I have learned a lot about myself during the coronavirus pandemic.

While stuck at home for weeks, I found that I could make a pretty decent chicken noodle soup using all fresh ingredients. It will be a staple in my home during this next phase of the pandemic.

I also realized that I'm a hoarder. I consider myself a situational hoarder. The pandemic made me do it.

Like most people, I was unprepared when COVID-19 took over our lives last March. Nobody warned us that it was coming, so we had no idea what we would be up against.

Who knew that it would be nearly impossible to find hand sanitizer, toilet tissue and disinfectant?

But this time, there was plenty of warning. Health experts began telling us even before the first round of the coronavirus was done that a second phase would follow in the fall.

That's when my dark side emerged. I set out on a mission to stock up on as much Lysol spray, Clorox wipes and Purell hand sanitizer I could get my hands on.

The mission began about four months ago when I received a flyer in the mail from Costco advertising 12-roll packs of Bounty paper towels and 30-count Charmin toilet paper. After months, the products finally were back in stock — and on sale.

By the time I got to the store, they had run out. They offered me a deal on their store brand paper towels, and I jumped at it. I left with 24 rolls — the store limit. I returned the next day and bought 24 more.

I don't have enough room in my condo for 48 rolls of paper towels or the 60 rolls of toilet paper or the 72 bottles of water I had delivered. So I turned a spare bedroom into a storage closet. It looks like a well-stocked mini mart, filled with everything you need during a pandemic.

I'm sitting pretty right now. I have way more than I need to get me through the next three months or so. But I'm not all that happy about it. Little did I realize how thin the line is between hoarding and simply being prepared.

I have always had a small tendency to hoard. I've still got unopened boxes from the time I moved from Chicago to Atlanta in 1998 and back to Chicago in 2009. I thought I was making progress, though. Earlier this year, I called the Salvation Army to pick up loads of stuff. I got rid of the bread maker I'd never used as well as the rotisserie cooker and the accessories I'd never taken out of the box.

The pandemic has brought out the worst of me — but there's still hope.

My refrigerator gave out a couple of weeks ago, and my freezer was well stocked with groceries. Instead of throwing it all away, which would have been a lot easier, I packed everything up and gave it to a needy family.

I must never forget that lots of people don't have enough food, even in the best of times. So I've come up with another idea. I'm going to pack up rolls of toilet tissues, paper towels and hand sanitizer, and donate them.

Hoarding isn't really hoarding when it goes to a good cause. Dahleen Glanton is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.