First, let me state that my mother is wonderful. And she knows I’m going to write this post.
And that she still defends her need for nine cutting boards.
In one kitchen.
In one lakehouse kitchen.
Seriously, every time I go to her lakehouse, I understand my own “issues” a little better.
I once read a blog where the writer said she tries to decide if she needs something by asking if she would need it in the cabin where she and her family vacation.
Like, the cabin has minimal stuff and she’s fine there. It sounded like a perfect way to look at things.
Until . . . the next time I went to my parents’ lakehouse/cabinish place.
I looked around again. My dear mother has every single thing she could possibly EVER need if there happened to be a world-ending event while she happened to be there.
I’ve written about it before. Thankfully, she can handle all of the stuff, and keeps it ever-so-organized. She always knows where each little random thing is/should-be.
So . . . she has nine cutting boards in her lakehouse kitchen. I might have given her a hard time about it.
But she defends her stash of cutting boards.
They ARE all different shapes and sizes and materials and colors.
AND . . . once a year, when we have our Christmas celebration there, the men (and now three boys) are in charge of making fajitas. And there are SEVEN of them.
So there IS a chance (though small) that EVERY single one of those seven would need to be chopping or slicing or dicing at the exact same moment in time.
(Not that there’s enough counter space for that, but whatever.)
I do get her point. I used to think this way too. I felt the need to be prepared for THE most extreme situation that could ever occur in our home.
But I’ve accepted/realized that I can’t handle that amount of stuff.
And I’ve accepted/realized that it’s okay that I can’t handle that amount of stuff.
I’ve purposely observed functional homes where there is only one cutting board. Maybe two or three.
And I’m pretty sure they’ve never had to cancel Christmas dinner because they didn’t have enough cutting boards.
P.S. I love you, Mom. Thanks for your willingness to be the subject of my blog posts. And thanks for the big visions you have for our family Christmases.
P.S.S. If that’s your blog I mentioned above, please leave the link to that post in the comments, and I’ll link back to it! I think the blog changed names, so the search I did didn’t come up with anything.
P.S.S.S I linked to my favorite cutting board. It’s my Amazon affiliate link. Please don’t buy a cutting board if you already have eight. But anything you do buy on Amazon after clicking that link will earn me a small commission.
Wow. I only have one cutting board. And not a very good one at that. It seriously needs to be replaced because it’s a cheap crappy one. But even so, I can only ever see myself having two max. A big one and a little one.
Haha, I have 8 in my kitchen! And I don’t think that there is even one that I would want to get rid of. 🙂
I am baffled by people that only have one or two! I have 8 or so and don’t want to wash a cutting board before using it– or to look for a clean one. They all go promptly in the dishwasher as soon as I use one and I want to be able to just pull a clean one out!
I have three, but due to my absentmindedness( is that even a word?) Two have burn marks/ are melted and distorted from where I set them on the stove when it was still hot. HA HA!!!
Absentmindedness is totally a word!
For some of us, it’s a daily event.
I have 4… and I often wish I had more!!!! Like, when I’m making supper, and I have chicken / other raw meat on one, veggies on one, bread on a different one, and the last one is dirty from making meals at other times of the day, already in the dishwasher.. ready to be washed!
I have three cutting boards. Unfortunately two are burnt/warped/melted because I am just that awesome at being a space cadet!
I’m that awesome too!
1 for fish, 1 for white meat, 1 for red meat, 1 for fruit, 1 for veg . These are all plastic different colours so know which is which. 1 wood one for bread and making sandwiches and 1 on the work top for show. Too many??
Oh this made me giggle!
I laughed out loud at your mom. Until I counted mine, 7, that I can count without getting off the couch! That is TOO many! And I am NOT a major germaphobe nor I a fabulous make it all from scratch kind of cook. But, I do have all kinds of justification.
I have 6 and I sometimes wish I had more. I have them stored neatly in a basket on the counter, out of the way but easily accessible. Sometimes when I need one, they’re all dirty! Six cutting boards and none clean!!! I cook a lot.
Totally understand/relate to this! I recently got rid of lots of excess pots and pans. Still a little nervous about that, but surviving so far. How about 4 pizza cutters?
I have two and if they’re both dirty at the same time that’s a sign to myself that we’ve been eating too much frozen pizza.
I have four. A large glass one that lives on the counter top and three stashed with the cookie sheets.
Also, P.S. stands for post script. Thus, a note following your post script would be a post post script (P.P.S.) rather than a post script script (P.S.S.). And so on. More P’s, rather than more S’s.
I have 4 hard plastics ones, 1 floppy plastic one and 1 wood one…that I can think of without getting up to check. And I am in no way a cook galore but alas I have 6 cutting boards. They are all stored with my cookie pans and cooling racks in a cabinet with dividers for just this type of stuff. Something that actually has a permanent home in my house!!
I have two large silicone white ones and a couple of those really thin ones that are just divine for chopping things up and then being able to bend the material to pour it into the mixer. These are in my main home (5th wheel–full timers)
I have a small silicone one and two more of the thin ones in our smaller camper that we use for our short vacations.
Before we sold our house and belongings prior to taking to the road in the 5th wheel, I could certainly have rivaled your mom! 😉
Signed–three quarters half hoarder woman! Yep–that’s me!
