To stash or not to stash that is the question....

How much of a good thing is too much?  Is there a limit?
When does stock piling or stashing items become hoarding?  Is there a difference?
When does "Getting the good deal" feed a deeper issue than just trying to feed your family, and keep them and the house clean?  (shopaholic?  OCD?)
When does "getting the good deal" cost you more? 
What about expiry dates and best before dates?  Things like toothpaste can go bad. 

I think these are questions you have to ask & answer for yourself.  Each of us will have a different answer for each question - and that is o.k.  I think that the problems come when we just shop and do not have limits and do not ask our selves the questions.  One person could have a different answer 2 months from now too as their life situation changes.  It's o.k. Life is about finding a balance that works for you. 

When I watch some of the extreme coupon shows on YouTube (no cable in our house) I think wow  excessive much?  Do we really need 40 years worth of toilet paper in the house?  Not likely, at least not here in North America where we have the convenience and privilege of a grocery store / department store or drug store on pretty much every corner.  With each of those stores featuring something new on sale every week is there truly a NEED for such a stock pile? There comes a time when "being prepared" becomes being obsessed and neurotic.  Sure in today's roller coaster economic situation it is good to be prepared, to look a head to save for a rainy day, but seriously, even the largest of families can not go through that much TP before things pick up or the next sale/coupon rolls around.  I think that we need to be realistic, what does my family use?  What does it really truly NEED?  This too will be different for each family.  I also very much realize and appreciate that these levels are different for different people and different family situations.

For example a family that lives a rural area far from decent stores will need a larger stash than a family like mine who has several shopping options within a 4 min drive. 
People living in areas with threats of extreme weather ccertainly need to have more items on hand, especially in those extreme weather months.
A larger family will require much more "on hand" in an average month than my family of 5. 

As with anything in this life the key balance.  A balance that works well for your family.  Balance that is not excessive and wasteful.  I have a small stash, small for several reasons;
One I am limited by space. 
Two I do not want to stock things my family will not use
Three I know the sale rotations of my local stores and know that the same product will be on sale again in 6 -9 weeks. 

For me and my family my stash is limited to items we will use in the time before the next sale rolls around. OR the sale with coupons added is too good a deal to even consider passing up. Which means a 90 -100% savings.  Even with coupon / sale combination I am considerate of the "shelf life" of the product.  My major " stash" item would be feminine hygiene products.. with 4 girls in the house,  that is pretty much obvious. With these items in my stash I have paid only taxes.  Meaning that with coupons and sale combinations I have gotten them for FREE!  Free is always good when I am going to pick them up and add them to the 'stash'   Items like Shampoo, toothpaste, tooth brushes and deodorant are also items I will continually stock up on - simply because we go through them on a continuous basis.  The other biggie in my stash is cleaning supplies, before I started couponing, and really watching sale prices cleaning supplies are one thing that I purchased sparingly, multi surface products that will do more than one job, not always the best job either, but it was a way of cutting corners.  Now I find that there are tons of coupons out for cleaning supplies and I often can get them for next to nothing if not free (taxes only paid).  So I have a 'collection' of cleaning supplies in my stash.  I guess you could say that in the long run I have trouble spending money on things that literally go down the drain.
So what is it that you 'stash' and would hate to pay full price for? 

Getting creative with storage for my 'stash'

Weather you call it a 'stock pile' a 'stash' or practical hoarding  one thing for sure is you need to have a designated space to put things.  Oh how I wish I had a basement, a garage that was closed in, or even an extra closet.  That is not the case so I have to get creative with the space I have.  Creative is only the beginning, I have to make room, in our 4 bedroom town house is occupied with 5 adult sized bodies, this is not an easy task.  It is a work in process, it has taken me some time, and quite honestly some sacrifice of my creative space to come up with something that will work.  It has been a slow slog, it started with a major clean out of our linen closet....  

Here is where my "stash" started  about 8 or so months ago

It was apparent fairly soon that this space was going to be much too small.  The wheel's were turning. Eventually the sewing machine (that is the white box in the bottom left of the first photo) moved to a new home which gave me almost double the room - however in a couple of months that was full. 

I needed some sort of shelving unit, but did not want to put out any $$$$ to make that happen.  There were no shelves around home to make that happen so I turned to Craigslist and the free section, with in days I had new shelves that cost me nothing!  They were in a neighbourhood that we frequent often.  All the peices were coming together. You have got to love FREE!  They are not pretty, but they are clean & sturdy and will do the job.   I then cleaned out a corner in my creative space (studio)  (oh there is so much more work to do there....) and set up the  shelves. A Perfect fit! 



 A quick visit to my local dollar store where I picked up the coloured baskets for $1.00 each and the white wire hanging baskets for $1.50 (6.72 including tax).

The plan is to put smaller items like dental floss, and tooth brushes into the baskets.

The little things that will get lost on a shelf.

Larger and boxed items will stand on the shelves.

There is space washer & dryer so I am able to store extra detergent & fabric care product extras there. As well as lots of space under my kitchen sink for dish washing supplies. 

This worked out better than I had hoped, a little creativity and planning went a long way.  I especially love that it took very little out of pocket expense to pull it all together.  It makes me happy.

There is still lots of  "creative" space in this room plus a little room for expansion if needed for the "stash" as my family refers to it as. The sewing machine is back in it's original home, shared only with the toilet paper, just like the good old days. The task at hand now is to get the other end of the room sorted and organized, so I could actually create in my creative space, a novel idea seeings as I can hardly get to the table, right now it looks like a disaster zone.  Another project for another day.....