We live in a small house in Mexico. There’s a little grocery store about a block away and a laundry a half block from us. Before you get to the store, there’s a tortilla shop and across street from the laundry is a place selling roasted chickens. We’re surrounded by little businesses in our neighborhood. Within a block and a half radius of our house, there’s a hardware store, coffee shop, a kite shop, several restaurants, and more.
So it’s easy pretending we live in a house that’s about a block square. If I need something for the kitchen, going to the store is like walking to the pantry in a big house. The big house trick.
We store stuff at the store, instead of our small house.
There’s no reason for buying a plastic wrapped cube of 72 rolls of toilet paper we’d need to store somewhere while slowly chipping away at it when I can buy a few rolls at a time at our “pantry.” We don’t need to stock up.
Sure, we go to the big box stores sometimes too. But it’s for things we can’t get somewhere else. Those trips aren’t for bulk purchases that’ll clutter our house, becoming a pain in the neck instead of convenient and thrifty. It’s not thrifty if you have to pay for a bigger house to accommodate more stuff, and then you need to heat, air condition,and clean the extra space.
Super-sized packs of things can erode a peaceful and relaxing home when there’s not enough room for them. A cluttered home quickly becomes a source of stress nibbling away at your tranquillity because you feel like a hoarder.
There’s no need to stock up. The apocalypse isn’t near, unless you consider running out of dish soap the end of the world.
Plus it’s nice walking to the store visiting with people along the way and in the shop.