Monday, March 31, 2008

Mashed potatoes and more


There are many mysteries of the universe, and one has to be how Husband and I ended up with 3 mashed potato mashers. And, not just that. Somehow we have 2 copies of Top Gun on DVD, 4 laundry baskets, 5 telephones, 7 trash cans, and 8 pot holders.

It all sounds like “The Twelve Days of Christmas” gone wrong. Forget 11 pipers piping, we have 11 sheet sets and possibly more.

This is the first time that we’ve truly combined households. Most of our stuff was in storage before, and this was the first move where we had to decide what to do with everything. I wondered, for example, if it would ever be humanly possible to cook enough at one time that would warrant the use of all 8 pot holders.

We had a number of discussions about what to do with the extra items. For me, the answer was easy. Let’s give them to Goodwill.

Extra silverware (the Wal-Mart version, that is)? Give it to Goodwill! The extra egg whisker? Goodwill! Those pesky spiders in the house? Goodwill! (Of course, we’re not giving them spiders. I just got on a roll there.)

Husband, on the other hand, carefully considered every possible contingency, no matter how remote, where we might actually need the extra items. Like the mashed potato mashers. I thought it was a no-brainer to give the extra two away. I mean, we love mashed potatoes just as much as anyone else, but having more than one seemed a little excessive.

“But, what if we’re making mashed potatoes, and we want to make guacamole at the same time? We could use the extra masher for the avocados without having to wash the other one.”

Husband must have very persuasive qualities. Never in my life have I heard of any meal that calls for a guacamole/mashed potatoes combo, but somehow I fell for his argument. And now we have 2 mashed potato mashers.

Forget mashed potatoes and gravy. Anyone up for some mashed potatoes and guacamole? Rest assured that our culinary tools (and back-up tools) are ready, if you are.

5 comments:

Britni said...

When we got married, we had to go through all of our stuff like this but somehow we still have three ice cream scoops, three pizza cutters, and way too many wooden spoons.

Ann M. said...

My husband is the same way! There's a second iron in our closet in a box with the alarm clock he used three alarm clocks ago. We still have them because what if he is sent out and needs them? Because he might deploy somewhere that he needs a really old alarm clock and an iron? Even though all we iron are his uniforms, and he has a perfectly good alarm clock on his nightstand that would go unused? Although I guess if we came to visit you for your mashed potatoes and guacamole, we'd wake up on time and have fabulously unwrinkled clothes!

Kimberly said...

My husband and I still are trying to sort through the duplicate (or more) items we have! It is a never ending process. Not only do we have double stuff from before we got married, but now, for holidays or birthdays, we end up with gifts that we already have 2 of!

Anonymous said...

This could be an exact transcript of conversations between my husband and me! I generally want to give everything away and he wants to make sure we won't need it. We have finally compromised on things that are brand new. If they are new and there is no way they'll go out of style, I will let him wrap them to keep out mold and then box them up in our basement storage unit here. We're planning to start doing spring cleaning and can't wait to look through some of these boxes and find more stuff to get rid of!

Kristen M. said...

Two is better than four!