General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsPeople are stocking up on things unrelated to getting sick.
Like TP and water.
I had no trouble buying nyquil, mucinex, tylenol, listernine, and kleenex. I ordered a thermometer on Amazon.
Everyone thinks "other people" are going to get coronavirus. I assume I will probably get it.
OhZone
(3,212 posts)feel like they won't be able to leave the house a lot in the coming weeks.
Flaleftist
(3,473 posts)soon to be France and who knows how many other countries.
Xipe Totec
(43,890 posts)Who knows how many people will contract COVID-19 because they went to the store to buy up the last square of toilet paper on earth.
samnsara
(17,622 posts)..is 2 weeks that's a lot of butts to wipe esp if the entire family needs to stay in.
librechik
(30,674 posts)SmartVoter22
(639 posts)Think about this.
There are no paper products anymore. No TP or paper towels or wipes.
Can you replace them, in your home, and adapt that to your daily life?
You have to be able to do what you did with paper, say with cloth, and then clean them so they do not infect or re-infect you and your family? It's not pretty, but humans have been doing this alot longer than paper products have been around.
Can you adapt? Hint: Talk to someone over 60 yrs that had cloth diapers when they were babies. You might learn a thing or two.
Mossfern
(2,509 posts)but I used cloth diapers on mine, youngest is 31.
I loved folding diapers just taken off the clothesline after drying in the sun all day.
The scent was so refreshing and soothing.
milestogo
(16,829 posts)Today while I was shopping they were stocking TP and paper towells. People kept taking it, and they kept putting more out.
meadowlander
(4,395 posts)Of course you can wipe your backside and clean the kitchen counters with rags (hopefully not the same one) and then do laundry five times a day but is that what you really want to be doing when you have a fever of 103, body aches and chills and a hacking cough?
A pandemic causes stress, which eats up energy, which leaves less for your immune system.
You should be planning to make life as easy as possible for yourself while you are sick so you can rest and focus on getting better. So yes, buy a reasonable amount of TP and paper towels and things that make it easy to disinfect things and paper plates, cups and disposable cutlery (if it saves you having to hand wash things). We can all worry about waste reduction next year.
Buy food that is healthy but still convenient and easy to prepare.
Clean your house and mow the lawn and wash your sheets now while you're feeling good so you can put genuinely your feet up when you're not.
Afromania
(2,768 posts)And some cough medicine to go with things that we already have in the big old box of medical stuff I keep.
lettucebe
(2,336 posts)7-up, things I know I'll want if i get sick. Most likely a few idiots just started to panic buy TP and the rest is history. You see a line, you want to get in it (before it's too late, eh?). Many people are like sheep and happily just follow the herd
meadowlander
(4,395 posts)You're not going to lose running water and if you do it will only be in a localised area (busted pipe and too many people out sick to repair it right away, etc.). In those situations, supplies can be brought in or people can be moved out temporarily.
You only need to stock up on bottled water if you can't drink your tap water normally for some reason. If you're worried about corona virus getting into the municipal water supply and getting past all the normal treatments like filters, chlorine, UV rays, etc. you should be equally worried about it getting into the water bottling plant. Basically at that point, you're going to get it no matter what so you're better off spending your energy building up your immune system to fight it off.
TP is understandable. If you're not meant to leave your house for weeks at a time and getting deliveries put you at risk of exposure then better to stock up now. It's one of the few things that you absolutely need to leave your house to get if you run out. And it's not like it expires and you won't use it eventually.
Like you, I assume I'm going to get it. When I get it, I don't want to leave the house again and risk infecting other people. So I have the stuff on hand that will let me get through 2-3 weeks without having to leave the house including healthy food that is easy to prepare when I feel like crap, about a months worth of TP, a months worth of prescription meds, the stuff I normally have when I get the flu (throat drops, thermometer, tea and honey, pain relievers, tissues), some basic cleaning supplies, some stuff to entertain me. If you have pets or babies, supplies for them.
That's really all you need. It's extremely unlikely that people will lose power, Internet, phone lines, cable TV or that water will be cut off. At that point you would be facing total societal collapse complete with looting biker gangs and unless you've been stocking a cabin in the woods for the past five years, you're screwed anyway.
Sunsky
(1,737 posts)Since we are social distancing etc. I want to limit my time out shopping. I've bought in bulk items that we use regularly, so I don't have to make trips to buy them.
Also, if it comes to the point where we have to isolate ourselves. I would like to have necessary supplies at hand.
milestogo
(16,829 posts)If I can reduce my shopping trips to one a week instead of 2-3, that's an improvement.
LArider
(69 posts)obviously have never been through a hurricane. Get beer and gas, (unleaded and natural) and you'll be fine.