Prepare for the worst, hope for the best

 

I want an apocalypse wall.

(Ok, might need to backtrack a bit.)

My father has started a row of shelves in his basement. Nothing too huge or fancy. Just a place to store all those extras that don’t really fit into a particular closet in bulk sizes. Laundry detergent, garbage bags and paper towels as thoughts provide a good idea of what I mean.

Buy an 8-pack of paper towels, and you find that not all of them fit easily under the sink. Buy another 8-pack when you’re down to the last two or three rolls and you need a spare shelf. Hence, a couple of places set up in the basement.

Let’s be careful here. I’m not discussing wandering into hoarding. Some people buy their toilet paper in bulk packs of 36-rolls. Most people do not stack up seven or eight packages of the 36-roll packs in the corner of the living room.

What impresses me about my father’s wall is that it’s all there. Add in the few bottles of cleaning supplies, and you have a decent backup run of the non-perishable items you’d be looking for in an emergency if they suddenly were unavailable. We might even call the work a bit of a Goldilocks-level supply. Not too many. Not too few. Just the right amount, especially if the stores ran out for a bit.

Upstairs, my mother runs the kitchen in much the same way. If you were to look around, you’d begin to notice a few specialty things that aren’t readily available. Making stir fry? If you need bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, oyster sauce or hoisin sauce, you’re probably out of luck. But the basic pantry items? She’s got several types of flour, along with both light and dark brown sugar. Pecans, walnuts and almonds are all on hand. Mustard? Of course. Yellow, spicy brown, country tyle, Dijon and I feel safe saying at least one more.

The thing is, considering those bamboo shoots as an example of what you’ll find my parents potentially lacking, the items on hand at their house are likely not too different than the items at yours. They don’t use bamboo shoots. Why would they worry about it? You might not use pecans or spicy brown mustard. What they do use, they have.

Now back to that apocalypse wall.

I don’t truly mean creating an apocalypse wall because the end of the world is nearing so stock up plenty of cans with expiration dates years into the future. I mean something a bit less haphazard than the storage at our house and a bit more knowing right where it is organized like my father. For that concept, sure, apocalypse is a bit strong.

Instead, I want you to consider something else. If you were making a recipe and had already started mixing things, what would it take for you to be upset by a missing ingredient?

If you told me we didn’t have cardamom or thyme, I’d probably pause for less than a beat and grab the car keys. Should have checked that, my bad. But running out of mayonnaise, a much more commonly used item, would trigger more than a few curse words. (Seriously, how do you run out of mayonnaise?)

And it’s the great duality, isn’t it? I’m out because I use it, and yet, I should be more aware of how much is left because I use it.

Does anyone need three dozen bottles of shampoo, seven gallons of laundry detergent and ninety cans of assorted beans? I’m going to say no. Some of you might hedge slightly and say probably not. Bit of a difference between no and probably not, but fine. That said, if you jump in the shower and find you’re out of shampoo… yeah… those extra backup bottles make more and more sense.

I’m going to have some bamboo shoots and water chestnuts on there with our stocking of food items. Got a cashew chicken stir fry that I make, along with a great fried rice. Like having them around when the cravings hit. Probably a couple of extra rolls of paper towels as well. I’ll cover us. You do you. Together, we should be ready for any emergency.

 

If you have any comments or questions, please e-mail me at Bob@inmybackpack.com