Literally, seriously so ok, really and truly [found bin full of spice jars and shakers in pantry]

I wandered into the pantry to count my protein drinks.

I noticed a clear bin that’s new. Full of small spice jars and shakers.

I pull it down one shelf to look-see.

I counted 9 little jars of cinnamon. Varying levels.

Literally. Nine.

What’s wrong in my house and pantry?

@Beckdawrek - You either cook too much, or not enough.

I recently moved. I now have a good space to keep all my tools. I used to have a shed, and then also a spot in the house to grab a quick hand tool without walking to the shed (often in the snow and dark). I also ended up with my moms tools when she passed. I kitted her out pretty well.

So, I finally bought a big ass roll around tool box and got things organized.

I have just over 100 screw drivers.

Someone in your house is prepping for the grand nationals cinnamon challenge?

Unless someone is sneaking into your pantry and leaving you stuff, I’d guess it’s like what I do.

  • Walk down grocery store aisle
  • See item
  • “Wait - I think I’m out of < item >”
  • Buy item
  • Take it home to find multiples of item staring back at you.

Seriously, how much paprika does one person need??
Or paper towels.
Or laundry detergent.

Moderator Note

I have edited your title to more clearly indicate the topic.

Please use descriptive titles so that folks will have at least some idea of what the topic is about without clicking on it.

Clearly, somebody is sneaking jars of cinnamon into your house to drive you crazy. Either that, or your my mom. I went into her pantry once and found four unopened jars of brown bean sauce (common Chinese cooking ingredient), and an opened one in her fridge.

Which reminds me…it’s about time to take another jar of brown bean sauce over to Mom’s.

We discussed combining all the jars into one bigger shaker.

But I can’t bring myself to mix Penzeys with store brand. McCormick and Amazons brand, I can do. I think. Might have to do a taste test.

Yeah, conundrum.

@chela like your new avatar

(Jesus H. Christ on a handtruck. Too late to edit.)

YOU’RE.

UR works for me.

But I feel ya. Can’t unsee it.

It depends. Are you Hungarian?

In our house, three people use the kitchen. All it takes is for someone to decide that it’s more efficient for the cinnamon to be here, rather than there, and the person who is used to it there will assume that we’re out. We’re not up to nine on the cinnamon, but we got there with the instant gravy packets.

The only way to fight the multiplying gravy packets was to buy hanging display strips and clip the packets to those. I was amazed at how well that worked.

Are you feeding your house brownies properly?

I think the clear bins may accomplish the same thing as a “hanging strip of gravy packets” (never thought I’d ever type that out in quite that way).

But yeah, if I had a small warehouse(i.e. pantry…do’h!) I’d have everything displayed properly, labeled, and lined up by use-by dates. I might more easily come by a pet unicorn.

Ummm…Neither is likely to happen. Too many shoppers, chefs and prep cooks and kids riflin’ thru things.

I’m the cook, and I usually have a pretty good mental note of what we have and how much. My wife, on the other hand, is an organizer, so she’ll periodically get a bug up her ass and rearrange stuff so I don’t know where anything is. That’s how we ended up with so much Spam. (Thankfully, IMO, you can never have too much Spam.)

Bloody vikings!

Your cinnamon has learned to multiply.

When it learns to take square roots, it’s time to worry.

You think that’s bad? Try coming up with the keywords to let you buy them online. I think there was “display” and “clip”, but at this remove, I’m not sure. As they say, “Short term memory is the first to go” [Doctor Who (Terminus)].

Theoretically, you could, but it just keeps so well.

I remember a comedian – was it Rita Rudner? – who described the phenomenon of buying something at the supermarket, only to find you already had enough at home. She called it “refrigerator blindness.”

Or the variation on this that I do:

  • Cook something with < item >.
  • Notice < item > is getting low.
  • Add < item > to shopping list.
  • Buy more < item >.
  • Leave the old jar of < item > in the cubboard, because it’s not quite empty yet. Put new jar on another shelf or wherever there’s room.

A few weeks later…

  • Cook something else with < item >.
  • Pull out the old, almost empty jar of < item >.
  • Forget that I already bought more < item >, note that I’m running low on < item >, and add < item > to shopping list…

This is why I have more nutmeg on hand than I likely to use in a decade or so.