Question about Cards in Play, used or unused and in Hand

[Oberon Prime]

Hello All,

Am a little confused about a point. Just recently started playing Munchkin. Got the Adventure Time set is great fun. As I read the instructions it seemed to say that one could take One Shots out of hand put them on the table sideways until ready to be used. So we played this way a number of times.

I had many months ago watched the Munchkin episode of TableTop but I recently rewatched it to see if it would help clarify some points and I came away confused.

In the game showed the players were seen placing equipment on the table sideways. And then swapping it with the active gear. So say switching armor placing the sideways card in active spot and pulling the once active amor back and placing it sideways. Furthermore nobody placed One Shots on the table sideways always keeping them in hand until ready to use. Finally they never discarded extra cards over 5 from their hand so far as I could see or took part in Charity phase of their turn.

Now my understanding of the instructions that came with the M:AT set (which I admit could be very flawed) was that gear stayed in hand was made active or discarded. And if you switched gear then the old gear was discarded. That one could place down One shots sideways until ready to use thus not clogging up your hand and unless in possession of a card that said otherwise come the end of your turn you must discard or give away enough cards to bring yourself to no more than 5 in hand.

As i hope can be understood I came away from this rewatching of the TableTop episode very worried we have been playing wrong all along

In the games played so far their seems to always be a player that ends up with like 12 one shots unused on the table ready to be brought into play individually or all at once. It seemed that not putting one shots on the table but having to keep them in hand kept any one player from gaining an inordinate advantage since they'd have to decide which were truly important to keep.

But other info I found suggests that any card with gold piece value be it gear or one shots can be placed on table either active or unused thus explaining why they did that with gear in that episode But not why they all kept their one shots in hand.

I'd just very much appreciate some assistance with clarifying how all of this works.

Thanks,
Oberon Prime