Maintaining Your Pantry and Your Sanity
Our parents knew how to plan ahead. Daily trips to the supermarket were all but unheard of. Instead, they cooked at home, knew how to bake bread, had weekly meal plans, used leftovers efficiently, and cooked enough to freeze for another day. This list is for the home cook who wants to reclaim some of that stability by having non-perishable items in stock. This list is not exhaustive. It contains things that may not apply to you at all. It assumes that your water and electricity are on.
Most of these items are available online, and with places like Amazon Prime, can even be set up as subscriptions which automatically refill at intervals you specify. You do not have to buy everything at once. You don’t need cases of beans, reams of toilet paper or a flat of bottled water. You know what you and your family require. Rely on that knowledge.
REMEMBER: Our current covid-19 experience will end. Stores are being, and will continue to be, restocked. If you can’t get out to shop, most grocery chains will deliver. And when this is over, grocers and farmers markets will still be there. We will get back to buying fresh produce, meats and prepared foods. But, even then, if your pantry is well organized, and regularly replenished, you will be better prepared for the next crisis, whether it is a weather emergency, a health quarantine, or even unexpected guests.
Remember, our lives will return to normal. There is no need to hoard, or to panic.
This list is intended to help you plan in advance so that you can relax a bit in times of stress.
All Good Gifts 
It seems many people have lost the notion of buying to replace stock rather then buying to replace an item that I’m almost out of. That is when I move an item from the pantry into the kitchen is when I make sure it’s replaced not when what I have in the kitchen is gone.
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Absolutely Right, John. And you’ve written a wonderful PSA on the topic, too. Thanks!
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I am thankful!😊
Sent from my iPhone
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