After MrZ and I bought our house, I made sure my dishes/silverware all came from one set. I don’t know why, but it seemed important to me. I had pieced together a collection before and something seemed very grown-up about having a set. And since we were about to be homeowners, I thought maybe it was a good step. Also – my previous dishes were very girly with lots of pinks and flowers. Great for a single woman, not so great for the man she eventually marries.
I ended up buying a set of cheap silverware from Target and a set of dishes from Wal-Mart. I put the old set of dishes in the attic and dumped the old silverware in for Goodwill. Except the spoons. I kept the spoons to mix in with the new set because I was well aware of the fact that – we use a lot of spoons. (I also kept a few random pieces I thought were interesting and crammed them in the back of my drawer.) Essentially, we run out of spoons long before the dishwasher is full. Which means that last day before we run it? Everyone is using serving spoons. Or forks, which is okay for thick oatmeal, not-so-great for vegetable soup.
Fast-forward to today and you know what I’m finally going to admit?
We still need more spoons.
I know pieces of the set and the extras have been lost to garbage disposal incidents over the years. But I also know that our Meals Require Spoons count has risen in the last few years. We all need spoons for breakfast now. We also have been eating a lot of chili and soups because they’re easy to fix. I’m going to see today if I can hunt down just spoons anywhere. I don’t need a whole set of silverware, I don’t care if they match anymore. That was evidently just a phase. But this Eating My Yogurt With A Serving Spoon thing is getting on my nerves. It’s funny the first five times, now it’s just annoying. THAT SPOON IS TOO BIG FOR MY MOUTH.
I’m curious. What is your household’s spoon use habit? Is it excessive like ours? Or are you more of a Need More Forks kind of family?
When I was a child, my parents went through spoons like crazy. I think my mom went at least once every year to buy 20+ spoons from goodwill. Not only are spoons regularly used by a family of 5, but they get lost so often.
My son is only 2 now, and my husband and I don’t run out of spoons yet. I can see it in the future though, when my son finds new uses for spoons.
more of a Need More Forks kind of family ! they always seems to be in this dishwasher – dirty !
With us, the food trends vary and therefore so do the silverware issues. Sometimes we never have any spoons (Mommy is drinking a lot of coffee; kids are eating yogurt). Sometimes we never have any knives (cinnamon toast, PB&J). Etc.
In fact, I think at this point I should just go out and buy a couple more full sets of silverware. And another silverware drawer.
I have self diagnosed matching disorder. When I first read your post I thought it was going in a slightly different direction and was saying, see I am that way too. Everything has to match or I am nutso. Anyway, about the additional spoons, I found that Target/Costco/Sams Club sells around Christmas time the entertaining sets, what I do is either buy those or I buy in Costco/Sams the restaurant packs of silverware and I keep it in a basket so I can use those before messing up my matching set… That way I am not short 4 knives when I am trying to set my table.
We are totally a more-spoons family, and there’s just two of us. I suspect my hubby also takes them to work and doesn’t bring them back. My next set of spoons needs GPS tracking.
Even though there are only two of us in the household, we are always low on teaspoons (particularly since a few of them are garbage-disposal-scarred). We have two full sets of unmatching flatware, but I could use another pack of spoons.
We have that same situation in our house it happens with both spoons and knifes as I’m very aware of condiment contamination (yeah, i was one of those kids that didn’t like the PB to touch the Jelly). I went to the outlets one week and they had a Corning outlet and the sold packs of 15 of each kind of silverware for $5. I bought knifes and spoons and we’ve been happy ever since.
I’m in the market for new silverware period because we are running out of everything. I have been known to pick up a set of 10 spoons for a couple of bucks I think from Wal-Mart. The kids are always into something that requires spoons and I got tired of washing them every time they decided they needed one. Hope you find some!
Yay, it isn’t just us! Seems we’re ALWAYS out of spoons way before the diswasher is full. I was convinced my boys eat them – no matter how many I buy, they keep disappearing. I get packs of just spoons at our WalMart. And I’m not a “matcher” either.
Spoons are like socks in our house – they just randomly disappear. And the serving spoon in the yogurt doesn’t work at our house because the stupid spoon won’t fit in the Yoplait container.
