Right now in my home, were you to go on a Scavenger Hunt of sorts, you could find at least fifteen pairs of Scissors. It's not that I forget where I put them and so keep on buying them, pair after pair after pair. It's also not a case of being a sort of Scissor Snob or Scissor Specialist, buying highly specific Scissors for certain jobs, designating a certain pair solely for paper, another for fabric, another for my knitting needs, and another for flowers. It's not like that at all.
And I'm not into paper crafting, either, so I don't have those fancy schmancy Scissors that cut various designs onto paper edges for scrapbooking or card making. I don't even have a pair of pinking shears.
What I do have is the gleeful realization that I can have more than one pair of Scissors in my home!
Let me explain.
Growing up, we were a One Scissors Household. The six of us and all of our Scissor needs were met by a single pair of decent Scissors. Can you even imagine it? This condition persisted for as long as I lived at home. It was highly inefficient and, to me, extremely unsatisfactory. Oh, sure, once in a while a pair of our crappy blunt school scissors would surface, but I might as well try to cut with two butter knives taped together for as helpful as those things were.
(Which reminds me--we also seemed never to have any Scotch tape, ever. Even at Christmastime, I cannot tell you how many times we wrapped presents with electrical tape, carpet tape, or, on one horrific Christmas, no tape at all, holding all wrapping paper together with ribbon and string. None of us will ever get over that one, not ever. But I digress.)
Trying to find the Scissors was also a chore. There was no end to the places they could be: the drawer in the living room; the drawer in the kitchen; in the sewing kit; hanging up in the kitchen; upstairs or in their bedroom; check on top of the dresser! How it never occurred to anyone to get another pair of Scissors escapes me. My whole life, I merely assumed that you could not have more than one pair.
It wasn't long after I got married and had my own home that I realized you could buy Scissors at the store, as many as you want, and just HAVE THEM. Honestly, I got a thrill. And so I began buying Scissors.
I have two pairs of Kitchen Scissors, and I love them. I don't struggle with opening bags of anything; I grab my Scissors and cut them. I happily spatchcock chickens like a chef and snip away skin and fat that I don't want.
I buy little Scissors at Back To School sales and put them in my knitting bags. They're perfect for cutting yarn when I finish a project or start a new colour or whatever. I have lots of those, and they have fun colours on the handles.
There are Scissors in my desk drawer, my bathroom drawer, my nightstand drawer, and Rick has barber Scissors in the bathroom cabinet. I have Scissors (and Scotch tape galore) in my Christmas giftwrap tubs in the attic. I have Scissors at my back door to cut herbs in the garden, and I have a pair of Scissors in the basement so I can cut open new cat litter bags. I have a sturdy pair of Scissors in my toolbox, and another pair in my tub of craft supplies.
As far as I know, my brother and my sisters are not as Scissor-Happy as I am. Perhaps they have hoards of Scotch tape or something else they felt the lack of keenly. I don't know. But I wonder if I have the most Scissors. Do I?
Tell me all about your Scissors or something you stock up on now because you hated being without it before. I look forward to reading about it all in Comments.
Let's see...I think I have eight pair. Why do they call 'em a pair when it's one tool/implement? Anyway, I can't think of anything offhand. Perhaps my number is a bit overboard!?!!
ReplyDeleteAnni--I have no idea why it's called a pair. English is dumb, sometimes.
DeleteAnd judging by the comments and my own total, you are not overboard at all.
That is a funny scissors story Nance. We didn't have fires growing up, not in a pit in the yard. The reason for a 1ighter was a cigarette.. Now, we have no cigarettes, but we have many 1ighters for cand1es and out door campfires
ReplyDeletekathy b--Thanks. We buy those long-nosed lighters, not regular Bic-type lighters, for our fires. And I once had to really look hard to find matches. That was a search!
DeleteHmmm...I think we have 11 pairs. One in the kitchen, one in the dining room/my office, one trimming pair in the bathroom, one to remove tags from clothing in my dressing room (rarely used these days since there is very little clothes shopping), a pair in the kitchen specifically for snipping the ends from flowers, etc., an exact replica of the last item in the garage for the same reason, two (I think) kitchen shears for chicken/food, etc.; a random pair in my dressing room for some reason, a pair in my gift wrapping supplies, and, for some reason, my mother's pinking shears.
ReplyDeleteI think I have a problem...
