Battling the Basement: Dishing Out the Dishes
I decided to give away my first set of dishes. This may seem unsentimental of me. Also the pattern is basic and doesn't look dated. So, here is my reasoning.
Only seven non-chipped plates remain from the original twelve-piece set. This was just fine for our camper, but I can't host a dinner party with them at home.
The butter dishes no longer have covers. When dishes stop being fully functional, it is time to get rid of them.
The pattern is discontinued. I could get more from Replacements.com, but I have already restocked with a different pattern (Incidentally, this one is also discontinued.)
I don't have room in my cupboards. My cupboards are filled with the newer pattern, my Christmas dishes (also discontinued), and my mother's amber (that includes pieces from my great-grandmother's collection as well as antiques my mother has found over the years.)
I needed more room for my coffee mugs. I have more mugs than necessary as the only black-coffee-drinker in the house. I do need to purge this collection, too. But, the counter was getting crowded with my favorites, and I still have some from the camper to squeeze in my mug cupboard. So, those original pieces had to go.
I would rather find replacements of dishes that make me happy. I bought a four piece set of blue-and-white Kobenstyle Dansk when my oldest son went to college and only four of us would be at the camper on a regular basis. The color is discontinued (if you ever want to purchase a set of dishes, don't buy the pattern I choose; they always seem to get discontinued!), but these dishes make me happy. So, I plan on keeping them. Someday, we will have a finished basement, and I can use them again. Or one of the kids might need a small set for an apartment. If neither of those scenarios happens (we've been planning to finish our basement for seventeen years), that's okay. The set is small enough to store (in what will probably continue to be our unfinished basement).
I'm only keeping dishes my kids might want some day. My oldest son loves black and white, so he gets my original china. Of course, it is discontinued, and I have always struggled to have more than an eight-piece set. My youngest son has laid claim to the amber, which has more pieces than I can count. But, he helped cull the pieces from my mom's collection, so he has earned the right to these. My middle son, who has special needs, will benefit from all my dishes because he will most likely continue living with my husband and me. If he ends up with a place of his own, he gets dibs to the blue-and-white set (because blue is his favorite color and because he won't want to host a more-than-four dinner party). They can fight over the Christmas dishes. Or not. But, there is a story behind them, which I will try to remember to tell later this year.
Someone will love my old dishes, especially the custard cups and the batter pitcher. To that person, I say, enjoy!