BOX OF LIFE (2): Socks and Spoons

Imagine I would ask you to bring your own spoon. How many pairs of socks do I need? My brother asked me how many socks I own. A year ago I could not answer his question. I had this one box with daily socks, this one box with special socks (sports socks, super nice socks, high socks, print socks), this box with single socks and another box with thick socks and a lot of broken socks I want to fix one day.

When I am traveling I am comfortable with three pairs of socks. So I decided to reduce my socks. I threw away all the broken and old ones, which were surprisingly many. Followed by the decision for the ten pairs of socks I really like. I thought about it and I was able to define the number. I decided how many I want to have and found out with which number I am most comfortable with. I found the balance between organizing myself and organize my belongings. My brother told me about his experiment. He bought one pair of those incredibly expensive socks, of the company which replaces the worn out once. It worked for him to wash his one and only pair of socks every day before he went to bed. To be honest, I’m too lazy. If I do my laundry including most of my socks once a week. Now he has three pairs of socks. Because he feels more save to have a pair if one is wet and one low pair.

He explained me the saying of the Navy Seals “Two are one and one is none”. And pointed out that if you have one generator and that one breaks you have a problem (do you? depends on where you are? I thought), if you have two you have one backup, but for the possibility that this one also breaks you need the third one. But is it the same for socks. No, there is no backup for a backup because he is using all three pairs. But socks are something I don’t share but typically a military generator is for more than one person. So what is with our private sharing objects. Like spoons. I know I don’t share my spoon.Because there is no spoon anymore with my name or favorite animal character on it. But there are spoons I own. How many I ask myself? I’m happy with one long small spoon, one small spoon, one soup spoon, maybe another one for whatever and a cooking spoon. No extra spoon for ice cream or to look like and adult when I drink an espresso. But there was a fault in my calculation.

The unexpected guests! Should I do it like WMF is telling me to buy a set of 60 pieces. But how often am I hosting eleven guests? I don’t know, maybe when I celebrate with a lot of friends and eat a dinner together. But last time I did this is years ago. But if I imagine me in 15 years I still don’t think I have ten guests every week. Even the patchwork family with three kids will not visit me every single week. Okay, let’s say they would. They would visit me every two weeks because we enjoy cooking together. Is it then unfriendly or unadult to ask them to bring their own spoons?