COSTCO

I am sick of being in charge of inventory, so I have set up a wonderfully simple system around here, which is a chalk board in the kitchen. To wit; when we are running low on something, say size 4 diapers, all one has to do is write size 4 diapers on the board and then I know to order them.

Built by Sam (there's a spice cabinet behind the chalk board).  Who doesn't want the word "suppositories" written on their kitchen cabinet??

It's amazing how often my simple system fails and ends with me cranky because I discover that there are no more paper towels while trying to sop up a pile of vomit.  Even my mother, who suffers from a bizarre form of OCD that requires that we have no fewer than 8 rolls of toilet paper in the house at any given time constantly forgets to write on the board.  So my new system is this: I will live the American dream and buy vast quantities of everything in bulk.  Clearly, the American dream requires a basement, which luckily we have.

My friends Jason and Cecelia have a Costco membership and were fortuitously planning a mission themselves so off we went with Roan in tow.  (NB: one of the many things I love about Jason and Cecelia; extreme shopping habits.  They buy everything from either the Park Slope Food Coop or Costco.)

Westward Ho the Wagons!

We grabbed a shopping cart the size of a front end loader and headed for paper products.  For those of you who have never been, Costco is the size of an airport in a medium sized city.  They sell nearly everything.  Everything you say?  Why yes:

Nothing says "romance" like an engagement ring from Costco!

We are averaging 1-2 rolls of paper towels a day and about 20 reusable burp cloths so I bought a case each of paper towels, toilet paper, kleenex, and 36 ultra absorbent automotive cloths. Add to that a 186 ounce bottle of laundry detergent, a case of 200 trash bags and, for Sam and I, 360 Advil.

I made a classic rookie mistake and loaded up on all the cleaning products (ie heavy liquids) early and I could barely move the cart before we got to the second floor.  The second floor is food, and I was a little too overwhelmed by the sheer quantities of pasta and cereal so we ate free samples (Roan had his first ever Oreo), grabbed a 1 gallon jug of olive oil, a 56 ounce bag of Hershey's Kisses for my mom, and an impulse buy of 8 cans of baked beans, and tried to keep Roan entertained.

He was mostly mesmerized, but started getting ants in his pants after an hour or so.  By the end Jason had to push the cart for me which was clearly a sign that I had enough stuff.

I am psyched with my purchases, and giddy at the thought that I will not have to worry about running out of things to keep us washed, scrubbed, cleaned, and vomit free for quite some time.