Gigi--You never thought about Scissors until I brought them up, did you? LOL.
DeleteImagine only having ONE PAIR for all these tasks, forever. THAT WAS MY LIFE FOR 20 YEARS. It was a horror, truly.
You don't have a problem. You have an efficient house.
I'm the same way about scissor, ink pens and pencils. I have a pair of scissors for each room, some more than on like in the bathroom or with my sewing supplies. I HATE looking for any one of things things. Somehow I still manage to carry pencils, pens and scissor around and they end up collecting in one place.
ReplyDeleteJean--I hear you. The pen and pencil situation got so ridiculous here that I actually tossed probably nearly a hundred total after the boys moved out and we cleaned out the desks, drawers, closets, etc. It was crazy.
DeleteI hate looking around for stuff I need, too.
Mine is dollar store reading glasses. I have a pair in the kitchen to read labels. One on my dresser for prescription and reading washing labels. A pair in guest room where my yarn is, of course to read labels. A pair in purse, in car and of course in every knitting bag or work in progress. I also have the scissor problem.
ReplyDeleteknittingaddict--I went through that, too, when I wore contacts. I had an entire basketful on my desk at school so that I could match my outfit every day. I must have had thirty pairs. I got mine at my funky little grocery store, though, for 87 cents. When I had to make the switch to full-time glasses, I was so sorry to see them go. I donated them.
DeleteHmmm...maybe my Scissor issue is part of a larger behaviour...
As a leftie, I always noticed that my right-handed classmates got the sharp scissors and all of the pairs for left-handlers were the blunt, rounded end kind that would cut through absolutely nothing! That is why I learned to cut things with right-handed scissors, because I coveted their ability to cleanly slice through construction paper!
ReplyDeleteDBF--That is a sad and unfortunate Scissors Story. There should always be Equal Rights For Lefties, no matter what. Bravo to you for thwarting their Anti-Left Agenda.
DeleteDBF - you had left-handed scissors in your school? Oh my goodness! I went to public school in the 1940's and early 1950's and there was no such thing. Not even in my daughters' school that I ever heard of. I sent left-handed scissors to school with my leftie daughter. With a tape with her name on it. And she was in Big Trouble if she came home without them.
DeleteThis is so funny. I think you were traumatized by the lack of scissors and tape as a child.
ReplyDeleteI've always been the PUT THE SCISSORS AND TAPE BACK WHERE YOU FOUND THEM mom. Nothing aggravated me more than not finding them both when needed. My childhood was chaotic, so we never knew where anything was as well and I vowed to not live like that
.
I also have a large scissor collection and I'm pretty proud of it.
I think I have 5 pairs in our kitchen, two in the mudroom, one in my garage, two in my desk drawer, one in my vanity and I can't even start on the craft room. I do have lots of those funky edge ones from when I used to make cards and scrapbooks, plus a few smaller sewing shears.
I had a giggle at the Scarlet and her NOT going without scissors, ever again.
Suz--Oh, I absolutely was. And, like you, I am fastidious about my tape and scissors. I even have a big old tape dispenser that sits on my desk so that I always have it at the ready and it's way too hard to randomly leave someplace.
DeleteGood for you with your vast Scissor collection, all neatly and efficiently stowed. Scarlett O'Hara Fiskars would be proud. ;-)
This made me laugh so hard, because what is the deal with our growing up that there were so many weird things like only one pair of scissors for a household?
ReplyDeleteIn our house, it was milk. I realize that it may have been expensive, but all of us liked milk. So there was a rule that you could only have one glass of milk a day. My parents were determined that one container of milk would last a week for us. Most of my friends had parents who would BEG them to drink milk, but nope, we could only have one glass per day.
Bridget--I know! I get that we were poor, but how much did Scissors cost, really? We had Woolworth's back then, even though we did not have a Dollar Store, per se.
DeleteI don't remember there ever being a big deal made about us kids having to drink milk. I never liked it, but my brother did and he was the cereal eater out of all of us, too. I longed for Welch's grape juice, but that was such a rarity. Tomato juice, too.
But I don't buy juices, just Scissors and tape. Do you buy Milk a lot now?
Dee--I came thisclose to buying a pair of giraffe Scissors just because they were so cute.
ReplyDeleteI'm loving that everyone here understands that it's necessary to have more than one pair of Scissors.
I used to be enamored of those metal binder clips when I was teaching. I had a ton of those. Paper clips, not so much. They were annoying, mostly. Now cheese--that's a big yes.
