With social distancing in full swing courtesy of the coronavirus and grocery store inventory running low in many places, it is important to stock up and be prepared in the event that your family (or our entire city) end up in a quarantine situation.
First, it is important to make the distinction that stocking up is having enough food and items on hand to sustain your family for 14-30 days in the event of a quarantine. Anything beyond that is hoarding and only further exasperates the problem of shortages, leaving not enough supplies for other people who need them. Let’s remember to stock up rather than hoard.
Now, let’s take a look at the categories and corresponding items of things to stock up on:
Entertainment
Crafts: String for bracelets, paint, coloring books, crayons, construction paper, markers, paint, stickers, glue, scissors, ingredients for homemade slime, beads for necklaces…
Puzzles: Preferably some that are age appropriate for every member of the family.
Games: Inexpensive and simple games like decks of cards or our new family favorite game Tenzi that everyone from my 4 year old to me can play and enjoy with up to 6 players.
Books: If you are one of the lucky people who made it to the library before it closed, congratulations, if not, you can still order actual books via amazon or read digital books using your library card via free apps like Libby and Hoopla.
Food
Refrigerated: Eggs, cheese, meat, milk, produce. Our house normally drinks cow’s milk, but I also bought a gallon of almond milk to keep on hand because the expiration date isn’t until June, so we will use that once our cow’s milk runs out. When it comes to meat, pay attention to dates and freeze anything you won’t use before the expiration, meats that have a longer fridge shelf-life are things like vacuum wrapped pork butts or loins, already cooked sausages, corned beef, smoked salmon and krab (imitation crab made with fish).
Frozen: Frozen fruit (for smoothies), frozen vegetables, meat, I also like to stash an extra loaf or 2 of bread in the freezer and you can even freeze a gallon of milk to thaw and use later if you’d like.
Pantry: Water, canned beans and soups, shelf stable milks like almond or soy for when you run out of the refrigerated stuff, shelf stable meats like bacon bits or canned meats, nut butter, jelly, cereal, baking ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda/powder), canned fruit and vegetables (for when the fresh produce has expired) dried beans, rice, pasta, coffee, protein bars or shakes, nuts, bread and bread products (hamburger or hot dog buns, bagels, pizza crusts), crackers, chips, granola bars or energy bars, boxes of popcorn are a personal favorite of mine because they don’t take up much room, are inexpensive and have a long shelf-life. I also made sure to include a few specialty items for each member of the family to enjoy and have on special occasions; candy for the kids, La Croix for the hubs and wine for me.
Baby Supplies
Diapers
Wipes
Formula
Health and Beauty
Hygiene products: Deodorant, hand soap, body wash, tampons, razors.
Prescription medicine: Have at least a 30 day supply of any prescription medicine on hand.
Over the counter medicine: Cold and flu medicine, fever reducer / pain reliever, immune support items such as elderberry and vitamin c. One mom suggested Pedialyte popsicles for kids.
Misc
Toilet paper: Considering all local stores and Amazon are already out of this, I’m hoping you have a small stock at home already and praying the stores are able to re-stock soon.
Paper towels: Same as toilet paper.
Cleaning products: With the extra time at home I’m sure we will all be doing a little extra cleaning.
Batteries: Let’s be honest, if we end up in a quarantine we will all probably watch a little more TV than normal and I bought extra batteries just to make sure our remotes don’t run out while we are stuck in the house.
School supplies: Now that you are probably serving as a school teacher, you will need extra pens, tape, paper, erasers etc.
Copy paper: If you are working from home or schooling from home chances are you will need this.
Detergents: Both dish and laundry.
Pet food