We need new dishes because the set I bought (also when we bought our first house) are chipped and cracked (they were cheap) but I’ve decided to wait until we buy another house. Something about new dishes in a new house feels right.
Funny that you posted this, as I am right this second eating my cereal with a serving spoon. I just cursed myself for not putting on the dishwasher last night so we had spoons for the morning.
Spoons go fast. I don’t know how, but they just disappear!!
I’m so glad that this is not just us. We NEVER have enough spoons – all the other slots in the drawer will be just OVERFLOWING, and then there is just one lonely spoon left for my husband and I to wrestle over.
I hate using the serving spoon – I’ve resorted to using Maddie’s little keepsake soup spoon before. It’s a bit smaller but not too bad.
Wow, now that I’ve typed that out I realize it’s a bit pathetic. Time to shop for some spoons, I suppose!
We’re ALWAYS running out of spoons. When my parents got married (forty years ago this summer), a very wise aunt and uncle got them an extra set of teaspoons that matched the flatware they registered for and told them they’d ALWAYS be running out of spoons. Alas, my husband and I didn’t register for anything, so we don’t have an extra set of teaspoons. Fortunately, none of our dishes match, so if I could find JUST spoons, I could integrate them pretty easily.
We always run out of forks but the teaspoons are a close second since the kids use so many. When I went shopping for more forks and spoons I decided to just add a whole set of flatware. No, we didn’t need the extra knives but the extra serving pieces came in handy and now we rarely run out of spoons and forks. It didn’t cost much more either. Apparently, they know we’ll need certain pieces more and jack the price up on individual items. We now have service for 36 just in case we ever need to throw the mother of all dinner parties:)
Interesting question. We don’t have a dishwasher, so the dishes are *supposed* to get washed every day. And when that happens (sometimes it doesn’t–but if so it doesn’t go un-noticed :D), we don’t run out of spoons. Sometimes we get low, though. The oldest has moved out and married, so we’re talking mom, dad (both of whom work outside the home, 20-year old live-at-home male college student, 17-year-old about-to-go-away-to-college daughter).
I imagine if we had a dishwasher big enough to hold more than two days’ worth of dishes, it would happen (i.e., running out of spoons before other flatware). But sometimes we’ve run out of regular forks, and resorted to the salad forks. I guess it varies.
When your dishwasher is organic (i.e., 20 y-o and 17 y-o offspring 3x/wk each, mom or dad on Sunday), people try not to “waste” dishes, glasses, and silverware. And DH is meticulous about “rinsing.” So most of the silverware waiting on the sideboard to be “washed” are good enough to re-use, after another good rinse. :p
Oh, and we have a wealth of plastic spoons, forks and knives — a holdover from parties, picnics, and school/club events. So we’ll resort to that for spoons sometimes.
You guys are funny – have any of you considered washing the spoons by hand? It’s really simple, some hot soapy water, a sponge or some other scrubbing utensil, swirl around a little, scrub a little, rinse and VOILA – a clean spoon/fork!
Really easy! đŸ™‚
My husband came with a nice set of silverware and dishes. After we married I bought a second matching set (he only had serving for 4), the extra spoon package and the serving pieces. All matching pieces and we never run out of spoons.
But the hand washing is a good idea đŸ™‚
I have two different sets of utensils we use. We actually use tons of the big spoons – they’re perfect for putting a buttload of sugar in our morning coffee!!
But butter knives, those disappear CONSTANTLY.
You guys are oh-so-fancy with your DISHWASHERS!! We do all ours by hand and are therefore huge fans of re-using whenever possible. Oh, to have a dishwasher!! As far as the spoon/fork differential: in my two-person household, it’s glasses that we seem to use in absolute excess. No clue how that happens.
Isabel is a real comedian!
Cereal, coffee, yogurt, soy cream, salsa, guacamole, hot tea with four teaspoons of sugar and milk (that would be the 11 yo); yeah, we run out of spoons pretty quick, too đŸ™‚ So why are we so ishy about buying silverware at the goodwill, when we are happy to give them our old silverware and will buy almost everything else there without a second thought?
