Too little space or too many glasses?

I wish I could tell you that I was really making progress on my home projects list this month. Instead, I'm finally getting around to posting about some of the progress I made last month. Oh well.

You see, I inherited what feels like a ton of glasses, vases, dishes and other stuff from my grandma, and my mom also gave me quite a bit of hers when she moved years ago. And of course I had to buy my own when I got my first apartment. Then we moved into the house, I had a new baby and a lot of things got shoved into this one little, innocent cabinet in my living room:

Yep, about a year or two ago I took some gift wrap and used that to hide the mess inside. Want to see why?

So, I took everything out. Sorted through the vases and votive candle holders. Put all the little decoration bits and pieces into a box. And dragged all the remaining glasses in the kitchen.

Which then looked like this.

Taking a deep breath (and some more migraine medication), I took everything out there, too. Now this is only part of the mess, mind you.

I don't know about you, but I had two sets of wineglasses. You know, one for daily use and one for good.  Those were the ones in the living room cabinet. The ones that got pulled out for Christmas. Until there was too much of a mess in the cabinet to even bother pulling them out (you don't want to be hit on the head by a tower of boxes, votive holder and vases crashing on you on Christmas Eve, after all).

This was something I had thought a lot about (yep, I sit around and think about sets of wineglasses. Only to go and complain that I have too much to do. Hmmmm...). I mean, really, why would you need two sets? One you love and one you use? What about simply using the one you love? Now that's a novel concept. They're still not the world's most perfect wineglass, but I bought them ages ago and while they don't have the ideal shape, I love them for their detailed stem.

The everyday ones I didn't even buy. I got them as a Christmas gift from my in-laws, because you could get them at some store for points that you get every time you purchase something there. They're a good brand (Rosenthal), they're heavy, one was chipped already when it came out of the box and, well, I never really loved them. Out they went (to a box sitting in my basement donation pile).

Now that I got rid of everything I don't use or love (can you tell I've been reading Jules' blog?!) I actually have space in my glass door kitchen cabinets for these beauties here:

Little cocktail picks from my mom and grandmother. Nobody's ever going to use them again, but I put them in a glass at the very top shelf (the one I need a chair to reach) and it makes me smile to be able to look at them everyday.

Too pretty to be hidden in a disastrous living room cabinet if you ask me!

Just like these. I have five of them, and they're proudly on display now. And who knows, next Christmas when I do my cranberry vanilla liqueur again, I might just pull them out.

So this is what the living room cabinet looks like now. The top shelf is actually where our laptops live these days, and I need another shelf to be put in there so they don't get crowded.  But it's much, much better.

Kitchen china cabinet. Luckily I always only had one set of dishes (if you don't count those giant boxes of my grandma's in the basement). I had cheap Ikea ones when I started out, but for our first real apartment we got a set of plain and simple but good white dishes, and that's all we ever use. They don't get scratched and over the years only three plates have broken (I keep forgetting to replace them). It's pretty, has clean lines and goes with pretty much everything.

Kitchen glassware cabinet. Much more organized now AND it contains all my good wineglasses and my everyday water glasses (I don't own good ones. I have boys.).

Not much progress on the list this month, but hey, I did some more last month so I could spend March adjusting to my new work schedule. Once the weather gets better, we'll likely tackle some of the outdoor projects.

What about you? Do you have dishes that get pulled out only for special occasions? Or do you use your "good" china and glasses everyday?

Linking up with Jules' William Morris Project today. Yay!

Cheers,
Swenja