It recently became illegal for supermarkets to use single use plastic bags. That’s good, but the switch over stage means me forgetting to take reusable bags with me ALL THE TIME.
I have the bags in my car but I’ll get into the shop and get a basket full of stuff then walk to the checkout and only then realise that I forgot the bags so I buy a few more and leave.
Tired of this, and starting to get too many reusable bags, I figured I’d setup a reminder to go off every time I enter the woolies car park to remind me to get the bags out of the boot. It’s actually pretty easy to do with the built in iPhone reminders app.
Start by opening the Reminders app.
Scroll to the bottom and tap the ‘+’ button to add a new reminder.
Give the reminder a name. This is what will be displayed as a notification when the reminder goes off.
Once done, tap the information button icon on the right.
The reminder details screen will be displayed.
Toggle the ‘Remind me at location’ switch on.
A new section will display for the location. Tap the arrow on the right side.
The following screen is where it all happens.
Start typing the location in the top box. I used ‘Northside Plaza Shipping Centre”. It should eventually display in the list below. Select it when it does.
Ensure the ‘When I arrive’ segment is selected.
Then do any fine tuning of the location. Tap and drag the black dot to enlarge or shrink the area. In the image below I made sure it was around 100m which covers basically all of the shopping centre and carpark.
Once done, tap ‘Details’ in the top left to go back to the details screen.
Now the Details screen will show that the reminder will go off when I am arriving at Northside Plaza Shopping Centre.
Tap Done in the top right to save the reminder.
Now go about your day. The next time you drive / walk / enter the vicinity selected with your phone you will get a reminder telling you to take your bags.
The picture below shows the reminder popping up in CarPlay as I drove into the carpark.
It’s stopped me forgetting about taking bags and I haven’t had to buy any more reusable bags since. Eventually I’ll just remember and I’ll delete the reminder, until then though its handy to have.