I always stockpiled shovels in my pocket because digging flowers is more painful and the most annoying thing is when your only shovel breaks and you have to get another one.
I stockpiled watering cans and shovels. My watering can would ALWAYS break on me in the worst moments, so I had three on hand at any given time. Five shovels minimum for digging up flowers is a must-have.
i stockpile all the tools but not in every style. i only buy the pink colorful variant or the star shaped net. everything else i skip cause it looks too boring lol
I always have an extra shovel with me. It seems like they break fairly quickly. Maybe I just use them more than any other tool.
I also have 2 watering cans, one gold, one regular. And I used to carry an extra slingshot, because it never failed that I'd miss, my slingshot would break, I'd go in to buy another at nook's, and then come out and wth, where's the present?
Now that we have the outdoor item retrieval ability, I don't carry around multiples of everything (except shovels).
I stock heaps of shovels as I am always using them when I resign my island over and over. I also stock up on the cute fishing rods with the little ducks I LOVE them so much.
For me, the shovel is the most important tool. I use it more often than the others so that means they break more often. Breaking more often means crafting more often, which is why I usually have multiple of them.
I stockpile all the tools in the colourful version because I get annoyed when I am in the middle of something and it breaks. I always keep the closet item with me so that I have ready access to my full inventory of all my tools that I hoard.
I have doubles of fishing rod and net. Then for shovels I have like 6 with me at all times lol. I find they break so many times and running back to the shop is annoying. I usually play at night so then the shop will be closed. Once I'm done with designing my town and clearing flowers, I'll probably carry like 3-4 shovels instead. I'm just breaking lots right now in my construction lol.
I stockpile everything as you never know when they will break. I also like to use certain colours of the colourful tools on each of my characters and you don’t craft those.
I don't tend to stockpile tools regularly, im really just risking it out here having to go get one every time it breaks. But when i'm planning to do something where I expect to use the tool a lot, like you mentioned with moving a bunch of flowers etc, ill stock up on the one item. For the most part, it is usually shovels so thats what I voted for, cuz the big tasks are usually moving tons of flowers, or bushes, or trees
I have two shovels and I think I crafted a handful more that are tucked away somewhere in my storage. Now I just buy two shovels. Since we can't actually pull the full flower out anymore, I end up breaking shovels just digging them up all the time.
On my main island right now I craft multiple fishing rods and nets since I’m working on those nook mile items. On my second island it’s shovels since I have been trying to terraform and decorate. So moving trees and flowers trying to figure out where to place them.
i've got multiple of all the tools in storage. probably have the least amount of copies of watering cans. i pretty much always have a storage shed in my inventory too