I seem to have spent several years blindly stocking up on body fat, spare toilet paper, lotions and toothpastes, crafting supplies, useless boxes of paper, health supplements and broken things. And, I am seeing that as the fridge gets clear I rush out to buy more food so that once again we have an abundance and once again I struggle to eat it all before it rots. With craft supplies, fancy lotions, fancy health supplements and shoes I get them and never use them. It is as though having them is soothing and if I use them up I feel an anxious urgency to restock, not in order to get a good price but to ease my anxiety.
Wintersun, I too was overwhelmed by all the lotions and toothpaste etc, yet, when I started running out, wanted to purchase more. Here's how I dealt with it.
I just let the feelings sit, but I didn't give into them. I decided that if I gave into the anxiety and purchased more, I was just feeding the cycle. So, I didn't buy replacements, except the things I was genuinely using up. So, for example, the cotton wool pads I just wanted to see gone, I didn't repurchase (even though I felt the urge) because using them up had felt like a chore. The facewipes I use every day I did repurchase, because using them up was just... neutral. I wasn't 'trying' to use them up, or trying to keep them. I just needed to take my makeup off, and that was how I did it.
So, I allowed myself to repurchase neutral things I was using. Anything I had had to 'work' to use up, I did not repurchase, even though I thought, oh my goodness, what if I need x.
And things where I was nearing the end, and thought, "I don't want to finish this, because I know I'm not going to repurchase and I might need it", I finished, by promising myself that if I finished it, and then later needed it, I could repurchase. But I did not allow myself to repurchase for stock - only if the need arose.
What I found is that most things could be substituted. This wasn't my intention at all, it was just something that was revealed to me. I've run out of one potion, oh, I'll just use another. A lot of 'first aid' type stuff also had duel uses I found by reading the label. Something I bought to ease nasal congestion can be used a wound disinfectant, so, since I no longer have the congestion this can be my go to disinfectant when the Savlon runs out and I won't repurchase.
Anyway, that was a long way of saying my advice would be thus. Acknowledge the feeling of wanting to stock up and rebuy, but don't act on it. Try not to judge that feeling, just accept it. "I want to rebuy that, even though I also want to rid of it", or whatever. Don't give in to it, or you are just feeding the cycle of anxiety.
It's hard, but it gets easier. Resisting the first time is much more uncomfortable than the 20th time. And I found that as stores depleted, and I realised how little I used any of the stuff I had got rid of, my anxiety lessened significantly too.
Increasingly, I am happy not to hold onto things in that way. For example, the other day I was packing for travel and I needed a toothbrush to take, as my electric one is too bulky. I had a freebie from a flight in a drawer. I thought, "I don't want to take it! Then it will be gone. I might need it someday". And I thought to myself, "Yes, I do need it someday - I need it today. It has fulfilled it's purpose by providing me with a toothbrush when I needed one". Somehow this now feels -even better- to me than keeping it. Using things up, allowing them to fulfil their purpose.
My husband told me off for getting out the 'good glasses'. I told him, no, I want to use them. Hell, I want to -break- them all (in time!), because I want to know that I have had the use out of them, enjoyed them fully, and they have served me completely. I want to wear things out, so I can let go of them knowing they've served me well, and I've used up all that joy they contained. Does any of this make sense, or do I sound raving?