I only have 2 cutting boards, but I used to have 5 baby strollers. They all had different uses that I might “need” them for. One that fit my car set for the travel system, one double stroller, one umbrella stroller, one stroller that turns into a back pack, and one stroller that was slightly larer than my umbrella stroller, but slightly smaller than my travel system stroller. It’s true that they could all have slightly different uses, but I can’t manage that amount of stuff. Now I have only 1 stroller- I kept the double one since I have 4 kids ages 6 and under. Sometimes I do go out with just one tiny baby ane 1 giant stroller, but it still works and life is so much better now that I let go of all my stuff. Whenever I’m kicking myself for getting rid of something, I just remember that to bring back that one thing would actually mean I would have to bring back the hundreds of things I’ve perged, and I don’t want to do that. It makes me feel better. 🙂
Good point!
I only have 2…a large corian board that my hubby bought me that I love. It lives on the counter and is used for everything. And a wooden one in a cabinet for raw meat that gets used rarely.
I am pretty sure I know what blog you are talking about!
Is it Raising Arrows?
Here is the link to that blog post: http://www.raisingarrows.net/2010/05/half-my-stuff-saturday-the-kitchen/
I may be wrong, but that would be an awful big coincidence!
It wasn’t Amy. She’s one of my best blogging buds, though! It was something like Low Ryder. I think!
I know this is an old post, but I have 3 cutting boards. 2 cheapie IKEA ones, and one nicer one. I find that if I plan right, I don’t need to use several cutting boards for one meal. Just chop your veggies first, and then cut up your raw meat. Of course it’s not foolproof, but it’s nice that my cutting boards only take up about an inch (width) of my cabinet spAce ( I store them on the side, not flat.)
Okay . . . I have at least 10, I’ll admit. But I will defend and use them all. Two were Christmas presents last Christmas that I specifically asked for. Two that are large enough for slicing and serving pizza when our family of six is having pizza. (I hate having the pizza hanging off the edge and shedding crumbs all over when I’m cutting.) One large one with a moat for cutting up meat that’ll catch the dripping from running all over the counter. Two that are the right size for chopping up enough vegetables for dinner and 4-5 that are the ones that the kids snag for cutting up one apple. But all but the two largest fit in the dishwasher, and the kids are good about putting them in after they use them. Most days there are least 3 in there when we run it, and some days 5 . . .
I have three… A big one for everything ( I use one side for meat and the other for veg, a small red one for just in case, and a small white one for marinated meat, because it’s hard to get the stains out.
At one time, I had 13 full sets of dishes…enough to feed over 100 people. Crammed into my 600 square foot house, which could not have for 100 people in it if we were stacked like blocks! But I discovered this blog and becoming minimalist…and now I only have three sets. Every day corelle, some vintage pfatzgraaf, and a set of princess house crystal for use during Christmas time. Very proud of that!
This one just came up in my feed. Christmas for your mom?
http://www.mymaryandmartha.com/HYMNSANDVERSES/shop/PRODUCTDETAIL.aspx?prod=85858
It may help people to know that even in restaurants where there are many cutting boards for obvious reasons, each station only uses one at a time. You chop veggies first, then meat, then wash and sanitze and use again. Since this is how i was trained, i do the same in my house. So even though i have three (one plastic, one wood, and one granite that stays on the counter at all times) i never use more than one to prepare one meal.
Good info!
I have 4. I actually recently acquired 2 of them because 2 was not enough. But… I have 7 children. Often 3-4 of them are helping chop at the same time. It is too dangerous to share boards. So we actually use at least 3 at a time multiple times a week. I frequently cook at my friend’s house (she’s a natural neatie) and she only has one. It is a hardship for sure!
I have a number of them. I would have to get up to go count to be sure, but I would say in the eight range. But when I’m really cooking, I don’t use the board I just cut onions upon to cut up zucchini. If I was organized, I’d cut the zucchini first. I am not that organized. Meat doesn’t go on the veggie board or vice versa. They all go in the dishwasher for sanitizing. I have an over abundance of some things. Generally for a reason. Like spoons. I have an ungodly amount of spoons. Most from thrift shops. My teens would abscond with spoons. I’d “run out” of spoons on the regular. I spent a whopping $2 and got 20 spoons. (I’ve also purchased soup spoons). I’m down to one child at home and she’s pretty good about returning dishes to the kitchen. So now, our spoons over floweth. I will purge them out and send her out into the world with some of them eventually. We also have too many knives. But that’s because we, apparently, have to have his and hers knives. The Mr. had an issue with washing my good knives by hand. Because knives are SO difficult to wash by hand. He kept putting them in the dishwasher. I kept hollerin’ about it. So I bought him his own. This will never change and I will live with it. Marriage!
I think I have 3 cutting boards. We have a long kitchen table and several children, so it’s nice to have the cutting boards for everyone to pitch in while preparing potatoes or veggies etc.
What I personally hate in my kitchen are things like a blender, which I never use. A mixer, which I very rarely use, and a little itsy bitsy blender thing that I have never used.
I think they take up valuable space. I hate the way the cords get in the way and I definitely hate cleaning them.
But the kids or my husband find them useful, so I have no choice. But I say, ‘Whoever uses it, CLEANS it.’
Another irritant is all the huge plastic cups/mugs from gas stations that people come home with. There’s never a good place to shove those things.
Hi Dana – A good project when your assistant has time would be to go thru all your old posts and make sure the Amazon links are still working. The cutting board here links to an unavailable product, so I had to go to another link to get the available one, so I don’t think you’d get the commission!
Thanks for all your great and helpful content!