If you’ve been to the grocery store lately you’ve surely noticed that some of the shelves are rather barren.
And if you happened to take a stroll down the toilet paper aisle it probably resembled a vast wasteland of empty space.
Of course this is all due to the Coronavirus pandemic that has everyone in a panic at the moment. Lots of folks are stocking up for what they believe is sure to be an impending famine.
While I certainly agree that the hoarding that’s going on right now defies logic (who really needs to “stock up” with three shopping carts full of T.P.?), the truth is we all need to start doing a little hoarding of our own.
Think about this for a moment…
While it’s quite serious, this Coronavirus pandemic will pass. And once it does I believe things will get back to normal fairly quickly.
But let’s say something more serious happens in the future (and at some point it probably will).
For example, a string of natural disasters could come along and take down a huge portion of the nation’s power grid.
If you live in an area that’s prone to power outages you can probably remember a time when your power was out for an entire week or more.
And that was likely with the outage contained to a relatively small geographic region AND with power crews from other states helping get the grid back online.
Now imagine a string of natural disasters strikes the country, knocking trees and power lines to the ground over a third of the continental United States.
Your local power company will likely be on its own because all those out-of-state crews that would normally truck in to help restore your local power lines are tied up trying to restore their own.
In a case like that your power could easily be out for months!
Anyway, you get the picture…
If a relatively short-lived emergency situation like the Coronavirus pandemic can empty the store shelves, just imagine what a wide-area disruption of some sort would do.
This is why we should all become hoarders!
Now I’m not suggesting that we all become “preppers” and head to the nearest Sam’s Club, Costco or Walmart and camp out until the next delivery truck arrives.
There are plenty of provisions to go around right now, and there will be plenty more shortly when the current group of hoarders finish their illogical “stocking up” activities.
What I’m talking about here is slowly, but surely building a three to six month stockpile of the things that would make life extremely unpleasant if they were to suddenly disappear from your life.
For example, if you normally buy a 42 roll pack of T.P. from Sam’s every month, the next time you go shopping for T.P. pick up two packs instead of one.
Use one of those packs as you normally do and save the other pack for a rainy day.
Then, when the pack you’re using is about to run out go pick up another couple of packs and add the second one to your growing stash.
After doing this for six months you’ll have a six month supply of toilet paper on hand. That will likely be plenty to see you through the next emergency (and possibly even share some with your neighbor if they get into a bind).
You can do the same thing with canned foods and bottled water. Just be sure to rotate your stock of stored food items to prevent them from going bad.
Here are a couple of things you can’t really “hoard”:
1 – Soft drinks (they go flat over time)
2 – Frozen foods (if the power goes out and stays out you’ll lose your entire stash)
I hope you don’t think I’m an alarmist after reading this. I’m really not. I happen to think the folks doing all the hoarding right now need a reality check.
But that being said, the hoarders really are on the right track. They’re just taking things to an extreme without giving any consideration to the current needs of others.
Bottom line: While it makes no sense to fill an entire storage building with 500 packs of toilet paper, it makes perfect sense to keep six or seven packs underneath your bed just in case.
And if your municipal water supply ever has to shut down for an extended period of time you’ll be glad you had a few cases of bottled water stashed away, not to mention a couple months worth of canned food (or even MREs).
That’s why I say we should all become hoarders (as long as we do it in a sensible and non-selfish way).
And by the way, here’s another good thing about stocking up when times are good…
If you and your family have a decent supply of the essentials that means you won’t have to rush to the store and fight the crowds for the few items that are still on the shelves.
That will give your loved ones, friends and neighbors a better chance to get the things they need in order to survive.
To finish up, here’s a fantastic short video that discusses a few other important items that you’ll want to have on hand in most any emergency situation. Check it out!
Note: As always, you can watch the video at full screen by clicking the “square” icon that will pop up in the lower-right corner of the video after it begins playing.