It’s personal and also likely how we grew up but I am not one for having an over abundace of food or paper supplies on hand -

we have one built in fridge/freezer and a beverage/entertaining fridge in the basement, + a fairly small pantry for food…

but I am from the consumer packaged goods industry, we call it “pantry loading“ : we know whatever we can get into consumers’ homes they will eat/drink/consume so i try to keep things pretty light

I asked in another thread last year - are we getting bigger bc our kitchens are getting bigger? 😆

"I am not one for having an over abundace of food or paper supplies on hand"

Me either. I have two standard-size fridge/freezer units (one in kitchen, one in basement), that is plenty for just the two of us. I've thought about maybe getting a stand-alone freezer but then I think "why?", it's just going to become a wasteland of unused food that has long passed its prime. So no. I have a walk-in pantry that is 2.5 shelves of back-up food items and the rest is cleaning products and storage space for dog food, toilet paper, toiletries, the vacuum, and odds and ends I only pull out once or twice a year.

I do keep a stash of jugs of water in the basement. I'm on a well, and if lose power I have no water. Enough potable water to last a couple days is a must.

Since I've moved out of the big city (and I'm still 10 miles from my local small city with fewer options), I've become more desirous of more food/supplies in storage, rightly or wrongly.

A standard fridge/freezer is fine, but I have an additional chest freezer to augment the bottom freezer of my standard unit. I did that even when I lived in a big city, because I would often buy larger packages of meat and needed somewhere to store the extras - I also cook a lot and needed extra space to store frozen leftovers. If I'm going to drive 40 minutes each way to the place that sells turkey wings, I'm going to buy at least a dozen at a time. It's also often more economical to buy larger packages of meat, and I'm perfectly happy if my meat isn't cooked from fresh.

There are some food items I use frequently but irregularly when I cook, so I always have at least a couple of these on hand: chicken broth, canned tomatoes, and spaghetti sauce. I don't plan meals ahead very often, so I don't know when I'll want them.

I also like buying larger volumes of non-food items and storing them, more for the convenience of having to go out for them less often than because I fear running out. I even get my toilet paper delivered to me 48 rolls at a time - it takes some storage, but I have to think about it less often. So, big packages of garbage bags, paper towels, composting bags, dishwasher detergent, well water and furnace filters etc.

I could store less, but that would mean I'd have to shop more frequently, and I just don't want to do that. I may be in that position when I downsize to a small apartment (when the house is too much to care for), but for now I'll be more comfortable needing to shop less frequently.

Our food storage needs have changed a lot over the last 25 years in this house. The The basement deep freezer is now unplugged, the 4’-tall Target bookcase next to it that was a backstock pantry now holds baking dishes we don’t use now. The changes are from the ages and residency of our two kids (home, college, apartment), and who does the shopping (and when) and meal prep.

The 24” pantry closet and the 1997 side-by-side Kenmore in the kitchen suffice for us now-empty nesters, with spices in a cupboard.

I never wanted or felt the need for a walk-in food pantry.

"I never wanted or felt the need for a walk-in food pantry."

Mine came with the house. If I ever have the funds to remodel the way I want to (hopeful but doubtful...), the walk-in will be gone.

" I never wanted or felt the need for a walk-in food pantry. "

I adored my walk in pantry (which I added when I expanded my kitchen in my previous home); it was for food and a small chest freezer, but also for other storage - dog food, small appliances, garbage bags, toolbox, etc.

Having lived in earthquake country and now hurricane country, you definitely should have some food storage with emergency supplies.

Full fridges and freezers are only good if you can keep them going (generator or solar+battery) during a prolonged power outage.

For the big earthquake, surviving the tremors is easy, but the fires that can happen when natural gas lines break are the real issue ... all your stored food/water might go up in flames!

I like having a walk-in pantry as you can easily see everything you have in one or two glances and hopefully avoid going out to buy something you already had.

Chispa, I like a wide shallow pantry so I can see everything, things don’t hide behind each other. And i don’t give up floor space just to step and stand in to survey my accumulation of (let’s face it) wealth. I feel the same way about my bedroom closet. A dressing room I will take, with closets. I really don’t want to see everything all at once.

We are also lucky to have a couple of grocery stores within a couple of miles, and a gas station convenience if I really need and want to pay a premium for a bottle of milk.

