The Great Pan Ban

One Christmas, I received a fabulous set of pots and pans from my parents. As I love to cook, I was thrilled. It was also a time I was just sort of hanging in there to finish out a lease with a spectacularly messy roommate I no longer wished to live with. I brought my new cookware home and was having a great time with it. My roommate, who also loved to cook, was also enjoying the cooking implements. Fine, I wasn't going to begrudge her use of my cookware as long as she washed it afterward, which she didn't. After finding several of my new pans soaking in nasty sludge, I banned her from the new pots and pans. She had had several warnings and took it in good humor. We even laughed about it. After being out of town for a week, I returned to find my large soup pot full of chili unceremoniously popped into the fridge. Judging by the consistency, I would guess it had been in there all week. After I calmly asked why she didn't put the excess chili in a Tupperware instead of leaving acid based food to congeal and eat away at the nice new soup pot, she sheepishly mumbled something about never getting around to it. In the following days I began moving my cookware to a box in the back of my closet. I'm sure she noticed its absence, but she had the sense not to say a word about it. Things stayed friendly through the end of the lease and my favorite new cookware survived. Don't be afraid to protect your possessions, but it's best not to be an ass while doing it.