empty boxes

I’ve decided that while the man and boys in my house are smart, talented, and loveable, they are definitely responsible for a baffling phenomenon going on almost daily in my pantry.  Empty boxes.  I’ve given up hoping that one day they’ll actually write something down on the shopping list that hangs at eye level on the frig  (I thought they would notice it when they open the door, but it must be invisible to them),  so I usually do a quick scan of the pantry before I head out to the grocery store.    Seems like a reasonable idea.   But NO, I soon learned that while it LOOKED like the boxes of cereal or crackers or granola bars in the pantry had something in them, alas,  there was not.  Empty.  Crumbs maybe.  Apparently, the habits I finally instilled in them after years of nagging to put things back applies to everything, regardless of any actual content.  No one seems to give a second thought when they use the last of whatever…the box just goes back in the pantry.   Inevitably, I come home from the grocery store, and one of them will ask if I got more Cheerios.  Naively I reply that  “there’s a big box in the pantry”, and as I grab it to demonstrate with a shake, I hear nothing.  No rattle of little toasted O’s.   Mere oat dust in the bottom of the box.   I always ask the same rhetorical question:  “who put an empty box back in the panty?!”  There’s never an answer.   I now know, after this irritating topic came up recently with a few friends, that this practice is not unique to my house.  Any home with men or boys APPEAR to have well-stocked pantries, but it’s just not true…every shelf holds at least a couple of empty boxes!   I suppose it’s just another one of those quirky guy things.    Like loading the dishwasher….