Are You a food hoarder?

OrkneyStar

maisie_cat said:

OrkneyStar said:

It could be said that I hoard tinned tomatoes too - the two tins that I bought over a year ago are still sitting in my cupboard, because none of us really like them and I really don't know why I bought them! I should really donate them to someone else who can use them (they are still well in date). We like tomato things, including actual tomatoes, pasta sauce, passata, soup, and so on just not keen on tinned tomatoes for some reason. I could maybe blend them up before using but somehow that doesn't appeal either! Aren't we humans (me) funny things?

I open a tin 3-4 times a week, mostly to make pasta sauce or tomato based soup. I work on the basis of having ingredients rather than processed made up recipes for flexibility & taste. I get that people have concerns about rotation.             I spend 15 minutes or so a week reorganising my FIFO (first in first out) system in both cupboards and garage boxes.

Oh yes, I do a lot from scratch too, I was just clarifying that it's not tomatoes/the tomato taste I don't like, just tinned ones! It's good that you reorganise things too, that's the basis of good hoarding/stockpiling/stocking up. Enjoy your tomatoes, next time you pop that extra two in the trolley, you might be saving me for buying them for no reason. I make a lot of soups too, but they don't tend to be tomato based - lentil and carrot is my favourite. 


mumf said:

People who do not store food,nor anything else for that matter ,always call those who do, ‘hoarders’. Our food stocks are ‘storage’. Hoarding is what happened when the first lockdown was on the cards ; frantic overstocking of things that were reportedly going to be in short supply ,and probably were never going to get used. I can remember going into our local Tesco to get some groceries,and the shelves being stripped.One young woman ( this sticks in my mind) appeared to have taken every tin of potatoes from the shelf along with a lot of other stuff in two mountainous trolleys.I commented to my wife that no way that woman eats tinned potatoes!

Indeed,two weeks later,social media local to me,showed bin day on a dog- walk ,and there were piles of loaves of bread sticking out of quite a few wheelie bins. Hoarded food,not needed.Shocking.

At that time ,all we needed was fresh stuff for the fridge.We store a lot of tinned and dried foods - and use and rotate it- so we didn’t contribute to the panic buying/ hoarding. We had an organised food- storage system. Not just random bags of pasta and tinned spuds!

We have stored food in our lovely walk- in pantry ( and a dry- lined outbuilding where we have two freezers too) for the last twenty+ years. When the children were little,my wife was a stay home mum ( one of THE most important jobs ) and I was involved in a serious industrial accident. No work,no pay ,simple as that. A settlement was made,but a long time later. Short term,we were in a pickle. We almost lost the house ( that’s another story ,and the reason I loathe the financial industry)Thankfully,parents helped out and we scraped through. After that ,we were like squirrels on speed! That situation was never going happen again .

Once I was fit enough ,I cleared the dumping ground that our original pantry had become ,refurbished it and shelved it. My wife budgeted for extra food,and before long we had outgrown it ,and I commandeered an outbuilding and there ,not only do we have freezers and food,but cleaning and bathing materials,pet food and every other consumable a household uses. I was on a mission to pay the mortgage off too and for the next ten years I grafted like a machine. We achieved our goal six years early!

Since then, we have experienced redundancy, cancer, and plain -old being skint! There was no problem with grub though ,and our home was safe.

You have a valid point regarding the name 'hoarding' - stocking up on supplies, and managing it properly, just isn't the same as randomly and erratically bulk buying, not organising anything, and potentially stopping others from having access to essentials. 

Mummy2cheekymonkeys

mumf said:

People who do not store food,nor anything else for that matter ,always call those who do, ‘hoarders’. Our food stocks are ‘storage’. Hoarding is what happened when the first lockdown was on the cards ; frantic overstocking of things that were reportedly going to be in short supply ,and probably were never going to get used. I can remember going into our local Tesco to get some groceries,and the shelves being stripped.One young woman ( this sticks in my mind) appeared to have taken every tin of potatoes from the shelf along with a lot of other stuff in two mountainous trolleys.I commented to my wife that no way that woman eats tinned potatoes!

Indeed,two weeks later,social media local to me,showed bin day on a dog- walk ,and there were piles of loaves of bread sticking out of quite a few wheelie bins. Hoarded food,not needed.Shocking.

At that time ,all we needed was fresh stuff for the fridge.We store a lot of tinned and dried foods - and use and rotate it- so we didn’t contribute to the panic buying/ hoarding. We had an organised food- storage system. Not just random bags of pasta and tinned spuds!

We have stored food in our lovely walk- in pantry ( and a dry- lined outbuilding where we have two freezers too) for the last twenty+ years. When the children were little,my wife was a stay home mum ( one of THE most important jobs ) and I was involved in a serious industrial accident. No work,no pay ,simple as that. A settlement was made,but a long time later. Short term,we were in a pickle. We almost lost the house ( that’s another story ,and the reason I loathe the financial industry)Thankfully,parents helped out and we scraped through. After that ,we were like squirrels on speed! That situation was never going happen again .

Once I was fit enough ,I cleared the dumping ground that our original pantry had become ,refurbished it and shelved it. My wife budgeted for extra food,and before long we had outgrown it ,and I commandeered an outbuilding and there ,not only do we have freezers and food,but cleaning and bathing materials,pet food and every other consumable a household uses. I was on a mission to pay the mortgage off too and for the next ten years I grafted like a machine. We achieved our goal six years early!

