We moved out of our old kitchen so fast that we just threw things in boxes and stacked them around the basement. (Which was already filled to the brim with Baying Hound stock, of course.) We labeled one box KNIVES because I figured it was important that no one cut themselves accidentally, reserving two knives for use while we were without a kitchen.

After the cabinets were installed, we started moving things back in, but not everything because we are sorting as we go. It went like this:

Find a cabinet for wine glasses, look through 47 boxes in the basement, then carry wine glasses upstairs.

Get interupted by Lil for 10 minutes.

Find a cabinet for mixing bowls, look through 46 boxes in the basement because by now we've forgotten which one had mixing bowls in it.

And on and on and on.

Two weeks into the moving in process, we still couldn't find our regular use spices. Fancy and odd spices we had in spades: all the whole seeds to make fresh curry powder, whole allspice, 2 varieties of mustard powder, vanilla beans. But nothing everyday like cinnamon or basil. Our dinners were tasty but missing those comfort additives.

We tore out our hair looking for the spices but they were not in any boxes!

You know by now where the story is going, right?

I finally pulled up the knives a few days ago. Tucked right in with them were all the everyday spices.

The one box I labeled was not even labeled well. Sigh.