This is my silverware drawer. I took this photo last night, right after the dishwasher was unloaded. This drawer should contain service for 12. Meaning 12 dinner forks, 12 salad forks, 12 butter knives, 12 tablespoons and 12 teaspoons. What you see here is what there is.
I think it’s time we bought new silverware. Or is it flatware? Our eating utensils are stainless steel, so I guess it’s called flatware. Whatever you want to call it, we have a serious problem here!
Somehow, we’re down to 2 teaspoons and 1 salad fork. We have 10 butter knives, 9 dinner forks and 9 table spoons left. All the rest have just… disappeared. I know who did it. It’s that “Not Me” kid again. He’s forever stealing, breaking, spilling, losing, shredding, dumping, and leaving things laying around. This time, though, he’s going to cost me money. And it’s going to hurt. We NEED service for 12. There are 7 of us much of the time for meals. We finally bought a second service for 6 after we grew tired of requesting guests bring their own silverware… but that was 10 years ago.
I didn’t pick out my silver pattern from a bridal registry, nor did I choose china or crystal or anything else. This isn’t the heirloom silver my Gramma gave me a few years ago, which is carefully wrapped and put away for when my kids are mostly out of the house. No, this is just everyday Oneida flatware, but I did choose the pattern when I was about 9. It did come from my Gramma (I love my Gramma!!), and it makes me kind of sad to see the need to replace it. I looked into purchasing replacement spoons and forks, but at $12 for FOUR (and I need 10-11 of EACH) it is cheaper to just buy new flatware.
And as for that Not Me kid? Well, I will pass a strong message to him, through the kids who live here who would never dream of digging in the dirt with my spoons and losing them, or using my forks as darts to hit things in the storm drain, never to be retrieved, that the silverware stays in the house.
I have a Not Me living at my house too – he stained the couch and left a bathtub full of grass clippings this weekend! BTW – our Onieda matches!
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We have the same silverware? LOL! I think I’m going to get a different pattern when I do finally get new ones. And grass clippings in the tub?! I can’t even venture a guess at how? (Or why?) LOL! Must be boys!:)
Hi Dawn,
I have caught more than one kid “gardening” with my spoons and I had to giggle the time I saw the two year old hoeing the yard with the potato masher.
While you are searching your house for the missing cutlery, don’t forget to check the vents. I am sure we have a full set in there.
Blessings
Honey
We have a terraced back yard, with the lowest level being sunken below the rest of the yard, surrounded by a brick retaining wall… and there’s a huge water runoff grate in the center of it. I suspect, if we were able to lift that massive concrete top off, that I would find ALL of our missing flatware. There is no way to ever do that, though, short of renting a crane. I vacuum out the heat vents once a year because of our allergies, so I know they aren’t down there. My kids are too old for that anyway. Crayons, cereal, but not silverware.
I feel your pain, although I think our cutlery loss has more to do with my husband than our kids. Before our kids were born, we bought a great set of Cutco knives, including six steak knives – and now we’re down to four. A number of spoons have also disappeared; allegedly they’re now living at his office, though I’m not buying that since I doubt he’s eating soup with four other people every day. Good luck in your hunt for affordable new flatware!
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I keep boxes of plastic cutlery for my husband to take with his lunches, although rarely does he need any since he’s stuck with sandwiches because he works outside with no way to heat or cool his food. I wish it were as easy as retrieving them from his office!
I have the same problem, Dawn, but I was fortunate enough to catch the culprit! Just this weekend while cleaning our schoolroom, I discovered a teaspoon in the trash in a yogurt cup! Both of my girls have their own trash can under their desk so the guilty party was easy to identfy. Doesn’t make me feel any better to know most of my mising flatware is probably at the landfill! BTW, I got a great deal on flatware at Pfaltzgraff.com a few years ago….
Deb: Ah-ha! Yet another possible way they could have disappeared. Unfortunately there’s no chance of getting those back! I will look at the Pfaltzgraff specials. The advertise them at Penney’s and Macy’s sometimes. Thanks for the tip! Our Oneida outlet closed a few years ago or I’d just go back there and buy a new set.