I buy 12-packs of TP and keep them in the bathroom on a shelf, since I have space.

Ditto the use of a battery tester, and in fact, our recharger has a battery tester built in.

Since my significant other is organizationally challenged, I get to make all the rules in this regard. That helps, but also hurts because if I’m sick or away, then the house looks like a disaster area when I get back.

The motto is, “We keep exactly the amount of stuff we have room for.”

So that means, when the drawer is full, when the closet is full, or when the cupboard is full, we can’t store any more. At that point, when we buy something new, we need to get rid of something. On the other hand, if all of his grubby t-shirts fit easily into the one drawer we have designated for them, then I can’t make him purge them.

I buy only a few items in bulk, mostly for convenience rather than saving money. For me, buying toilet paper, cereal and detergent once a month at a big box store saves me from purchasing those bulky items on my weekly trips to the grocery store.

I’m fortunate in that the closet in our guest bathroom is ridiculously huge and can easily accommodate several Costco-sized bundles of TP, tissues, and paper towels, so that’s where extras of that stuff lives. We keep a package of TP in each of the other bathrooms; when it gets down to the last roll or two, we go get another package from the closet.

Our kitchen pantry holds almost everything, but some overflow ends up in the mudroom cabinets (I buy staples like canned tomatoes, broth, and the like in Costco quantities). The mudroom cabinets also hold the extra dishwasher detergent and dish soap, since the space below our kitchen sink is tiny and pretty much taken up by the current containers of that stuff and the recycling bin.

This system works well except in the rare instance that I forget I stuck the extra dishwasher goo in the mudroom, see the undersink bottle is almost empty, and buy more. This is why I currently have four containers of dishwasher goo in the mudroom.

I notice that my Eneloops do not have a manufacture date on them, and they are only available in AA/AAA sizes, but there are adapters they fit in for C and D – useful for some situations, but disposables might be the answer if you require a lot of C/Ds.

Also, a Battery Tester is invaluable, and I picked up one for less than $3 at a surplus store

For things I burn through moderately quickly I keep at least two on hand, the one that’s open and the one in reserve. I will buy the replacement when I need it rather than waiting to stock up, but will stock up if the opportunity presents. Toothpaste is an example.

For things I use slowly or rarely, I have only the one in use at hand and replace only when it’s almost empty. Tylenol is an example.

An interesting organizational question: do you keep spares in a central location or where you use it? For example, do you keep an extra roll of TP in each bathroom or keep a pile of them in the linen closet? Both are valid answers but it’s good to know which one you prefer.

As for cleaning supplies and similar stuff, I also just put them on my shopping list when I open the last one. For toilet paper, I have an emergency roll stored with my camping supplies (which is made of environmentally friendly paper), so whenever I’m out, there’s a scratchy reminder to buy a new package. Also, you never know when your guest’s kid decides to play ancient egyptian mummy

@Courtney: I’d love to be so organised and put together that I had a list like that! It is something I continually admire and aspire, and struggle with, because this “always be prepared” thing is really calming and relaxing in the long run. (Just like Flylady says! Maybe I should sign up for her emails again.)

For example, let’s say that I have 7 pairs of underwear.

Let’s also say that I put on my last clean pair of underwear on Monday. That day I do a load of laundry and wash the 6 dirty pairs of underwear that I’m not wearing. But because I’m wearing the 7th pair of underwear, I can’t wash them.

For the 6 days that follow (Tuesday through Sunday), I put on a clean pair of underwear each day. That means that I put on my last clean pair of underwear on Sunday. I have no clean underwear to put on on Monday morning. I will have to wear a dirty pair until after I finish doing laundry that day.

(I suppose one option would be to skip wearing underwear on Monday, but I’d rather not.)

Or, if I want to have clean underwear every day and I only have 7 pairs, another option would be to do laundry every 6 days. Thus if I do laundry on a Monday, I will have to wash underwear again the next Sunday. And after that, I will have to wash underwear the next Saturday, and so on.

So, if I want to wear clean underwear every day and if I want to wash them only once a week, I need 8 pairs of underwear.

And to go a step further, in some situations even 8 pairs of underwear won’t be enough.

If some emergency makes it impossible to do laundry on Monday, I will be out of clean underwear on Tuesday.

Similarly, if I’m called out of town unexpectedly because of a family emergency, I may not have any clean underwear to pack.

For me, when it comes to underwear and socks, 7 or even 8 pairs is not enough.

The 20 or so rechargeable batteries in the drawer are varying ages. How can I keep them straight, and what do I need to know about using them? For instance, my husband says a set of the same total age needs to be used together.

Is there a way to organize them so I have freshly charged batteries but not keep them “cooking” endlessly on the charger as I anticipate some need? My camera uses rechargables but if I don’t put them in the day I need the use the camera, the charge seems to be lost quickly.

When can I assume they are all worn out so I can toss them?