Quarantining is an appropriate response to a potential health crisis, but it’s important that we not lose our heads as we attempt to be safe. Here are some tips on how to responsibly prepare for quarantine and what sorts of things you should buy.
Please note the purpose of this is to prevent hoarding, and reduce panic by some basic preparations.
What to Plan For with an Illness Quarantine
For an illness quarantine we need to take the proper safety precautions, for the amount of time recommended by the CDC. Realistically though, you need to be prepared to not go out for at least a month. With that in mind, you should stock up on anything your household is going to need in order to get by for that long. Use any resources you have from pantry space to freezer space, and don’t forget about other household essentials beyond food.
Download the free printable quarantine checklist at the bottom of this post.
How to Handle a Quarantine
When you quarantine it means you don’t leave the house. If you are able to leave at all, it should be minimal and only for emergencies.
How to Stock up on Supplies to Prepare for Quarantine
The biggest problem you will face in a quarantine situation is fear and panic. Ignorance and lack of critical thinking come next, but fear and panic make a bad situation worse by causing more people to make bad choices. When you are stocking up for a home quarantine, don’t get swept up in the hysteria. You don’t have to go overboard in stocking up, just be responsible and plan ahead.
The best thing to do is to order what you can online and have it delivered to your home. For emergency items you have to leave your house to buy, have a game plan in place. Go as early as possible so there will be fewer customers in the store. Wear protective gear, and use self check-out if you can.
What Should You Buy to Prepare for Quarantine
Make a list of truly important essentials and how much you need in order to get by for the next few weeks. Don’t overcompensate and buy more than you need to to make it through. As you compile your list, concentrate on fresh foods, shelf-stable items, freezer items and items for your household.
Fresh Foods
Grab what you can that’s fresh so you can eat more healthy for your first week or so. get enough fresh fruit and veggies to last you the next ten days. Buy extra bread and keep it in the refrigerator to extend the freshness. For fruits and vegetables, make sure they are thoroughly rinsed before eating and don’t eat anything within five hours of buying it at the store. If you have a freezer with a large capacity, buy more fresh ingredients with the intent to make large meals for freezing. Here are some examples of things to stock up on
- Apples
- Bananas
- Oranges
- Salad Mix
- Bread
- Cheese
- Milk
- Eggs
- Meat/Poultry/Fish
Pantry Items
When you want to stock up, your main focus is going to be on the pantry items. You can stock up on rice and pasta as well as canned beans and vegetables. These last a long time and are relatively inexpensive.
- Pasta
- Rice
- Canned beans/Chili
- Canned vegetables
- Oatmeal/Cereal
- Water
- Trail Mix
You can also stock up on things like ramen, cereal bars, and mac and cheese.
Freezer Items
You can make cooking easy on yourself by stocking up on freezer meals, or you can cook in big batches and freeze the food that you make. Lasagna and enchiladas do particularly well.
Household Items
Be smart and proactive about keeping stocked on your household items, but don’t overdo it. stick to what you know you will need and avoid hoarding and paying for unnecessary items. Make sure you have an adequate supply of toilet paper, garbage bags, dish soap, disinfectant, and cleaning supplies. remember those latex gloves, too.
How to make your own cleaning supplies and hand sanitizer
If you are having trouble finding things like: cleaning supplies, baby wipes, and hand sanitizer, the good news is use can use alternative products to make these things at home.
- How to make homemade hand sanitizer.
- How to make your own bleach wipes.
- How to make your own baby wipes.
What to buy to prepare for a lock down or quarantine:
Food:
- Water bottles
- Canned goods
- Canned powder milk
- Fruits
- Nuts
- Vegetables
- Snacks
- Frozen Meals
- Meat
- Eggs
- Yogurt
- Frozen Fruit and Vegetables
- Frozen Pizza
- Rice / Pasta
- Cereal / Oatmeal
- Personal care items:
- Shampoo
- Conditioner
- Body wash
- Hand sanitizer
- Hand soap
- Feminine products
- Facial tissues
- Medicine (Over The Counter)
- Prescriptions
- First Aid Kit
Other:
- Pet Food
- Cleaning Supplies:
- Disinfectant Wipes
- Lysol
- Paper towels
- Toilet paper
- Laundry detergent
Kids:
- Baby Wipes
- Diapers
- Formula
- Baby Food
- Snacks
- Milk (check dates)
- Medicine – Tylenol, Motrin
- Cereal
- Games / Toys / Activities
Click here to download the free printable quarantine checklist.
The ultimate goal of this list to help you feel prepared in case of a quarantine or lock down. It is to hopefully reduce panic in a situation that can be scary. Please, please do not hoard and only buy what you would truly need, so there is enough supplies for everyone.
Did I forgot any important items on this quarantine list?! What are you buying for your family during the coronavirus outbreak? Share in the comments.
Pin and save this post for later:
Sue says
Toilet wipes (DONT FLUSH!!)
