Part of the reason I have overstock is because Husband has this tendency to not tell me when he's run out of something or used the last of whatever. For example, out of the blue he'll ask me if there's anymore shaving cream around because he's been out for 2 weeks, yet the empty can is still in the shower. Or, I go to grab the cream for the coffee and the empty container is in the fridge (and nothing annoys me more than not having cream for my coffee!). So, my solution, stock up. Problem is, I don't know when to stop. We've got enough shampoo to last for the next year and a half. Yet, every time I go to Target, I feel this need to buy shampoo so we don't run out.
Since I've been purging like crazy here the past two months, I've been cleaning out my stockpiles. Going through the stuff, I've found things that I would never use and can't believe I bought. For example, I had three Swiffer dusters. This might seem normal to people who use them, but I'm old school when it comes to dusting and use a dust cloth and furniture polish. In the past, I looked at those dusters and thought, "Well, I might use them so I'll just hang on to them". This go around, I got rid of them.
I'm making an effort to not stockpile items, other than hand me down clothes for my kids. I'm trying to look at just what I need and not what I might need 5 months from now. There are, of course, exceptions. Toilet paper is something you never want to be caught without. I'm happy to buy that in bulk and store it. Same with cream since I live on coffee. The five packages of ground turkey that's on sale and I may possibly want to use in the next year, I'll pass on. It's going to be a rough road, 30 some years of a habit that I need to break. However, with my desperate need for order in my house, I think I'll be able to do it.
Now the dirty little secret, I went to Costco yesterday....hey, I just stated it was going to be a rough road!