Opinion | The case of the disappearing teaspoons: my quest to discover where missing cutlery ends up
- For some it’s socks, for others it’s teaspoons. Among the smallest items in the cutlery drawer, they have a habit of mysteriously vanishing
- Following an intensive investigation, a poll of friends and reading a scientific study, I believe they are either on another planet, behind the sofa, or in the landfill
At the start of the pandemic I had a dozen of them. A year ago, it was down to five. And now there are just three. I’m talking teaspoons and they are disappearing at an alarming rate.
Nothing else is missing, the rest of the cutlery drawer is intact, it’s just the teaspoons that are going walkies. What’s going on?
Before I launched into a full-scale investigation, I replenished the lost items. Intriguingly, while Marks & Spencer sells knives, forks and dessert spoons in combo packs, when it comes to teaspoons, they are sold in packs of six and a staff member assured me they are a popular item.
An informal poll of eight friends confirmed it – the worst affected buys a dozen every Christmas to replenish her stock. So, where do all the teaspoons go? One pal suspects his have run off with his missing socks. Another thought they might be down the back of the sofa.
I went online in search of answers and came across a paper by researchers at a medical institute in Melbourne. They secretly numbered 70 teaspoons and tracked their movements over five months. At the end of the study, 80 per cent of the spoons had vanished, and the rate of disappearance was higher in communal lunchrooms.