Agree obviously milk, eggs, cheeses, bacon, greens. But some of the stuff they listed--like mustard, Sriracha, other condiments--I didn't throw out after a 4-day outage. Likewise, butter, bread, and tortillas, which were all in the freezer, stayed. I realize they may not taste the best after a defrost-and-refreeze, but since they're safe (at least by my personal standards) I figure it's worth trying.

I make salad dressings, sauces, marinades from scratch so after the basics, those are the must haves. (and I don't throw most out after short power outages anyway)
basics (milk, eggs, yogurt, greens)
mustard
soy sauce
lemons, limes
grated parmesan
feta
parsley

Why would anyone thorw away shelf stable pantry items such as mustard? What a waste.

Hello? Am I the only European reader here- eggs and butter do not need to be refrigerated oh you in the land of enormous refrigerators! (Yes, I am envious) They're both fine at room temperature, obviously keeping in mind due by dates.

i like the idea of a post like this, and will definitely bookmark it for when i MOVE and i have to start from scratch then.

great milk btw

Great post; maybe the restocking is an opportunity to eat healthier. For me it's breakfast first: eggs fried in olive oil, bananas fried in lemons with yogurt are my favorites. Ingredients for smoothies like juice or fruit.

Then dinner: vegetables, greens for salad, and some beef or fish.

We made sure to get ice and check on our ice packs so we could save stuff in the cooler for as long as possible.

eggs don't require refrigeration...

Eggs in North America are washed and cleaned to a point that the shell becomes very porous and weak, thus why it's strongly recommended to keep them in the fridge (aka to limit the amount of bacteria).

Yah, the egg issue has been discussed on this site MANY times. The comment by Christine M. seems to be the consensus, although my understanding is that this applies to commercially produced eggs. If they're kept refrigerated in the store, they've likely been washed that way and need to be refrigerated at home. (Although I imagine even then they have a certain room-temp shelf life like most other need-to-be-refrigerated foods...but I don't know what that is.)

If you buy eggs direct from a small farm they're not likely to have been "power-washed" that way and are presumably safe at room temp.

I just moved (to a new country) and am in the process of an initial stocking - what a pain! Flour, eggs, milk, bread, cheese, oil, vinegar, mustard, peanut butter, jam, coffee/tea and some basic produce (carrots, bananas, greens, potatoes) all made it home from my first trip to the store.

When my fridge went ka-put over the summer time here were my essentials that I needed to restock:

minced garlic
parmesan cheese
white miso soup paste (my go-to remedy to battle colds/flus)
beer

:o)

Seriously people need tips to restock their refrigerator?