The person packing leftovers is thinking about a hunger that has not arrived yet.

Wrapping food after a meal is an act of imagination as much as thrift. It asks you to picture a future person, usually yourself or someone you live with, tired at a moment that has not happened, and to do something now on their behalf. That habit is quiet, and it is one of the plainer forms of care. Much of household work is like this, a message sent forward to whoever gets there next.

Notice what you already do for your future self and let it count. Then add one small thing for tomorrow evening, chosen for the version of you who will be too tired to decide.