Since then, we have experienced redundancy, cancer, and plain -old being skint! There was no problem with grub though ,and our home was safe.

Completely agree with this. I have always kept a large store of food in the house. I used to work at a cash and carry so was used to buying items in bulk. When the panic buying first started I didn't have to rush to the shops to stock up as I already had everything I needed. It worked out even more in my advantage as when the stock eventually came in nobody wanted it and my work was discounting it so I was able to replenish my stocks for a lot less. I think my best buy was a box of 24x 1kg bags of pasta for about £3. I bought a couple of boxes and it lasted me about a year and a half. 
I just feel more comfortable knowing I always have food in the house. I definately started storing more food after my 2 children came along. 

Gers

My beloved mother was a hoarder of food.  If you have an idle moment checking on the decluttering thread from March / April last year will show you how much!  I was getting rid of so much old food, some dating back to 1999.  Her large kitchen was so well organised with huge cupboards and shelves.

As others have said, it harkens back to the war years.  My DM was German only aged 11 years old when the war started.  She was evacuated to many different places - I think 25 over the course of the war - and suffered from food shortages most of the time.  We still have her diaries which are full of reports of food, what she's eaten, what she's saved, what can't be got.  Her letters home all ask about food too.  A lot of people shared what little they had at the time; one of her group received a bar of chocolate from home and promptly spilt it up to give each girl in her dorm a wee piece each.

I despaired at the stocks in the house and it was heart-breaking enough when she died but chucking out so much of her treasured food was an extra pain. 

Being ready for winter is good housekeeping, I keep myself in check!

bargainbetty

candygirl said:

Bargainbetty, I can totally relate to the loo rolls, but I've always been the same, even before covid 😀

I get it from my mum, she is obsessive about having loo roll in big supply. We were out shopping and she suddenly darted into Savers to get a nine pack of them, and I asked if she was running low. She admitted that she had three six-packs and four individual rolls, but 'didn't want to run out'.

I said 'Bl**dy hell, Mum, you only have one a*se' a bit too loudly. Got some very weird looks. 

-taff

Toilet paper is one of things I really hate buying, I don't know why, so I always buy the biggest one i can when we need it. And sometimes when we don't.

Good point about storing not hoarding. Everyhting I have now we will eat, I'm only trying to get the stocks down a bit in anticipation of work being done on the house at some point in the future year. The tins and jars, pasta and rice will be happy enough in boxes if we don't get round to them.

LadOnTheHill

Barring some very unfortunate circumstances, you're always going to need loo roll. I will admit to having 16 packs of 9 rolls each in stock. They were on a very good offer, and they'll last forever if kept dry. I did get some funny looks off the postie, though. 😁

My mom hates buying toilet roll, she always hides it in the bottom of the trolley or bag when she's in the supermarket.

GaleSF63

Gers said:

My beloved mother was a hoarder of food.  If you have an idle moment checking on the decluttering thread from March / April last year will show you how much!  I was getting rid of so much old food, some dating back to 1999.  Her large kitchen was so well organised with huge cupboards and shelves.

@Gers I would like to read that (my mother was also a hoarder of food - as well as everything else) but I can't identify which thread it is. Do you mind if I ask you for a link to it?

Happy_Sloth

GaleSF63 said:

Gers said:

My beloved mother was a hoarder of food.  If you have an idle moment checking on the decluttering thread from March / April last year will show you how much!  I was getting rid of so much old food, some dating back to 1999.  Her large kitchen was so well organised with huge cupboards and shelves.

@Gers I would like to read that (my mother was also a hoarder of food - as well as everything else) but I can't identify which thread it is. Do you mind if I ask you for a link to it?

i am dreading cleaning out my mothers when she dies.. I love my mother and hope she's with me for a long time yet... but my gosh that woman is a hoarder!

i mean the tried and true definition of the word, she has "stuff" everywhere! 

last year she went on holiday and i cleaned her kitchen and threw away 80 takeaway containers.  don't get me wrong i love a takeaway container for storing bits and bobs! but she had so many they where cluttering up the worktops because the cupboards where full.  even after throwing 80 away i left her with 20 odd... 

Mrs_Salad_Dodger

Sorry I don’t know how to do a link but it is called 2021 Mission Declutter and Clean & the last post was 19 January this year. Top of page 6 out of 2270 pages. Hope that helps

Mrs SD

GaleSF63

Happy_Sloth said:

i am dreading cleaning out my mothers when she dies.. I love my mother and hope she's with me for a long time yet... but my gosh that woman is a hoarder!

i mean the tried and true definition of the word, she has "stuff" everywhere! 

last year she went on holiday and i cleaned her kitchen and threw away 80 takeaway containers.  don't get me wrong i love a takeaway container for storing bits and bobs! but she had so many they where cluttering up the worktops because the cupboards where full.  even after throwing 80 away i left her with 20 odd... 

Containers - that does sound exactly like my mother!  There were dozens of glass jars and yoghurt pots and she hated throwing anything away that could be used (and that was subjective as well) - but it never would be because there was simply too much. 

When I cleared her house I found eleven staplers.