I am (little bit of) a hoarder

This morning I refilled my shower gel bottle and noticed there was 1 refill bag left in the drawer, and I hesitated whether to add it to the shopping list or just wait until I'd use that last bag first.  Frankly, it'll be months before I use all this shower gel here in the East of Belgium.  And yet it'd feel reassuring to add a new refill bag in the drawer next to the other one, waiting for its turn to come.

Since the pandemic started and the global hoarding of all consumers was an issue...toilet paper stress , remember, I've thought about that several times.  I swear I did not hoard anything at all in that hoarding crisis, because I in all honesty had already filled my storage quite well just before the crisis erupted. 

Jan and I have totally different shopping behaviour.  I hate shopping mostly and will only do it functionally: with a list of things I need, ensuring I don't miss anything for the coming days and then get it done and over with.  While Jan zigzags in the supermarkets casually through every isle, I already run ahead with our shopping list and come with the necessary boxes, cans, bottles to our shopping cart to try to get it done a little quicker.. in vain "oh but I'll still pass through that isle" is his answer.   Ugh. 

And then much to my frustration/ disbelief, Jan can come home from the supermarket and ask "oh what shall we eat tonight".  "Euh, whatever you just bought."  "Oh but I didn't buy anything yet for tonight, in that case I need to go back."   Whaattt?  On vacation or so, he'll always just buy for the day itself and do a daily shopping trip. I'll let him do it and enjoy some quiet time while he and the boys are gone.

Not me. I am not into those week menu's at all. But if I know I'm on shopping duty or Jan will be abroad for multiple days,  I will stuff the fridge and storage with food for multiple days. I've not designed menu's but will have several pieces of meat, a full drawer of vegetables, a choice of fruits and cookies in the house etc... I rather go once to the supermarket per week and leave it with a full cart and no need to return, then go multiple times for just a couple of things.   
When I lived on my own, I consciously bought a 7 drawer freezer, which I completely filled. I cooked on purpose way too much each time I was cooking and then froze some servings. So in the weekend I cooked a few times fresh, then ate the next days some left overs and then I could by the end of the week choose something from the freezer.  Now I live with Jan, that freezer still gets filled up as easily as well as the smaller freezer he owned, but we don't take out of it as regularly (hence they are always full).

So when I knew in 2020 Jan was going to travel and the news was already ominous about this new disease and I prepared for the worst case that I'd be the sole parent at home and potentially ill and not get out of the door for a week or more because I'd feel too miserable: I already stocked up on pasta and pasta sauce jars, on bags of frozen vegetables in the freezer, some bake-off sandwiches etc.  so I'd be able to feed the boys with the least amount of effort.  Ha, I was ready for a lockdown before I knew about its existence. Yes, and I also didn't need to go out to buy toilet paper in the first weeks in case you wondered but I only bought 1 multipack to add to the existing stock. There will be minimum 2 multipacks in the basement. And with an average of 16 tissue boxes in the basement, we can withstand some colds as well. 

And I keep up that stock: when we are down to 1 or 2 jars of hot dog jars...they get listed as spare hot dogs on the shopping list again.  When those 16 tissue boxes would go under 10 then multiple would get added again.  There will always be 1-3 laundry softeners in the house,  a back-up stock of 4-6 cookies boxes for the children, 3-6 bags of chips,  1-2 spare bottles of ketchup/choco/jam/apple sauce/..., spare sugar and several types of flour,...  There will always be that spare emergency loaf of bread in the freezer, too. This is in fact how I learned it in my childhood at home.    (My parents shopped regularly in the now gone Makro stores, so everything was in bulk in our basement). 

Before vacation starts, my pile of books at home will increase because heaven forbids to fall without a book to read (it happened to me in the east of Belgium a weekend last year , that I finished a book and had no back-up over there...ugh, stressful and annoying and now there is a spare book laying there for exactly that situation). 

I've recognized that I feel safe with that supply at hand at home. Adding those spare supplies in the storage, makes me happy.  Jan's last minute purchases  "oh, I ran out of my shampoo" makes me nervous.  I am not a prepper and will not survive for weeks. But it feels so comfortable to have a choice at home and the knowledge that on evenings or days that things go nuts and planning not as foreseen, that you feel no energy for anything... it is ok that you can't get to the store.  Do you need anything? Fine, just get it from the cupboard and add it to the shopping list without urgency.  That thought is so comforting. 

So Jan adds all the immediate use of things on the shopping list and I complete it with the entire spare supply on that same list. As such, we complement each other :D.