When I heard the news that Chicago was being asked to shelter at home, the first thing I did was check out my home inventory. It comes as a shock to many people but this organizer is bulk shopper. I am fortunate to have quite a bit of space in my condo building. Running a business and being very social leaves me little time to shop and run errands. I make a monthly trek out to Costco and an amazon order each month. And yes, I go to the grocery store once to twice a week.

Instead of running out to the store and blindly buying everything in site(who is hoarding the bisquik?), take a moment and evaluate what you really need. Here are some tips to help your manage your supply.

1. Take a look at your toiletries. What do you use everyday? What do you need to buy? Its a perfect time to use up all those random supplies that you have been stashing away. You know what I am talking about. Put those little samples of lotions and shampoo into rotation. I am using up my hotel soap stash!!

2. Paper supplies. I switched to cleaning rags and cloth napkins years ago. This drastically cut down my paper usage. I do keep quite the stash of TP which is a commodity now.

3. Food- Its the perfect time to use what you have in your pantry. We are all spending more money on groceries since we are eating all our meals at home. I am a big fan of meal planning. I am been trying to make recipes to use up some of the items that I have in stock. I have been stocking up on what I can when the stores refill. I know this can be frustrating. I had to borrow flour and sugar.

4. Share when you can. We all have needs right now that cant be filled. Help each other out when possible!!!

We are all in this together! This is new to all us of. Stay busy stay sane! I am off to make banana bread!!