Going shopping, in your own home

With all of the hoarding going on it’s hard to resist the urge to hoard essentials. Although I didn’t originally feel the need to run out and hoard, I got nervous that everyone else was and so when I did run out of things everyone else would have bought everything up. This peer pressure further perpetuates the hoarding. Humans are trained to survive and in times of uncertainty we lean into actions that make us feel prepared. If all you can do to prepare yourself is wash your hands and hoard, I get the appeal of the shopping spree.

This weekend we chose to self-quarantine and do our part to flatten the curve. 

In doing so we spent some time beautifying our home and doing a little in-home shopping. No, I don’t mean online shopping.

I am a pretty organized and tidy person. But, we have a small living space and so we pack stuff in where we can which means things sometimes get lost. We have three main storage spaces: under the kitchen sink, our hall closet and under the bathroom sink. We spent a few hours organizing. We started by going through our medical supplies (which we have sorted into internal and topical). By going through this stuff we felt much more confident that we had what we needed. 

Including: 

Loads of cough drops

More than enough ibuprofen to last multiple illnesses 

Plenty of alcohol prep pads 

Then we sorted under the kitchen sink. 

I found:

Extra antibacterial soap hiding in the back

Plenty of sponges (now I am not afraid to retire the rag we’ve been using)

In the closet I found enough laundry detergent for over 100 loads. 

We also spent time consolidating some extra bottles we had and putting like items together. 

We:

-Poured 2 dish soap bottles into one 

-combined bottles of windex and goo gone 

-Put all of the laundry care together and poured bulk bag contents into dispensers

-Found toilet paper in multiple spots and found we had 4 more rolls than we thought! 

By spending the extra time to make ourselves aware of what we had and put like items together we feel a lot more comfortable and prepared without having to hoard or take necessary essentials from those in need. I am using this time as an opportunity to use what I have, create new recipes, consolidate, and transition to low-waste alternatives. 

Thanks for reading and be well!

Sincerely,

Samantha