What do you consider “stocking up” vs “hoarding”?

[QueenIsabella]

I'm not the one to ask. We used up the last roll of my grandmother's tin foil summer before last. She died in 2008, and probably hadn't gone grocery shopping for herself for at least 5 years before that. But I never thought of her as a hoarder.

I think you can usually see the difference between stocking up and hoarding in the buying behaviour. Stocking up aims for practical supplies to last a fixed period of time (and I pass no judgment if that period is 3 months for one person and 1 year for the next). Hoarding buys just because it is available or discounted, with little to no regard for what is already on hand at home or even whether the item in question is something the buyer will actually use.

I am stocking up on a few things we had a hard time getting in the early spring, because I am concerned we may see the same issues arise in the fall/winter, but it is all stuff that will be long gone by this time next year whether or not actual shortages materialize. My kids won't be using up the last of my toilet paper stash 15+ years from now!

I think the bolded is a good definition of stocking up versus hoarding.

In my case, we eat a lot of pasta--it's not unusual for me to be 6-10 pounds of pasta at a clip, and a dozen jars of our favorite sauce, purchased at a good sale, would get used up over time. OTOH, a dozen jars of mayonnaise would last us a decade or more.

I haven't been caught up in the whole "toilet paper" craze, because I typically have a few dozen rolls in our house. Why? Because we have 4 bathrooms! My kids aren't great at telling me they're running low (versus, "I used the last of it this morning"). We have plenty of storage. So, it's my standard to buy a 12-pack for each bathroom. That way, I can steal a roll or two from one to hold off the next purchase for another. If I had a smaller house with fewer occupants, a 4-pack would be plenty in each bathroom.

I'm also cheap, and can appreciate not wanting to pass up a great deal. But, I would share my bounty in some way--give to friends and family, donate to a food bank, something.

 

[tasha99]

I'm sure we're considered hoarders by most people's standards, but that would have been true even before the pandemic. Before there was even a whisper of coronavirus, we always had 6+ months of food on hand. I didn't even know there were lots of people outside big cities who didn't have 2 weeks of food in the house. I was just raised that way. It's a running joke that my 80 year old dad can't go to the restaurant supply without picking up a 50 pound bag of onions. I'm kind of the same. I will admit it sort of freaked my husband out when we first met, but we barely throw anything away, so he's relaxed about it all.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I'm sure we're considered hoarders by most people's standards, but that would have been true even before the pandemic. Before there was even a whisper of coronavirus, we always had 6+ months of food on hand. I didn't even know there were lots of people outside big cities who didn't have 2 weeks of food in the house. I was just raised that way. It's a running joke that my 80 year old dad can't go to the restaurant supply without picking up a 50 pound bag of onions. I'm kind of the same. I will admit it sort of freaked my husband out when we first met, but we barely throw anything away, so he's relaxed about it all.

50lb bag of onions? Speaking as someone who's always finding my onions going soft or with a little mold on the outer layer, how do you make them last?

 

[Frozen Canuck]

I didn't even know there were lots of people outside big cities who didn't have 2 weeks of food in the house. I was just raised that way.

This is how I am. Nobody I grew up with shopped week to week.

When we lived in California in a 900 sq. ft. apartment, a friend dropped by and when she looked in my kitchen, she shrieked, "What a huge bag of flour!!! How will you ever use it all???" (The bag in question was a Costco-sized 25 lb. bag) Being straight out of Prairie Town, I said, "Well, what size bag of flour do you use?" (I genuinely wanted to know, because EVERYONE I knew bought flour in that size of bag.) She indicated with her hands, the little 5 lb. size...the bags of flour that I sincerely wondered who actually purchased them, because they weren't big enough to bake more than a couple of loaves or bread and a batch of cookies, if even that. For the record, my in-laws used to take a truck of grain in and exchange it for bags of flour...stacks of 25 lb. bags of flour that filled the bottom of a bedroom closet...but, my MIL baked all of her own bread and other items for a family of six, so that maybe lasted a year.

More recently, I had a friend over for lunch. While I was cooking, I was running up and down the stairs to the basement grabbing drinks and other items. She asked where I was getting everything, and I told her it was all down in my food storage room. Despite having lived in the US for over two decades now and being in tons of people's homes (not that I have gone snooping to see if they have a food storage room...I mean, doesn't everyone who doesn't live in an apartment have one??? ), I was still shocked to find out that not only did she not have a food storage room, she also shopped weekly for her family of five and said she didn't keep anything much extra in her house food-wise. I'm pretty sure that I shocked her right back, when I took her downstairs to see our extra fridge, our chest freezer, and our multiple shelves of back-up food, toiletries, and cleaning supplies.

 

[easyas123]

50lb bag of onions? Speaking as someone who's always finding my onions going soft or with a little mold on the outer layer, how do you make them last?

Ok - I came to ask the same. I usually go thru 1 or 2 onions a week, sometimes none, depending on what I'm cooking. Unless I'm making a big batch of caramelized onions for the freezer (that I do 2 X a year) I wouldn't know what to do with all those onions!
Always wondered what folks do with the 50 lb bag of potatoes as well....

