Holy crapoli do my feet hurt. I have been standing on them for five hours packing up the server. The server is chock full of pre-WWII Noritake. Back when we lived in West Seattle, I got a wild hair that I needed more stuff. E-bay delivered the stuff. I jettisoned a lot of it when we moved to Bellevue, and then when we departed North Carolina, there were many listings on Craigslist for free come get it. After Craigslist turned into a site for getting murdered, we switched to Nextdoor. It's a smaller geographic area, but free stuff generally goes in an hour or so.
This is what left today. It left full of half inch drive sockets and socket wrenches, and crescent wrenches. The main reason it left is because it is so heavy. When we didn't move around much it just lived on the work bench in the basement, but it was time. Since we left North Carolina, Jim bought a plastic version of this that is much lighter.
Here is some of my china. The pictures are not so good, I'm not sure if it's the overhead lighting, or if my camera is aging out. This is a covered sugar bowl.
People in olden days had very specific china. This is a pancake platter. The dome has two holes in it to allow the steam to escape so they stay warm but not soggy. Who doesn't need a pancake platter in their life?
This is some sort of sauce bowl.
In addition to these, there are berry bowls, consomme bowls, bowls for soup with stuff in it, celery dishes and etc. There are dinner plates, dessert plates, and bread plates. I guess if you had staff to wash all of these things it was nice to have them. When we left NC, I kept settings for six, and the rest hit Craigslist.
So, while packing these things today, I wondered, not for the first time, why do we hang on to things that we don't use, but that we find pretty? I guess they're little pieces of art. That would be art that can't go through the dishwasher.
July 4 we had a pretty good sunset for summer.
Last night was ok.
The local lizard was hanging out on the sliding glass door screen.
The annoying little black bugs have reappeared, so I am hoping he will eat them all.
So far, nothing bad has happened with the buyers, so I'm moving ahead with the presumption that we'll close on time and all will be well.
those little pretty things are hard to part with. I've kept a couple boxes of them for....who knows....but I'm glad I still have them. Perhaps we, of a certain age, should hold a dinner party for each other and use all these lovely and proper things....
ReplyDeleteGood job! The china is so beautiful and
ReplyDeleteso ...why do we keep? You are right, it is ART! I am heave-hoing so much stuff right now, Everything good is going because I have low self esteem...so we keep mis matched everyday bowls and small dishes, things that we do not mind breaking. Still have my Gramma's china in a box somewhere. It goes with stories so hard to re-home. Haha craigslist, a site for murder. Now I know what to do instead of lying on the railroad tracks when I want to exit. Packing is so much fun- getting rid of stuff even more so. Glad you are leaving frying pan country but I have lOVed your photos. You found the pretty stuff! AND the sky!
I swear this is my last downsize. I'm even using EBay.
ReplyDeleteI downsized when I got divorced and I've slowly been upsizing again, much to my chagrin. My mother in law keeps giving me things.
ReplyDeleteThe china is lovely. This post makes me wonder what I'll eventually take with me when I have to move into an assisted living place. Sigh.
Moving is the best incentive for thinning out the stuff! When I lived in a studio apartment in New York, I got rid of almost everything -- and then when we moved to London I got rid of even more. Now we've re-accumulated stuff, but I'm sure when we make our next move we'll downsize again. It's a cycle!
ReplyDeleteMy sister collected china. not just a piece or two here and there but whole sets. she claimed she was getting them for her grandkids. you know those kids who don't want even mom and dad's things. when she moved this last time she boxed them up and sent them out. I have china and crystal that I don't use anymore. those days of entertaining with special stuff are long gone. and I never did that much even back then. you do have some pretty pieces. I'd keep them too.
ReplyDeleteMy mother has that exact China sauce bowl, and a lot of other pieces, some of it Wedgewood China sets that are quite valuable, all sitting in storage overseas. A part of me would like to keep it all because she loved and used her China, but I live in an apartment, not a house, no space. One has to be practical.
ReplyDeleteMy mother has so much china and crystal she inherited from both her parents and in-laws. She and my step-dad are both only children, so they got it all. Someday it will all be mine to deal with. She has sold off a few things but still has enough to run a fancy restaurant. I am already making plans to use "Everything but the house" to come get it all. I hope they stay in business a long time! It's way too much to sell on ebay. I wish you an easy and stress-free (haha!) move.
ReplyDeleteI love china! And, at one point collected sets for grandchildren. All have gone to said grands and are in use so I guess it wasn't totally in vain. These days I do "hand slap" myself when I think I neeeeeeed something like the pancake server.
ReplyDeleteMy goodness, I haven't checked your site in a while and now I learn you are moving and cooler climes I see. Good for you! It sounds like things are going well. I like the look of the new house.
ReplyDeleteI love your china. I still have 6 sets myself and that's down from 12 before I moved to the apartment. I sold my extra sets at My Sister's Closet. What do I need with 5 sets you might ask. I know it's crazy but I can't seem to part with the ones that are left. And, it makes no sense at all since I never use them. One of these days I'll pack some up and get rid of it. I do love that pancake server.
Moving... holding onto things we no longer need or use becoz we just like them... I can certainly relate to it all! I'm glad you no longer utilize Craig's List because it was potentially Murder Central! Invitations for Murderers actually, it always concerned me when Friends used it. Getting rid of the ballast of Life is such a tedious Process, I'm still deep into it all these Years after I began the Great Edit and Purge and sometimes I think perhaps I've sabotaged myself too often by still bringing stuff IN! I do Hope everything goes well with the Sale and that the Move too is soon behind you. Here's to the next leg of the Journey...
ReplyDeleteAs we prepare to sell the park and move on to retirement I am donating massive amounts of things and clothes that will never be of use and not worth the real estate they would occupy. But, there are still some small items that are purely sentimental that I cannot bear to part with. When we downsized to move here 18 years ago, I asked each of my children to come get anything they wanted. One daughter took some family pieces of furniture, while her sister told me "I don't want your junk." She wasn't being mean, she is just not sentimental about things.
ReplyDelete