Debate erupts over the right order to arrange your cutlery drawer – so how do you stack yours?
- A photo of a cutlery drawer was shared in a parenting group on Facebook
- The caption said knives, forks and spoons should be arranged from left to right
- Over 9,000 people have weighed in on the debate in less than 48 hours
- Most said it should run forks, then knives and spoons, just as you set a table
- One man said only ‘psychopaths’ stack spoons in the middle of the tray
Householders from around the world are passionately debating how cutlery drawers should be arranged after a post on a popular Facebook page declared knives must be laid on the left, forks in the centre and spoons on the right.
A photo of a filled cutlery tray was shared in New Zealand parenting group ‘How to Dad’ on Friday with the caption: ‘Don’t be an animal – it’s knives, then forks, then spoons. There is no other way.’
More than 9,000 people have weighed in on the photo since it was shared 48 hours ago, the vast majority of whom disagreed with the depicted layout.
They saw storing knives on the left as confusing and counter-intuitive because you always eat with a knife in your right hand.
Most said drawers should be arranged the same as you set a dinner table, starting with forks on the left, followed by knives and spoons on the right, with a small section for teaspoons running horizontally across the bottom of the tray.
Householders have been debating how cutlery drawers should be arranged after this photo was shared in a New Zealand parenting group on Facebook
Most said drawers should be arranged the same as you set a dinner table, starting with forks on the left, followed by knives and spoons on the right as shown here (stock image)
‘Why would you put the knives on the left in the drawer when at the table you hold your knife with your RIGHT hand?’ a mother from Dunedin on New Zealand’s South Island said.
‘Put the knife and fork in the drawer as you would lay them on the table…then spoons go to the side. Honestly, I despair for mankind. I had no idea so many people were getting this simple concept so wrong!’
An Israeli woman agreed, saying drawers should always be arranged with forks on the left, knives in the centre and dessert and soup spoons on the right.
But not everyone accepted the standard table setting pattern.
‘This is all wrong, it’s messing with my head. It’s forks, spoons, then knives,’ a man said.
A Queensland father responded that only ‘psychopaths’ stack spoons in the middle of the tray.
One man said drawers should always run forks, spoons then knives, as pictured, but his approach was branded ‘psychopathic’ by a father from Queensland (stock image)
One particularly passionate Auckland woman demanded to know why spoons would ever come between forks and knives.
‘Where is the logic?!’ she asked.
She said the layout should run forks followed by knives, dessert spoons and soup spoons, with teaspoons along the bottom.
‘And heaven help anyone who has their teaspoons facing in different directions!’ she said.
An Auckland woman said drawers should start with knives on the left, then large spoons and forks (stock image)
A woman from New Zealand’s North Island said the only way to store cutlery is with spoons on the left, forks in the middle and knives on the right.
‘I’ve always put it that way, and it drives me mad when the other half puts them in a different order. It’s just not right any other way,’ she said.
Her approach was supported by a Wellington man, who said spoons should always be on the left because they are ‘first out for cereal’ at breakfast time.