The best way to put away your cups

When I was putting away the dishes this afternoon (as I find myself doing everyone afternoon because GROUNDHOG DAY) I asked myself a question.

I wonder how other people put their cups away?

You see, putting away the dishes is so freaking boring and I need to think about shit to keep me going until I can gleefully re-stack the dishwasher once again. Seriously, if it was ok to just buy disposable crockery I would. Anyway, I digress. I was putting away my cups – rim up. Always rim up, with the handles all the facing in the same direction and I wondered to myself if I was doing it the right way. Are they meant to be rim down? ARE THEY? AND IF SO, WHO DECIDES THESE THINGS? Is there an official cup putter-awayer decider?

So, I did what any good blogger does and I asked my community. And some of the answers were surprising.

Reannon said: “Facing down & I get really happy when all the cups of the same pattern or size are in the same row. It NEVER happens because my kids put the dishes away but when I’m tidying up I’ll get them in a nice order & I feel good. I’m such a weirdo.” (Hard to tell which is better – having neat cups or not having to put them away?)

Prue wrote: “Up with handles facing the same way. Down is all kinds of wrong, shelf dust around the rim where you put your mouth. No oxygen getting in, so yucky.” (Prue – how does your mouth cope with breathing in that yucky oxygen all day I wonder?)

Nikki declared: “We have a wild mug collection and I store them up, down and hanging on hooks.” (Now, that is wild.)

Cut My Milk said: “I’m a rim-down-handles-in-same-direction-ocd kinda gal. I can’t sleep if I know the spoons & forks aren’t neat in the drawer!” (This made me run to check if in fact my cutlery was “neat”).

I wonder what Cut My Milk would think of Peta’s cupboard: “I have them alternating one up one down, handles all one way, glasses too and by size… I have er rules about this as it maximizes the space & it drives me mental if it is out of order.”

Cate said: “Rim down. Keeps out dust, creepy crawlies and mice. Because they all make tea taste funny.” But then Kim-Marie replied: “I rinse my cups with boiling water before I use them. I like warm cups.” (How many creepy crawlies do you have in your cupboards people?)

Kim-Marie also said: “Up. Down is is for weirdos. Sorry to the weirdos. I have more cups than cupboard space so they go whatever way they can. But always always facing up.” (This started a bit of a tangent conversation about weirdos. And Kim, I suggest you revisit your warm cups comment and then decide who is the weirdo!)

And just when I was thinking I was the weirdo for even asking the question in the first place, Babymac piped up with: “Keeps me awake at night too. Look! I even wrote a blog post about it. You just can’t say that I don’t have quality content.” (Never)

I wasn’t getting any definitive answers until my Mum jumped into the conversation: “Rim up, it avoids chipping (same with glasses). I can wipe any dust away but once the rim is chipped you need to throw the cup away. Don’t care about which way the handles go.” (Very true)

Seeing that Mum is looking after my kids so I can go out and drink beer and watch bands tonight, I am going to agree with her. Oh, and I also store my cups rim up, but with the handles facing in the same direction (seems the anal gene skipped a generation). For the record, I also rinse my cups before use. And if I’m staying somewhere with foul water, I use bottled water to rinse them. Yes, I do.

OK I’m pretty sure the answer to the question – what is the best way to put away your cups has not been answered in this blog post. But it has shown that we are all a funny lot, with very strong views about cup placement. I love all the answers. Tell me in the comments which way you prefer?

Now I’m off to make sure my cutlery is all facing up in the drawer.

Stay tuned for the next instalment of what’s in Bianca’s brain when she is doing boring household chores.

Bianca x