Dish and Dish-Honesty

My china cupboard must be part clown-car.

It has all the size and shape of a normal china cupboard…

But as I went to reorganize and thin out some things, I suddenly had enough dishes sitting on my floor to fill the entire Homer Laughlin factory…

(Plus, you know, there were all those rubber noses and floppy shoes to contend with.)


So HOW did this happen?

Well… (hangs head in abject shame)… I KNOW how this happened.

This happened because my place has become the Home for Wayward Tablesettings. I am a Housewares Softie. I feel bad when I see pretty china and glass sitting unloved and unappreciated in the thrift stores. It is cheap and beautiful and needs someone who will adore it and take care of it. I pick it up, and pet it, and inevitably… it follows me to my car.
Some people collect cats. I amass vintage dishware.

And having too much of either can be a little unhealthy.

I mean, OKAY, so it’s not like my neighbors are calling the Board of Health about the sickening smell of dishwashing liquid emanating from my house.

It’s not like I’m tripping over compotes as I descend the stairs. Or sleeping with thirty gravy-boats at the foot of my bed.

But do I really NEED SEVEN 1950s floral whiteware platters? Am I ever really going to have enough people to tea that 27 mixed ROSE-PRINTED TEACUPS will be the ticket to good hostessing?

Unlikely.

So it’s time to be honest with myself: I am not a Jane Austen character. I don’t have twenty of my closest friends to sit around the parlor every day and sip tea, nibble scones and chat about our lives and our hobbies…

Well, actually, I DO, but they’re online. They bring their own cups.

So this last week the floor between my living room and dining rooms looked like a rummage sale. And I forced myself to make some very tough decisions. Yes indeedy, it was like my own personal variation on that old Clash tune: “Should It Stay or Should It Go?”…

Except, you know, with more pink than punk.

Admittedly, I had a few moments where I MIGHT have gone a little too far over to the minimalist side. There were beloved pieces that spent a brief, miserable time in the discard pile before I realized that I am not actually, say, DYING…

Or moving into a nursing facility…. Or, oh, transferring to the Australian Outback…

And so I probably CAN KEEP a couple of my favorite Royal Doulton chintz pieces if otherwise it would make me sob into my salad plate.

But mostly I remained strong. So it looks like I’m going to try selling on Ebay for the first time. Not as a regular vendor, mind you. Just to clear out the extras and reduce my unhealthy teacup/meat platter quantities and other items to normal, non-Housewares Softie levels.

I WOULD sell them at a garage sale, for a quick and painless separation. But I’ve heard stories about that. Stories where strangers peer blank-faced into your windows in the dim of the morning, well before the sale starts. Surrounding the place, tapping at the glass, mumbling, drooling… It’s Dawn of the Dead for bargains.

Well, me, I put in over 45 hours a week, plus commute. And I am SO unprepared to fight off the zombie hoards at 5am on a Saturday…
At least not before coffee.

So Ebay it will be! I promise to you folks, this site will remain entirely free of info related to sales. I have no plans to turn The Thrift Shop Romantic site into any sort of vending medium.

However, if anyone does want to be notified by email regarding the Ebay items that go up for sale, I’d be happy to put you on a mailing list. Just click the Say Hi button and send me a note.

I look now in my reorganized china cabinet and feel a little more at peace.

I glance at the china destined to leave Waterhouse and I swallow the lump in my throat as I reaffirm my decisions. Yes, they are orphans now, lost children looking for a path. But they will find new homes. New homes where people will love them. Surely someone, SOMEONE must need a 27 mixed rose teacups …

Ah, Jane Austen, sweetie, you would have LOVED Ebay.

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PS-- This is the LAST WEEK for anyone entering the Nifty Thrifty Gifty Giveaway here. Please help me get more vintage china and other goodies safely OUT of my house by being a part of this fun little event. Click here for the details. The results will be revealed next week.
PPS--I was tagged by Debbie over at the CozyCottage blog, so if you’re dying to know seven obscure details about yours truly (I know, the curiosity has just been killing you), you can read those by clicking here.