Is hoarding ever okay?
Pasta. Diapers. Eggs. Beer. Hand sanitizer. And, of course, toilet paper. The panic-buying has cleared the shelves of these items in this confusing last month. Countless recent articles have explained the sociological and psychological needs to hoard this stuff. From a professional organizer’s point of view, is it okay right now? Is it ever okay to hoard?
I admit it, I am one of those suckers, who in both supermarket trips I have made since sheltering in place, has seen cleared out shelves of canned goods and panicked. I immediately thought, “we must definitely need a lot of beans and soup, like right now,” and then filled my shopping cart with anything in a can that wasn’t this.
My son just walked in while I was writing this post and said, “Mom, why are you looking at a picture of the grocery store?” Not the grocery store, son, this is our kitchen.
Stockpiling
“Stockpile” has now become a controversial concept. But in the home, under normal circumstances, is stockpiling okay? The vague answer to this is: sometimes.
Buying in bulk is a popular practice, because it can save time and money. Below are some things to keep in mind when bulk-buying, in both these irrational times and when you’re shopping mask-free down the road.
MAINTAIN ORGANIZATIONAL SYSTEMS
When I was a kid, my dad had two shelves of his bathroom closet dedicated to back-up items. It was called “the store.” If any of us ran out of tissues or toothpaste, instead of making a trip to CVS, we could go to “the store” and almost always find what we needed. The thing about the store is that it was always very neatly organized. Teeth cleaning had a section, paper goods another. Just these two shelves maintained a lot of stuff and quite a bit of order.
Organizing your stockpile:
keep a designated space for “extras”
have a bin or box to hold the backup stuff so that it doesn’t run loose on the shelf
make sure everyone in the house knows where the stash is, so no one else purchases more (hopefully my husband is reading this)
My husband’s (not-so) secret lifetime supply of his beloved shaving products by Pacific Shaving Company.
ASK YOURSELF WHY
Why are you loading up on stuff?
Are you afraid of running out?
Do you like to have the next one handy if you run out of the supply/food?
Are you saving money on bulk purchasing?
All of these are okay. It’s just good to know why you are doing it, it can keep purchasing under control.
KEEP LIMITS
Keep in check how much you really need. Just because Tide 6-packs are on sale doesn’t mean you need to get 4 of them. It might feel like you do a lot of laundry, but probably not a thousand loads per year. And more importantly, where are you going to store this stockpile? My dad’s store had 2 or 3 of each item, not 24. There are diminishing returns at a certain point. Keep your number realistic.
SUBSCRIPTION ORDERS
More on this in another post, because this ever-growing autopilot lifestyle deserves its own spotlight. I will just say this for now: mind those subscription orders. They can take over before you ever even notice.
The bottom line is this: if stocking up is giving you comfort in these uncertain times, then just be sure to be systematic about it. And most importantly, right now, please keep in mind that everyone else needs soup and toilet paper too.
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