Today we are turning to the place where you store your finest serving pieces. For many, this is a china cabinet. It may also be a cabinet with glass doors, a butler’s pantry cabinet, a kitchen cabinet, or some other place where you store fragile pieces.
Ready to go? Here are the choices:
Low Effort
If all you have is a few minutes, take a look at the pieces in your storage area. Identify one or two that you haven’t used recently (or ever), and which you truly do not love. As you peruse, bear in mind that the fact that an item came from a beloved friend or family member doesn’t mean you have to keep it. YOU should also love the piece, and use it at least periodically.
If you see something you never use, and/or don’t connect with emotionally, pull it out and donate it.
Medium Effort
Display spaces, like a china cabinet or glass front cabinet, look best when there is breathing space around the contents. If you are keeping your pieces in a visible location, take a bit of time today to consider if any space looks crowded. Are there pieces overlapping or piled on top of each other? Are the items on any of the shelves touching each other? If so, it’s time to pull some things out.
As with the low effort option, feel free to donate any objects that you don’t love. Additionally, ask yourself if you could relocate anything in this space to another location. Not everything we own needs to be on display.
Additionally, there may be some items that have landed in this storage area which honestly don’t belong here. If you find those, take them out and move them to their proper home.
Freeing up even a bit of space can make a significant difference!
High Effort
About once a year, display cabinets and storage areas deserve a true overhaul. If you have the time today, empty the contents from wherever you store these pieces. Place them on a clean and secure surface.
Once a cabinet or space is emptied, wipe it clean. If you have glass shelving or doors, pull out your glass cleaner. If you happen to have lighting in this area, make sure all the bulbs are working, and replace any that have burned out.
Special pieces, such as crystal glasses and silver serving pieces, look best when they are cleaned and polished. Wash everything you have removed, and polish anything that has tarnished with silver polish. To inhibit tarnish in the future, some people suggest you add camphor blocks or chalk to your storage area. Be mindful to keep items out of direct contact with silver.
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Where do you keep your special pieces?
I love a clean china closet. I have always enjoyed looking at china closets on house tours etc. I think they display a history in that so many pieces that were used reflect dining habits of that era. In our time of practical dish ware, and often short dinner experiences we have lost the elegance of that time when valuable dinnerware was elegant and treasured. I try to empty mine once a year. It’s that time again. I rarely these things but I still love looking at them.
I enjoyed watching Downton Abbey and seeing all the formal pieces they used for dining. Definitely an “era gone by,” and I agree that a china cabinet can be a beautiful way to tell a family’s history. 🙂