Serviettes
Crackers, Rice cakes
Jessie says
Thank you Sue for adding these. I am going to update the post.
Tracey says
Hi
In Australia we face the same shortages of everyone panic buying. The quantities you’ve got listed I feel they’re just too large a supply for one household. For example 5 – 10 boxes of cereal, 5-10 pkts of pasta/spaghetti- don’t you feel you are just allowing ppl to panic buy by suggesting excessive amounts of food? If everyone just went about their shopping in a normal way, there’s actually no need to bulk buy from normal supermarkets. You make several great point buts honestly think your quantities are just a tad too excessive.
Cheers.
Jessie says
Hi Tracey, thank you for mentioning this. I did create this post to help prevent panic buying, I am going to re-visit the amounts. I appreciate your feedback.
Nancy1340 says
Also you don’t need to buy everything on the list at one time. The idea is to work up to having your pantry stocked with this amount and replace an item as it’s taken out of the pantry. Just buy two boxes of cereal and put one in the pantry. Then next trip to the store buy two more boxes of cereal. You now have three boxes in the pantry.
Michelle says
I didn’t see any mention of some of the items that went FAST in our area grocery stores. After the initial rush for toilet paper, sanitizer, and cleaning supplies, baking supplies were wiped out…things like flour (all kinds, they were even selling out online at places like King Arthur and Bob’s Red Mill), yeast, baking powder and soda, buttermilk powder, sugars, and yeast. Chocolate chips were practically non-existent for awhile there. Other hard to get items were chicken breasts, hamburger, and JIGSAW PUZZLES (so you get extra kudos for mentioning boredom busters in your emergency preparedness list!)
I think that when you prepare for a pandemic, or any emergency situation really, you need to have a plan. Know what you want/need before you begin shopping (check your actual recipes) and plan for stages of use. It is no different than regular menu planning, but just has more long-range thinking involved. Make sure your plan uses up the items that will spoil the fastest first and then stretch to the other items as time passes. (I think you understand that, but it can never hurt to be repeated.)
An example: Purchase bread items for use now/the first week. Purchase extra bread to store in the freezer (I have always heard that putting bread in a fridge dries it out, but YMMV). Then also think about how you will provide your family with bread beyond that and purchase those items as well. Check out a no-knead bread recipe or try your hand at a sourdough starter. Consider making muffins, baking powder biscuits, or even cornbread (my recipe uses buttermilk, so I purchase the canisters of buttermilk powder in the baking section of the store.) Those items all involve having a core baking supply with flour, yeast, etc.)
A second example: We don’t eat dessert that often, so I planned on making a dessert item once every weekend as a treat. The first weekend after we stocked up, I made fruit pizza, because we had a lot of fresh fruit on hand. The second week, I went with Six-in-a-Pan, because it used mostly pantry items (chocolate and vanilla pudding, Dream Whip, cream cheese). The third week, moving even more towards pantry items, was a dump peach cobbler (4 cans of peaches, vanilla cake mix, melted butter). By the 4th week, we were looking at items such as cookies or cakes or whatever. With flour, sugar, cocoa powder, vanilla, oil, and baking powder/soda, we had countless possibilities as long as we had eggs. If we didn’t, there was always Rice Krispie squares or puffed rice cereal squares (the chocolate ones).
This same plan can apply to other areas as well. Use up lunch meat first before it spoils. Consider roasting a chicken or making a beef roast so you have leftover meat for sandwiches the following week. After that, switch to canned chicken or tuna, or grilled cheese or whatever. Fresh potatoes will keep for a long time if they can be kept in a cold cellar, but potato flakes (We use Bob’s Red Mill), can be a good replacement. Garlic doesn’t keep for very long, but Dorot garlic (and basil, and ginger, and cilantro) can be found in the freezer section of the grocery store and allows you to stock up on fresh herbs that keep. Jarred garlic is another option, if you are truly desperate. If you use lemons much in recipes (we do for marinades, dressings, etc.), you can zest them (and freeze) and juice them (and freeze), or in a pinch, you can use True Lemon (they also have lime, but I use lemon the most).
Other items that I didn’t see listed in your post: butter (I bought about 12 lbs. at Costco…some salted and some unsalted…it can be frozen), salad dressings, oils (olive/vegetable), all varieties of cheeses including ricotta or cottage cheese for lasagna ( if we don’t think we will use them all, we grate them and put them in the freezer for pizzas, mac and cheese, quesadillas, etc.), toothpaste and toothbrushes, ketchup, barbecues sauce, all condiments, really, mayonnaise, popcorn, nut butters, honey, jam, bleach, and the two, not-to-be-missed items…
Dill pickles…two of my kids decided pandemics required pickles and we didn’t have any, because I usually only buy them once per year in the summer. They were disappointed.
Chocolate…the good kind…mostly for Mom. Mine gets hidden in the highest cupboard. Buy more than you think you will need. These are stressful times…ha ha!!!
Great post! I always enjoy reading about how others prepare and provide for their families.