Revamp Your COVID-era Kitchen With This Under $50 Buying List

I couldn’t contain coronavirus but I could tackle the chaos in my cupboards and the microbe stew that filled my fridge.

A bag of potatoes with gnarly sprouts tearing the mesh, a package of stale corn tortillas and four half-used boxes of spaghetti made my pantry shelves look sad and neglected. The state of my kitchen was more suited for a college dorm room than it was a family of four sheltering in place. My mother had called three times to ask if I’d gone to the grocery store to stock up. I’d better hurry, she told me, coronavirus is spreading and California would likely be shutting down.

I am not the disaster preparedness type, the only emergency I’m typically prepared for is an eyeliner touch-up. I don’t love the idea of standing in lines with panic shoppers, carts overflowing with beans and social distance loud-speaker announcements looming overhead. Staring into my disheveled and dingy pantry, I longed for the Queer Eye cast to come and revive my situation, but I’m not a straight guy, and traveling isn’t safe, so I decided to do it myself.

With chaos on the news and in the stores, the only way for me to cope was by tackling the chaos in my cupboards. This Suzy-homebreaker was going to give that little tart…