OCD or in need of a 12 step program? You decide

So.. I have a small problem.   Really.. I never meant for it to get so out of control, but you see… it started in right after college.  (cue fuzzy mood lighting to initiate trip back in time)

I lived on campus all four years of college (what can I say.. once I got my own room, I loved the place), and the particular floor I lived on (my Sorority floor) didn’t have a kitchen (we had a study vault instead.. full of old test and cheat sheets  study guides for a gajillion classes.  Seriously.. there wasn’t a class that the university offered that we didn’t have tests/quizzes/information for.  There was hardly a teacher that we didn’t have a review on…but I digress).  Anyway.. so no kitchen meant very little cooking.  

Once I moved into my own apartment, I began to collect the necessary kitchen & cooking supplies, equipment, appliances, and of course, accouterments.   Being the science-y techish kinda girl I am, I had a natrual gravitational pull toward kitchen gadgets.   Who needed 10 different pots and pans and baking sheets in 12 sizes?   Umm… restaurants and professional bakers, that’s who.. and I was neither of those.   Oh noo… a professional cook I was not, but I did see a need for 3 different types of vegetable peelers, 18 spatulas with various handles, and 4 different types of wooden spoons.  At one time I owned 10 (yes… TEN!!) different sets of measuring cups AND spoons.   WTF??   Before I realized it… I had amassed a very substantial collection of kitchen gadgets and was running (at press time: had run) out of kitchen space.  

(Back to the present) …

There are two contributing issues with this gadget problem I have:

(A) I hate to throw away good kitchenware.  Even if I haven’t ever used it and have no idea when I’ll use it in the future (or..shamefully.. have forgot what it’s used for).  I feel like one day I’m going to be in a marathon cookie baking challenge and I’ll run out of cups and spoons.  Oh.. the horror!!!!  

Announcer #1:  “She was so close to victory Dan.. but then she ran out of measuring cups.. “

Announcer #2:  “A rookie mistake… that’s gonna cost her…”

Audience:  winching and ohhing on command

(B) I go through spurts of buying different types of kitchen items and when in said spurt, I get a little compulsive (who me??  ahahahhahahaha.. umm..  yeah).  For instance, I noticed one crisp fall afternoon that I didn’t own a pie plate.  No big deal… hop in the car, run to the EvilMart and buy a $9.99 Pyrex pie plate right??   Wrong….

1. Go online and Google “Best product for <insert use here>”
2. Spend hours analyzing who makes the best product, how many different colors/shapes/sizes the product can be purchased in, and what product has the highest ratings on Amazon.com
3. Spend subsequent hours analyzing how you can get  product cheap without ordering online because you prefer the ‘instant’ gratification of buying in a store to waiting for something to be mailed
4. Run to 100 different stores to price product
5. Huff and Puff when stores don’t carry same selection in store what they carry online.  Have small tantrum in cosmetic department
6. Decided that you will not only order said product online but will also pick up a ‘cheaper’ option in the store so you can use ‘cheap’ product until better product arrives
7. Buy three cheap product in store
8. Use product.  Determine now that you must have better product from gourmet/super chic online store
9. Order one online
10. Three months later, see ‘new and improved’, ‘better browning/crisping/rotating/flavoring/freezing/melting/nonstick” version.   Order One
11. Use product approximately 3 more times before you decide you’re no longer interested in product function.   Put in back of cupboard. 

This could explain how on said fall day, I ended up with not one but TWO Pyrex pie plates and this past weekend I bought a ceramic pie plate.   I will state for the record.. I have never, in 28 years, baked a pie. 

So by now dear readers, you’re wondering “where hell did all this come from” and with justification I might add.  

Well.. yesterday, as I was ’cooking’ dinner for my husband, which consisted of steamed corn and a bagged freezer meal (you know the ones with the sauce chips and frozen pasta and beef… ohh.. stop glaring at me.   At least I feed him….), I reached for a bamboo spoon and noticed that just maybe… my Pampered Chef utility rounder (that has become so heavy it wouldn’t spin anymore) was … well… umm.. a little… full??

