Running out of spoons (specifically, teaspoons) used to be the main limiting factor that determined when I had to do the washing up. Eventually I realised that, if I'd only used the spoon to stir my coffee (the most common scenario), I could get away with just rinsing it under the tap and use it again for the next cup. Of course, this was after I'd bought myself more spoons... Anyway, nowadays it tends to be knives instead.
On reflection, I'm not sure this is very useful as a metaphor...