coronavirus journal - analyzing consumption rates

[dancing_crow]

In the range of sublime to ridiculous, I have landed hard on the ridiculous in terms of keeping track of what we are using.

I have a stack of toilet paper tubes that are dated twice - on the inside when we put them in and on the outside when they were finished. I am sort of saving them for a project, but also I felt like we needed to know how many rolls of toilet paper the three of us actually use. I have a date on the cover of my instant coffee, and a date on the dishwasher soap, and all of them are there to help figure out when we will need more of them.

I feel simultaneously vry scientific and analytical about the process, because I am Data Gathering, but also kind of helpless, and a little bit dumb for A) not knowing this beforehand, and 2) taking such ridiculous lengths to figure it out. Although in my own defense, when I was shopping more routinely, the rate of usage was not as much of an issue as just how close we were to running out.

I have had ongoing ideas about keeping track of consumption as an art project of some kind - an array of all the things I have used up, accounted by the tops and covers of the containers mosaiced together. But this is the most disciplined I have ever been about dating and saving things like this. It really feels like there is an art project in there somewhere. Or social commentary. or... something.

Comments

[clevermanka]

I understand this inclination and I kinda wonder if I should start paying attention to this sort of thing. Do you find it's making you more or less anxious?

[dancing_crow]

This seems to have very little to do with anxiety and a lot to do with simple calculations and provisioning (as opposed to stockpiling) and understanding the edges of my own consumption. Since this is a very controlled environment to be working within, it seems like a perfectly reasonable time to be doing it.

[clevermanka]

I'm gonna chew on this and think about if it might help or exacerbate some of the constant anxious simmer I've got going on. Thank you.

[archangelbeth]

I think that A: this is pretty clever!
And B: that your own defense has it right. When we can run down to the store and pick up more potty paper on a whim, just knowing "we need more soon" is enough.