When the pandemic first kicked off, the world went a little bit crazy stockpiling… the predominant of which seemed to be toilet paper. To me this made little sense. But I understand the theory behind it – the need to be able to control some aspect of something that feels out of your control.
Now two years on, despite Covid still lurking, we have calmed a little. Which is a good thing. But… what happened to all your stuff? Did you use it up… or is it still sitting in a spare room or at the back of the pantry, gathering dust or going off? In one way toilet paper is not the worst contender – it doesn’t have a use by. But what about the rest? What about the yeast? Did all those people who decided, on a sudden whim, that they would buy yeast because they were going to bake their own bread… did they do it… or did they do it once and the rest went to waste?
I hope most of you were able to make use of the additional things you bought. Because this kind of thing will keep happening. Be it from flooding, war, global warming, or other events, there will be times where certain resources become scarce and people feel the need to stock up. I mean, we are all feeling the petrol prices right now.
When Covid hit we did a basic stockpile. We purchased a few additional items and stored them in the cellar – canned goods and essentials like flour and pasta. And two years on, we still have that box. But even though much of it will take years to go off, it hasn’t been forgotten. I’ve gone through it and replaced the older stuff with new, eating as we go. I don’t like to waste things, as I’ve already written about, and this is no exception.
We have the space, and it’s not that we’re panicking about the war, but let’s be honest, there’s only one country between Austria and Ukraine, and in the grand scheme of things, that’s not far.
So if you’ve got a stash of stuff you bought when Covid hit, or for any other reason, don’t forget about it. Have a look and see what you can use. And if you’ve already used it… well done!
an aussie in austria 
With inflation and supply chain issues stemming from the Russia-Ukraine war, stockpiling food may be a good option!
Yep who knows how long this will impact the world!
We hoarded nothing. It was quite sad to see people exiting supermarkets with trollies (carts) overloaded with pasta, TP and bleach. Many people who waited their turn to get some supplies were left in the lurch considerably. About a week after the first quarantine started here in the UK, there were reports of fresh produce being thrown as it had “expired”. People had just cleared shelves, without thinking of the consequences of their actions. Despite the population being told not to stock pile because there is enough for all, people didn’t listen and, to some extent, still don’t.
Yes it was frustrating to watch people buying a whole lot of unnecessary stuff and have other people miss out. We just continually kept ‘a little extra’ throughout the pandemic, so that in a situation where we decided to skip a shop for a week we had the flexibility to do that… but not really much more than you would anyway. I think if most people look in the back of their cupboards they could live for a few weeks without too much trouble!