I have a pair of Fiskars that I FOUND in our college dorm my freshman year. That was 1983 people! And I used them for cutting yarn until last year when they finally seemed too dull. And I kept using them until it occurred to me that I COULD BY A NEW PAIR OF GOOD SCISSORS! So I did. I put the old ones in the bathroom for emergency snipping needs.
ReplyDeleteWe also have a couple of those heavy duty cutting through plastic scissors, two pairs of kitchen scissors, two pairs of just random smaller scissors (bedroom/living room), two pairs of OFFICE scissors - oh, and the scissors on my little bitty swiss army knife that I keep on my keychain. That's probably not all, but it's what I can thing of off the top of my head.
My mother wasn't the kind of person to deny her children very many things. And she worked so that she could buy what she wanted, so as far as the household she made sure that we had stuff. I was spoiled and it shows!
Bug--This is the mindset that I am talking about! YOU CAN GO BUY SCISSORS ANYTIME. YOU CAN!
DeleteYou have a good supply of Scissors. I'm proud of you. But do you actually use the silly teeny Scissors on the keychain? I can't imagine.
I have used them! I've used them to cut yarn when I crochet in the car (mind you, they do this task very poorly), but I've also used them to snip threads off of clothes. I even used them once to trim a broken fingernail. But mostly I like knowing they're THERE in case I need them. Ha!
DeleteWhy are there no scissors in the basement when the bag of water softener salt needs opening? I'm always schlepping up & down the stairs to retrieve/return the multi-use scissors kept in the kitchen drawer. There is a pair of sewing scissors, for fabric only, kept in the sewing basket. There's a pair of fold-up scissors in the bathroom mostly used for grooming but also for cutting tags off clothes. Now, I'm going to buy a pair of scissors for the basement. I can't think of anything I keep multiples of in honor of childhood deprivation or household rules.
ReplyDeleteMona--Go get a cheapo pair and put them in the basement just for that purpose! That's why I have a pair in the basement--to open bags of cat litter and onions more efficiently. Do it.
DeleteYou'll be so happy.
I only remember having one pair of scissors growing up too. My brother and I would invariably ruin them, pissing our mother off, and she would throw them away and buy more. I don’t know why she didn’t buy us our own pair, probably because she was always fifty cents away from flat broke. We have 5 or 6 pairs now, I can see two as I type this, and there are two more behind me (kitchen shears) and then there are the ones upstairs. I am never sure which of them are in good shape and which are not. I need to decide whether to try to sharpen them, or replace them. In the interest of less landfill, I will give them all a test and try to sharpen those that need it.
ReplyDeleteLike Bridget, milk was in short supply growing up. I loved to drink it, my brother would put it on his cereal, and if either of us were out, we would fight about it. Eventually my mom would have to buy us each our own 1/2 gallon and write our names on them. We always ran out. She never bought more, due to the always broke thing. There was always the option of powdered milk, but that stuff is vile. I remember going to camp in 6th grade, and there being quarts of milk all along the dining tables, and we could drink as much as we wanted. I drank SO MUCH MILK that week. I always thought that the counselors must have thought I was crazy, but looking back and hearing how milk was a BIG DEAL in a lot of people’s homes, I wonder if they saw kids like me and knew. Heck, maybe that’s why they put it on the table instead of making you go ask for more.
When my favorite pair of scissors got dull I tried the cutting through tinfoil trick - but it was only effective for a short period of time (and it seems really wasteful to be slicing up tinfoil!). It would be great if we still had someone who went door to door to sharpen scissors!
DeleteJ--And here I've hated milk my entire life. I feel bad. Kudos to your mom for getting you and your brother each your own half gallon so that you can monitor your intake without fighting.
DeleteI still think you should write a series of books about your childhood--at least.
Dull scissors are the worst. I have a pair at the lake that are totally worthless, and I need to replace them. I wish I could just sharpen them instead. Do you think a knife sharpener would work? (I'd like to think I'd take a sharpener to the lake and sharpen them, but in all likelihood, I'll probably just buy a new pair.)
I do not have that many scissors but maybe I should. I have two upstairs and one downstairs and just go to get them when I need them. Now I will think about having more... hmmmm
ReplyDeleteEllen--I highly recommend lots and lots of Scissors. Why be without? Although I will say that trotting to and fro to get them does provide one with exercise.