I liked having an ”active pantry” and a ”shop here first/backstock pantry”. I would like a reach-in closet for small appliances that currently live in a base cabinet, and I never see them, they are hard to get at because things would need to move around, hence never use them. Gee, maybe I don’t really need them? well, the couple in front do get used.

I’d really like a utility room for the tools, freezer, extra garbage bags and paper towels. And a big, double concrete sink. You know, UTILITARIAN stuff.

Maybe this is a difference in personality, too. I don’t like seeing everything at once, anywhere. I lasted three seconds in Times Square. I can’t go further than 15’ into a HomeGoods. Too much visual stimulation. I’m the same way at home.

" Full fridges and freezers are only good if you can keep them going (generator "

I am much more comfortable living out here since I got a standby generator that kicks in automatically - especially since I also have a well pump and septic that need electricity. So does my HVAC, for that matter.

" Maybe this is a difference in personality, too. I don’t like seeing everything at once, anywhere"

I don't know if it's personality or something more structural about the way our minds work, but I get your point - and I'm the opposite. If I can't see things, I often have trouble remembering where they are, or even what I have. Even my folded clothes are kept on open shelves (except my underwear and socks).

I am in the country now, so I shop differently. It's not that the store is THAT much further, it's that right now I have a manual gate I have to open to leave the property!

I have a full size fridge, a full size freezer and a firdge / freezer combo that mostly stores beverages and stuff for the dogs (canned pumpkin, Kraft Singles, bulk dog biscuits and frozen raw cat food.)

Pantry has shrunk for food related stuff. it's essentially 90" of deep cabinets floor to ceiling. And the top 35" ends up being cookbooks, dough rising buckets, that pasta drying rack that seemed like "such a cool thing to have and do - make fresh pasta!" (number of uses = 0)

Buying more fresh. Trying to make 2 of things so I can freeze one to keep up with my hectic work schedule and still eat like a human. (again - decent takeout is MUCH further away now...) . Huby is retired now, but he's not taken up the shopping or meal prep since he still has a few "unfinished" projects from the build remaining - like AUTOMATING THE GATE!

Non perishables, and paper products, I do buy more and stock up. I don't think I have the TP supply that John has - but I won't run out. And have a decent stock of detergents, cleaning supplies, water, etc.

I had the dreaded "corner pantry" and cleaning that black hole of sadness out when we moved was something I shall not repeat. Fewer things, more rotation.

Tangentially, does anyone know people who hoard food?

My dad is a terrible hoarder of everything. When it comes to food, he doesn’t keep rotting food or anything like that, but he has us bring him to Costco where he buys ridiculous quantities. Like he’ll buy five pounds of fresh mussels, twenty pounds of ribeye, fifteen pounds of pork ribs. Then he’ll tell me to put them in my freezer and we have this conversation:

- I don’t want this food, dad.

- It’s very good food.

- Yes and I can buy a pound of mussels wherever I want to eat a pound of mussels, right now I don’t want to eat any mussels.

- Just store in freezer for your family.

- Why should I store food for months or years, why shouldn’t I let Costco store it for me?

- This is my gift to you. Cook and eat!

- Giving people food they don’t want to eat is not a gift, it is a burden. Stop it.

This is why I don’t know what is in my freezer. Last time I pulled out some frozen pork ribs to make for a dinner party, they were so old and cooked so horribly that I was humiliated, as my guests choked down the mummified ribs and made “yum yum retch” noises. I’m (normally) really good at ribs, by the way.

I think if someone grew up in the Depression, or in my dad’s case in China during WW2 and then the Communist takeover, when there was sometimes actually not enough to eat or clothes to wear, they may be more inclined to hoard. Maybe?

But how does that explain our TP hoard, and all the other stuff filling the basement?

My MIL "hoarded" food. She no longer drives and has a hard time walking, so it has stopped. When I last visited I cleaned out the upright freezer in the basement ... a basement she has been unable to reach for a few years, but her aides would put stuff down there for her and she forbade them from throwing anything out.

There was nothing salvageable in that freezer, except for 3 or 5 things, so we threw out several large trash bags of old frozen food. Her fridge is also full of too much stuff.

For me a freezer is a black hole. Things go in and never come out ... unless they are made out of chocolate! I prefer to buy our meat "fresh" when we feel like eating something specific.