 

[Frozen Canuck]

50lb bag of onions? Speaking as someone who's always finding my onions going soft or with a little mold on the outer layer, how do you make them last?

Ok - I came to ask the same. I usually go thru 1 or 2 onions a week, sometimes none, depending on what I'm cooking. Unless I'm making a big batch of caramelized onions for the freezer (that I do 2 X a year) I wouldn't know what to do with all those onions!
Always wondered what folks do with the 50 lb bag of potatoes as well....

Well, depending upon what area of the country you live in, many basements are cool enough to keep potatoes and onions (and even carrots and other veggies) for most of the winter without spoiling. We survived off of what we grew and all of those foods were kept in our cold storage room in the basement...a cement walled room where it was cold like a refrigerator, yet warm enough to not freeze. Onions were hung in ventilated bags, carrots were kept in sand, squash was lined up on newspapers, and there was a large potato bin. The home I live in now in the northeast has a basement with a food storage area, but it doesn't get cold enough to keep foods for the entire winter like our home on the prairies.

Editing to add...sometimes people buy large amounts of something, but split it with family members, so maybe he didn't actually store the full 50 lbs. of onions all for himself.

 

[tasha99]

Ok - I came to ask the same. I usually go thru 1 or 2 onions a week, sometimes none, depending on what I'm cooking. Unless I'm making a big batch of caramelized onions for the freezer (that I do 2 X a year) I wouldn't know what to do with all those onions!
Always wondered what folks do with the 50 lb bag of potatoes as well....

Well, that's your issue right there. It's just not what you eat. We eat about two onions a day at my house, sometimes more. When something is going to go bad, we amp up consumption or preserve it (like making caramelized onions etc.) Also, if my adult kids are over, I load them up with whatever food we have extra of. When this pandemic started, I had half a Costco sized bag of garlic that there was no way we'd finish because no one would be over for dinner to help eat it and take home extra heads. So I peeled it all and blended it in a blender with a little oil and froze it. It was well over a pound of garlic paste, and its gone now because we eat a lot of Korean, Chinese, and Indian food that is garlic (and onion) heavy.

 

[tasha99]

Editing to add...sometimes people buy large amounts of something, but split it with family members, so maybe he didn't actually store the full 50 lbs. of onions all for himself.

That's my dad, for sure. He is constantly giving away food to kids and grandkids. He and my stepmom also do a crazy level of entertaining--I bet they had guests for dinner 4 nights a week pre-coronavirus, plus a monthly dinner for all the local family. All those guests could end up with a little sack of onions to take home, lol.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm sure we're considered hoarders by most people's standards, but that would have been true even before the pandemic. Before there was even a whisper of coronavirus, we always had 6+ months of food on hand. I didn't even know there were lots of people outside big cities who didn't have 2 weeks of food in the house. I was just raised that way. It's a running joke that my 80 year old dad can't go to the restaurant supply without picking up a 50 pound bag of onions. I'm kind of the same. I will admit it sort of freaked my husband out when we first met, but we barely throw anything away, so he's relaxed about it all.

We have certain stuff like non-perishable foods that last for a while. My husband kinda laughed at me because I bought a 6-pack of elbow macaroni from Costco but hey it doesn't really go bad.

We are freezing beef broth, chicken broth, red pasta sauce, bread, hot dog and hamburger buns--those are things we didn't used to do but have now gotten into a habit of since March.

We already buy 5lb logs of meat and cut up in approximately 1lb portions (as most recipes are for that) and freeze them. We already buy chicken breasts from Costco separate the packages and freeze them (they are vacuumed sealed pouches).

We make certain meals that are more by design able to be frozen and be good (we've been doing that on and off for about 2 or so years not huge amounts of meals but several at a time) so that's nice to have on hand.

It's just my husband and I so we can have left overs but we don't have 2 weeks worth of everything or bulk of everything and I never grew up that way--certain staple stuff but not oodles of food items. Milk tends to go bad so that's something we buy more frequently. Mother-in-law does use powdered milk for some recipes but we're not interested in using that personally.

I think it's great that people can have such a system and it certainly wouldn't mean you're hoarding if it's part of your normal habit but I have never actually met a person IRL who does this. I hear about it, read about it but I've never personally known someone in my life that has great quantities of food or meals on hand. The only exception is every now and then I've known people who have bought meat from a farm in large portions.

 

[EMom]

In the best of circumstances, I buy much more TP and paper towels than most people, I have a fear of running out. Always have. And these are not the best of circumstances.

We have 4 toilets and seem to use a lot of TP. I have no idea how many rolls I have right now, but it's plentiful. Paper towels are another story. BEFORE the virus hit, stores stopped carrying the paper towel I have used for decades. So I went around and bought up every package I could find. Definitely looked like a hoarder. The virus news broke just after my shopping spree and I know if anyone gets a look at my paper towel stash, they will think it's due to COVID-19. Nope, just brand loyalty.