DeleteOkay. Second try. Google ate my comment.
ReplyDeleteI have had a love/hate with scissors all my life because as a dominant left-hander, most scissors required me to use them backward. This makes the thumb jammed into the oval really, really sore, especially when using shears to cut out a pattern in heavy fabric. I suffered, whining. Until one day my wonderful father-in-law found for me a pair of left-handed shears. Oh frabjous day. I still have them, battered as they are. And they are IN MY SEWING DRAWER. Nowhere else unless in use. By me. My left-handed daughter is, very rarely, allowed to use them under my eye.
I think that there are more left-handed products on the market these days, but I have never, sadly, found a can opener.
Mary--Oh, Google. What a pain.
DeleteI've often lamented the plight of the left-handed, having a left-handed son and having had so many left-handed students over the years. Now, at least there are lots more products for you, including Scissors.
I can only imagine how you enjoy and treasure those Scissors.
A cursory search on Amazon yields a decent array of left-handed and ambidextrous can openers. Treat yourself!
Before I buy a can opener, I want it in my little hot left hand. Sorry Amazon. It needs to be in a store near me, and I have not been trolling kitchenware stores lately. But, thanks. I do buy some stuff on line, but it has to be something I know will be as advertised. Chocolate, now.
DeleteSympathy to your son. Even with a few merchants catering to us, life can be stressful. These scissors came to me about 1970 - not much on the market then.
One of my better moments was that when we built our house ourselves and JG did the wiring, I got to place switches and plugs where I wanted them. Well, I won on some of them.
My collecting problem can be many items since when I was growing up my mother saw a demonstrably good use for just about everything other people threw away and she was able to repurpose what she kept — often had multiples of the items — including saving buttons, zippers from old clothes. Consequently, as I became an adult I found my eye appraising in the same way, but retaining too many items like glass jars, additionally other items I often could never find the time to actually adapt for the intended reuse I envisioned. In my aging years I have accumulated a number of the same item scattered about my house, everywhere, to be within easy reach wherever I am. Those items include some of the same ones you have named including scissors of all shapes and sizes, scotch tape, but also an overabundance of pencils, pens, note paper. After midlife, when I began to need print enlarged to able ro read the words, magnifying glasses and half-glasses have been placed all over the house, car, and my purses to be within my reach. Most recently an unexpected nighttime power outage has resulted in my adding even more flashlights in a variety of sizes from small to very large to what I had erroneously thought had been enough. More batteries to check periodically to ensure all lights will still work.
ReplyDeleteJoared--Flashlights! That's another item that was in short supply in our home growing up. And we never had the D batteries necessary to keep them fully powered. You're smart to have them in abundance, and I'm taking note. We need to get a few more and have them in more places.
DeleteI have a jar full of buttons because I find them charming and fun. I try to use them in my knitting and to use them as embellishments on clothes that I'm trying to get a second life out of. But mostly, I just love the look (and satisfaction) of a jar of buttons.
Yes, I got caught in the dark, so added a bunch of those little tiny flashlights.
DeleteButtons -- I inherited my mother's collection. You would love them! Should I leave them to you in my will? She developed hooking rugs in a very special fashion, with only certain fabrics as something to do to keep her awake when she was listening to Talking Books that were on records, later tapes then. She began to create so many rugs she took one down to her local furniture store. They promptly put the rug under a rocking chair in their store window and people started buying them. They became highly prized by others and were placed in some unique stores in Scottsdale, AZ when we lived there and in an antique store here -- sold for a couple hundred dollars each. She went to various sales where there would be old inexpensive clothes to chose fabric she wanted, saved all good zippers and buttons when she later cut up the fabric. I have some lovely buttons! An artist here created framed wall hangings with buttons. I've thought about contacting her to see if she would like these buttons though I think she stopped making those artworks. Checking on the web, as I did one time, I think some of these buttons might sell for a pretty price if I took the time to research each one.
Joared--LOL, I can imagine the reading of your will, and your family puzzling over the jar of buttons being left to "Nance of the Dept. of Nance." Love the story of your mom's prized hooked rugs. How wonderful!
DeleteWhen Z-D & I first got together he described my family as being scissor obsessed. We had many pairs, all for specific purposes, all in an assigned spot. He came from a one scissor family, so we seem weird to him. Now we live with many pairs of scissors, often kind of near where they should be. I have a more relaxed approach to storing them than my parents did.