Wow Erin, that really was meant as a tongue in cheek comment, sorry to have offended you.
There are not enough spoons in the world to keep up with my family.
I have a service for 12 and 7 people in the house, so the dishwasher goes on every day. we dont separate the cake and dinner forks, so I suppose we are a “fork” family. really what we run out of most is bowls, and I have service for 12 of corelle too. Darn, I keep meaning to buy extras from the open stock at Wally-world and I was just there, oh well, maybe I’ll remember next time.
We go through a lot of spoons (well, a lot for two people) too. It’s GLASSES we’re really running out of, though. The damn things keep breaking.
We ALWAYS need more spoons. So I went to the Warehouse (like target) and you can buy them in packs of 10.
So we now have 2 sets of silverware (8 teaspoons) and an extra set of 10. Yet we STILL run out.
Did I mention there is only 2 of us? and I dont often use spoons??
Yeah.
OMG! I thought I was the only one who had the amazing technicolor drawer, devourer of spoons. I will say that our “cheap” little settings consisted of the smaller spoons along with the soup spoons. The smaller ones vanished (probably lost with my tupperware the husband would abscond with for lunches) and kids errantly throwing them in the trash because “that’s what they do at school”. I’m probably down to 8 soup spoons and 3 small spoons in one set and plenty of the “nice” set that I avoid using until it becomes horribly necessary.
I swear we use 3 TIMES the number of spoons as anything in our house. I wish we could have bought them “a la carte” for our flatware set just so I could have gotten extras.
Spoons and butter knives. I have no idea why, that’s just the way it is.
I hear ya’. We bought an extra set of spoons from cutco because we run out of them way ahead of everything else.
Spoon usage is easily 3x anything else. Knives probably come in second, forks last.
Nope… never run out of spoons, forks or knives. Our “issue” is cawfee cups!
Our issue is knives. I’m forever pulling a knife out of the dishwasher to wash because I’ve run out before I’m ready to run it. What can I say? I eat a lot of bagels and PB&J.
Like someone already mentioned, you can buy large collections of each type of silverware individually at Sam’s Club in the section where they sell chafing dishes and other serving pieces intended for restaurants. (My sister-in-law bought these to use for holidays and parties rather than keep buying disposables.) But you can also buy extra spoons (etc) in sets of three at Walmart for about three bucks (I bought these to have a few sets at work).
My favorite spoons of all time are the long-handled iced tea spoons that I got from my dad when he was ditching his old set of silverware upon marrying my stepmother. He offered the entire set to me, but I just pulled out the iced tea spoons to keep. They’re perfect for mixing a tall glass of chocolate milk, which is one of my major food groups. Why is it that silverware sets you buy nowadays don’t include long-handled spoons?
We totally use more spoons. And more bowls. We’ve been getting plastic spoons for Harry to take in lunches to school when he’s having applesauce or pudding cups or whatever and we’ve taken to using those when we get desperate. SNORT.
We need more forks AND spoons (my kids love their cereal). I gave up on having a set, and love all my mixed and matched hand me downs and antique finds and cheap stuff, though!
I gave up a few weeks ago and started buying the plastic disposable ones to keep in the drawer for when we run out…because it happens a lot!
Yes, spoons always go first. I also am very picky about my soup spoons, which prompted me to go to one of the restaurant supply stores in town and buy a box of 50. I never run out and I picked them up for just a few dollars.
Cerial bowls. Not so much the spoons.
I bought a set of dishes that came with soup bowls. I had to buy the cerial bowls seperately, and I under estimated our cerial habit.
Try Smart n Final for a set of spoons?
I know am late on this topic but spoons used to be our #1 thing to be out of. I pretty much solved the problem by getting decorative stirrers and using them for all stirring (coffee, tea, chocolate milk). They live in a cup on top of our stove and it is fun to find new cool ones. Target usually has them in their summer stuff and all that in in clearance now so you can get some fun palm trees and monkeys!
I hear ya! We never have enough spoons. They disappear and I find them in odd places and I’m always having to rinse off used ones so I don’t have to eat with the comically large spoons.