Taming the Stash

So we had our 2 week ob appointment this morning (which went well) and it used up all my energy, so I had lunch upstairs to save my trip back down stairs for supper. While eating my lunch today I was reading through Bloglines and I came across this post from Coupon Cravings about controlling your shopping when your stash is huge - and actually looking at it to see how big it is!

I think we do pretty well at controlling our stash. I follow a few simple rules.

1. All household items that are not the one in use go in the garage in the old bookcase. All like items are stacked together. (So all the laundry soap is together so I know that I have 3 or 4 bottles there!)
2. All like pantry items are stored together with assigned places in the kitchen, overflow of canned or bottled items in a smaller bookcase in the garage, cereal and the like on top of the cupboard so that mice don't invade our garage and help themselves.
   
3. All medicine and toiletry items are stored under the bathroom sink in our bathroom.
4. All baby extras, except for diapers and wipes are stored in the girls' bathroom.
5. All diapers are stored in the appropriate girl's closet, all wipes are stored in Baby Pear's closet except for a back up package in Miss Pear's (who only wears diapers at night).
6. Once we have more than a 6 month stash I only buy that item if it is free, a money maker, or I have to roll CVS Extrabucks this week and that item is on special.
7. Pass on what we accumulate too much of. We have friends who are youth pastors and friends who are older and taking care of their parents who need a little help, and they are always happy to take whatever we have extra of. So if my stash gets out of control I ALWAYS have a home for it...that is not mine!

While I am not in full deal mode shopping at the moment, we did decide to try and keep our CVS ECB's going as they are good for a month, and Mr. Pear is very adept at shopping there (plus gatorade for flu season, toilet paper and kleenex is all on special this week). But unless there is a fabulous deal, or the ECB's are going to expire this week (like some are), I have not been worrying about it too much. This is a season to make my stash work for me, and enjoy the benefits of that hard work of creating it, not a season to be trying to build it up. Although I must say, a well stocked pantry has been such a blessing to us!

Well stocked and managed pantry most certainly has worked for me! Check out the other WFMW tips at Shanon's!

How do you manage your stash and keep limits on yourself so that you are not overwhelmed?