Many generations of my family grew up poor in rural Italy before my great grandparents immigrated to America. As my mom often puts it, "We hail from peasant stock. If you ever need to carry big buckets of water on your shoulders, trust me, you will be able to do it. It is in your blood."Jealous?
Perhaps because of this impoverished heritage, my mom's side of the family believes strongly in stockpiling. They also believe strongly that vegetarians eat pork, chicken, and fish, but that's another post for another time.
These people stockpile everything: garbanzo beans, paper towels, sports equipment, silverware. My grandmother's basement is basically Costco, just less crowded and with a much wider selection.
Naturally, many of my Italian relatives are proponents of stockpiling favorite items of clothing. Instead of saying, "Nice sweater," my great aunt says, "I hope you got that in every color, Winona!" And it is more of a threat than a compliment, because how dumb would I feel if I only bought one and it ripped and I didn't have five more to replace it and stay looking cute through the cold, hard winter?
I can't decide how I feel about it. On the one hand, it's nice to have your favorite shirt in a variety of colors, and it's comforting to keep a backup pair of those perfect-fitting pumps in your closet. But I've also found that whenever I do stock up on something, it doesn't feel so special anymore, and I lose interest.
So I'm curious to know what you guys think: Do you believe in stockpiling?
p.s. Sally of Already Pretty posted about this topic today too! Crazy, right? Please check out her thoughtful and thought-provoking post on buying multiples as well!
