14 Ways to Make Your Coronavirus Supplies Last Longer

Dilute certain liquids

Diluting some items with water can definitely help to stretch your stockpile, says Alan Scheller-Wolf, PhD, professor of operations management at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business.

For example, orange juice and soy sauce can be easily diluted without any problems. However, you can’t do this for all items. “You should not stretch items that need a certain regularity, or concentration, to be effective,” Scheller-Wolf explains. Baby formula is one of the items you can’t dilute because diluting it can result in an infant’s failure to thrive and even death.

Other items you shouldn’t dilute or stretch are prescription medication and hand sanitizer. With the latter, adds Scheller-Wolf, “they say you need 70 percent alcohol to kill COVID, so you should not stretch this.”