ETA: I used to be very brand loyal regarding TP, but the shortages have made me lower my stringent standards. I have bought a great variety.

 

[Frozen Canuck]

We make certain meals that are more by design able to be frozen and be good (we've been doing that on and off for about 2 or so years not huge amounts of meals but several at a time) so that's nice to have on hand.

In addition to freezing whole meals (like a pan of lasagna or a casserole or whatever), I will often freeze only the time-consuming parts of meals. If I make a lasagna, I will make all of the mess of cooking the sauce, grating the cheeses, etc. Then I will freeze the extra sauce in a bag, the grated cheeses in another bag, and then flat freeze them together in a gallon bag. The next time we want lasagna, I can just pull one bag out, assemble the lasagna parts with noodles from the pantry, and bake. Flat frozen bags take up less space than foil pans of food, so I can fit more in my freezer. I do the same with marinated chicken and steak tips for grilling. Even things like chicken pot pie can have the filling cooked ahead and flat frozen, then just pair it up with frozen pie crust, biscuits, or whatever other topping you prefer. Also, once bags are flat frozen, you can store them standing upright and flip through your meal options like files, if you have a deep enough section of your freezer. I have a chest freezer, but I think I could line a number of bags up in the basket of my side-by-side fridge freezer as well.

I think it's great that people can have such a system and it certainly wouldn't mean you're hoarding if it's part of your normal habit but I have never actually met a person IRL who does this. I hear about it, read about it but I've never personally known someone in my life that has great quantities of food or meals on hand.

Come on over and I will show you around!

 

[disykat]

Of course I buy favorites on sale, etc. but I try not to have too big of a food stash on hand because I'm just don't want to be organized enough to keep rotating and using it efficiently. I've seen poorly managed food stash go to waste and people bicker over if 20 year old canned goods can still be used. Yuck

I keep less on hand for two of us than I did when we had kids at home. There was about a 10 year period when I never knew when I might have a bunch of hungry teenagers show up.

 

[QueenIsabella]

When we lived rural, virtually everyone had an extra freezer for meat. Some were hunters, some would raise beef or hogs, some would buy all or part of an animal. A lot of people would also garden and freeze/can food. I didn't do this so much, except with berries and tomatoes.

Same time frame, my son's Boy Scout troop would sell sacks of potatoes as a fundraiser--something like $10 for a bushel, the boys and their parents would pick the entire field. We would keep them in our garage. It was a good deal all around.

 

[FigmentSpark]

I see my error. They asked me if I wanted to have a cold cellar put in when we built the house. $1300 extra. Well, every extra cost something and it was all adding up, so I said no. Then, when they were building the house, we noticed they were pouring a cold cellar and we (stupidly) told them about it. The work was done, so they just filled it in with dirt. I should have had that cold cellar put in. If only I'd known then what I know now.

 

[easyas123]

My MIL is a food (among other things) hoarder...she has three chest freezers FULL of stuff that hasn't seen the light of day for years and years. Like 20 years. 2 strawberries leftover 5 years ago? They are in there, somewhere. And no room left in them or the freezer attached to their fridge. And it's just the two of them, and they are in easy distance of a store....so I'm thinking that is where a lot of my aversion to stocking up on a ton of stuff comes from. We have one upright freezer in the garage (husband & both boys are hunters so we needed the room) but I am manic about keeping it visually uncluttered and in order.

Husbands Aunt & Uncle have and still use a cold cellar. Great idea if needed -

 

[barkley]

new season of 'hoarders' starts on a&e 7/20!

 

[DisLiss]

For me, "stocking up" is purchasing items you will definitely use in quantities you would realistically need for a pre-determined amount of time. And the items purchased include any items specific to the reason for stocking up.

For instance, my family stocks up for winter when our road tends to be impassable far more often than roads in town or in the city. We also stock up in the event that someone gets sick. One 2am car ride out to the nearest 24 hour store while a child was home with fever was enough to teach us early on that constantly having aback-up bottle of medication s a good idea. But in the winter, we often have 2 back-ups instead.

If we're stocking up before a tropical storm or hurricane, the items (and quantities) we buy are different, because then we're preparing to be without power, but we're also preparing for a shorter amount of time than all winter long.

To me "Hoarding" falls into a few categories...one is simply buying or keeping everything, even if you are likely to never ever need it. Or, buying something you actually use, but in extreme quantities.

In terms of COVID-19 days, I would say it's most likely buying far more than you will likely use before you are able to go buy more. In our house, we used about 12 rolls of T.P. during the first 4 weeks of the virus. We had about 16 rolls in the house before the lock-down started. We typically bought a 4 pack each week, so 16 rolls was "stocking up" for us. And it was a realistic quantity for us. If we had bought 100 rolls, I absolutely would have thought of that as "hoarding". Because at 3-4 rolls per week, if we couldn't buy more t.p. for the 25-33 weeks it would take us to use that much, then we had way bigger problems than t.p. to deal with!