ReplyDeleteAlly--Oh, what a fantastic childhood, so Scissor Abundant! And so easy to locate each and every pair. If you tell me that it was also this way with Scotch tape, I might cry. Unimaginable!
DeleteI'm not a martinet about Scissor storage, either, now that I have so many Scissors. I am serene in the knowledge--as you seem to be--that I have them someplace and will find them pretty much wherever I am. AND I KNOW I CAN BUY MORE.
Isn't it lovely to have what you need when you need it?
My favorite pair are actually pinking shears. My great-grandmother used to trim photos (to put in the old-time albums) using them; glue them in, etc. And I still use my own pair, and think of Nana whenever I do.
ReplyDeleteElle--I remember my own grandmother's pinking shears. They were heavy and large; she was a seamstress, so they were sharp and reserved for her use exclusively. I found them fascinating.
DeleteDo you use yours for the same purpose as your nana did? Photo albums seem to be somewhat archaic now, don't they? All mine are in a big tub in the basement, including my wedding album that I paid so much for. I rarely look at old photos, which is sort of a shame. Perhaps we'll drag them up at Thanksgiving and do some remembering.
I do use them for cutting out anything I'm putting up around the house (refrigerator, bulletin boards). I love them. One of my biggest regrets is not keeping up w/my photo albums. I have boxes of photos, and that is where they will probably stay. You're right: they are archaic. Another one of those things our kids will have to decide what to do with one day...
ReplyDeleteElle--We did NOT drag up our photo albums for Thanksgiving. I completely forgot about the whole enterprise/idea. Sigh. This is not unusual, especially in the hustle and bustle of preparing the meal.
DeleteNow I am thinking about getting some pinking shears and seeing if I will use them for much at all. I unfortunately have a stainless fridge (ugh. never again!), so I cannot use it for memos and such. But if I have pinking shears, will I find uses for them? Hmmmm...
I keep thinking about this post, Nance! I have a gazillion pairs of scissors! I'm not even going to try counting them. A lot of my scissors actually have a history. Some are vintage. Some have a single use, such as opening packages. Some are specifically for fabric and embroidery floss. Some are from when I was single. One pair is from when Smokey was single. Some are from previous jobs (don't report me! LOL Seriously, those companies don't exist any longer). I do have pinking shears, which I only use for fabric, and usually when cutting out patterns and making items. I haven't used them in a very long time but I'm still glad I have them. I also have kitchen shears, two pairs. My favorite pair was actually not designed for kitchen use but rather for pruning plants. They're great in the kitchen!
ReplyDeleteDo you know about specialized herb scissors? They sort of mince herbs finely as you use them. I gave my girlfriend Fred, who has everything, a pair as part of her birthday present and she loves them. I don't think they're absolutely needed but they can be handy. I don't have my own pair. I could have used a pair when the kids were living here and we went through a lot of cilantro, parsley, etc.
Other things I like to have multiples/backups of are tissues (in multiple rooms), packing tape, scotch tape (Btw, one of our funniest wedding gifts was a snail tape dispenser. Can you imagine? We laughed so hard over that one but I still have it and use it!), light bulbs (of every type I use), flashlights (a cellphone flashlight is not the same plus, it's not easy to use with a dog on a leash), and batteries. I never regret having these items and I'm sure that's not a complete list!
Shirley--I have to chuckle and feel quite flattered that you are still thinking about this post. I'm glad! I think about my Scissor Bereft Days often, recently revisiting them whilst wrapping Christmas presents and knitting a special gift for the granddaughter. I smiled and smiled.
DeleteI love that you chose to pilfer good Scissors from previous jobs. I probably would have too, for obvious reasons. I think all I have from my previous job is a box of staples.
Your Scissors collection is formidable and I love it. I'm happy, too, that I'm not the only person fixated on Scissors.
I have seen the herb mincing scissors, and believe me, I've thought a great deal about them. My only hesitation is that I try not to have single-use kitchen gadgets. It doesn't take much to plop herbs in a coffee cup and snip away with regular kitchen shears. Or go the traditional route with cutting board and knife. But those herb scissors--quite tempting.
I, too, have tissues in at least two rooms, a desk dispenser of tape in the office and a couple of staplers. And our supply of pens is eternal. I love all the colorful Sharpies, but I have no real use for them, yet I have them.
We like being prepared--let's just say that.