The Front side

In this picture alone I see:  4 whisks, 4 wooden spoons, 6 rubber spatulas, 3 pairs of kitchen shears, an ice cream scoop, 2 plastic ‘flippers’, a can opener, and a plastic spoon.   

The Backside

Lets see.. what’s not in the previous picture?  Oh.. another can opener, a cheese knife, a little metal spatula, a pair of bamboo tongs (these ROCK), another ice cream scoop, a slotted plastic spoon, and a metal salad dressing whisk. 

**Side note:  In my defense, I was blessed with a Pampered Chef Bridal Shower in April.  It was given by a family friend and my maid of honor, the invitees were friends from home and my hometown church family, and it was simply delightful.    We pretty much got everything off our ‘wish list’ and restocked 80% of our kitchen gadgets from that shower alone!!   Again.. we were VERY.BLESSED!!  I very much love all of my Pampered Chef products.

Shameless plug break:   Pampered Chef… CALL ME… I’m available for R&D!! Seriously.. and have I mentioned that I have my MBA!??!!  No?? well I do, which makes me super awesome and completely capable to do…well…stuff.   I give great reviews!!!!  See here.

Funny story:  Being the gadget girl I am, well.. I registered for gadgets.   When it comes time to set up for the shower, my mother asks for some serving pieces to display the various shower foods on.  The Pampered Chef woman looks at my mother and says,” Well, I’d love to give you something to display the food on, but quiet frankly, you daughter didn’t register for any serving pieces so I didn’t bring very much”.  And then they both look at me like  had just told them I had signed a 3 year contract to design coats for Cruella Deville!!!  OMG… I got in trouble at my own shower for not registering for freakin Pampered  Chef serving pieces (really?? come on??  When you think PC, you think kitchen gadgets.. not plates and platters!!) Anyhoo …

I’d love to say that what is in the rounder is the bulk of it but.. well…

Yeah… a whole drawer full of more stuff.  Look closely.. in the back of the drawer is a plastic box full of little items that I don’t want rolling around and getting lost  (ie nut crackers, my cookie scoops, an egg separator, more rubber spatulas, a pastry cutter, a zester, a wine bottle opener, a garlic press, etc.).  Then there’s the front of the drawer, with another whisk, pasta strainer, a pizza cutter, 2 more ‘flippers’, a potato masher, citrus squeezer, cake tester, more wooden spoons, a whole bunch of crap I can’t make out, and that yellow thing.. yeah.. hold on to your chair.. that’s a banana slicer.  I begged and begged and begged for one last Christmas and found it in my stocking from the Engineer.   The best part is that it doesn’t just slice bananas, but it slices perfect 1 tbsp hunks of butter too! ‘Cause you never wanna find yourself without a tool that can slice a stick of butter!  No Sirree….

Finally, I show you my ‘measuring’ drawer (though only for plastic and metal measuring devices… the glass stuff [Pyrex] is kept in another location).   I count 3 sets of measuring cups, one set of measuring bowls (and OMG.. I got these at like TJMax or Homegoods… they come out with new colors every season.. it’s hard to only own 1 set), a PC rubber funnel set, a PC set of slanted measuring cups (the kind you look INTO the cup to measure), a mortar and pestle (what the hell is that doing in there!?!?!?), 4 – 1/4 cup measuring liquid glasses, and the lid to my smoothie blender (that’s where that went…).  Lets not forget about the basket that has at least 4 sets of measuring spoons, 2 citrus peelers, the pumpkin carving set, and our corn cob holders.  

And I forgot to take a picture of the drawer that keeps the silicon baking mats, rolling pin, cookie press and other devices in it.

OH… MY…

So this brings us to my problem.  It’s alot of stuff.. and I know I probably don’t need 3/4ths of it and that I should probably just simplify my life a little… you know… clean out the clutter, but I just can’t bear to part with it all.  I pacify myself by saying that it all has a home and fits neatly behind closed doors, and it’s out of the way.   But then.. I have a fit when I want a new gadget and don’t have room for it because..well.. THE DRAWERS ARE FUCKING FULL!   Stop the Lazy Susan (which in my house is where I house the plastic storage containers)….. I wanna get off!!!

If I didn’t know any better I’d say I have a kitchen-gadget hording problem.  OH GOOD LORD.. someone call Oprah!