This is a funny and not so funny story. Currently, we are all on a “shelter at home” order due to the COVID-19 Pandemic that is affecting so many. This has not only caused a lot of anxiety but also panic among a lot of people. That’s the not so funny part. The funny part about all this is that this anxiety and panic caused people to buy ALL the toilet paper even though this virus is not related to an illness requiring toilet paper.
Now, I know that everyone didn’t buy ALL the toilet paper, but honestly, it’s hard to find. Even Amazon is back ordered for a MONTH! I heard of a lot of people panic buying which was causing craziness at the grocery stores. The entire experience got me thinking and lead me to my bullet journal and my new Master Pantry List.
My Little “Stockpile”
While growing up, my family always kept a small stockpile of stuff. Usually we had a decent amount of canned veggies, pasta, pasta sauce, etc. in our pantry. Nothing excessive, just enough to last a couple weeks.
Fast forward to getting married. My husband always questioned why I would buy more than we needed for that week. And my response was always “just in case”. My motto is always hope for the best, prepare for the worst. After having this argument with my husband for years, I just stopped buying extra. Needless to say, he learned pretty quick WHY I liked to have extra stuff at home.
My Solution
So I decided to sit down and make a list of all the things I always wanted to have in the pantry, fridge, or freezer at all times. What did I want to have backups of and how many backups did I want.
First, I looked at the items themselves. I looked at things we used on a daily basis (like ranch dressing) and things we used every once in a while (like flour). I made a list of all these things on a separate sheet of paper. Then, I decided how many of each item I wan’t to keep as a backup. For example, if I have a bottle of ranch in the fridge, I always want to have one in the pantry as a back up. For Sydney’s pb&j’s I always want to have 4 (a small box) in the spare freeze as a back up.
After I had my list of items and how many I wanted, I created my journal spread. I divided the items into 4 categories, freezer, fridge, household, and pantry. I put a row of boxes beside each item so I could mark what I had when I took inventory. I always use PENCIL when marking the boxes because when I pull the item out of the pantry or freezer, I will erase the X and replace the item on our next grocery trip.
