it needs clarity.

2. Why Pantry Apps Fail Me

Of course, there are already pantry apps out there. But they drive me mad. Scan barcodes. Enter expiry dates. Log calories. Some even want photos.

It’s too much.

I don’t care about the barcode. I don’t care about the expiry date. I don’t need an AI telling me my broccoli is “likely spoiling.”

I just want to know: how many left?

The bulk of these apps, ironically, creates more chaos.

Too many features, too much data, too much friction.

If I can’t open it in two seconds at the shops, it’s useless.

And if it nags me about food waste when I literally eat everything in sight, it’s not designed for me.

3. Shelf, but Simple

That’s why I built minimally shelf. No expiry dates. No barcode scans. No unnecessary features.

Just a clean list of what you have and how many are left.

Five almond milks? Logged.

Two coconut creams? Logged.

One soba noodle packet hiding behind the rice cooker? Logged.

The beauty is in the simplicity: I can check my shelf in seconds while standing in the aisle. If I see I’ve got five almond milks left, I know that covers the next three days — which means I can confidently buy five more.

It’s not overthinking; it’s peace of mind.

The design is deliberately analogue-inspired — more like a little pantry journal than a warehouse inventory system.

I wanted it to feel like writing on sticky notes, not filling out a tax return.

Conclusion: Why I Built It

minimally shelf started with pantry chaos and a fear of scarcity.

It started with me realising I didn’t need more features, I needed fewer. I needed something that fit the way I eat: fast, repetitive, simple.

So yes, being the spirally, overly-enthusiastic app stan I am, I built it. Not to track nutrition, not to reduce food waste, not to gamify shopping — just to give me clarity on what’s left.

Because sometimes the only thing you need to know is: do I have enough almond milk to last until Wednesday?

And now, thanks to minimally shelf, I do.