I have parts of at least 4 different “China” sets passed down to me from a great-grandmother, two grandmothers, and my mother-in-law. Naturally, all of the patterns have a mismatched proportion of salad bowls to dinner plates, a surprising number of coffee services, and at least one or two serving dishes that I can’t imagine would fit anything I would ever cook. Add to that a melange of crystal, mostly in the form of candy dishes (how much candy were they eating??) – and having two young kids, I’m more interested in hiding the candy than setting it about the house in 20 different locations.
If you have inherited such sets and are anything like I used to be, these story-laden treasures are sitting stored carefully in boxes in the attic, untouched by human hands except for on “special occasions” when everyone sighs because “those dishes” need to be washed by hand, or in that one cabinet that is so high up that you have to get the ladder from the garage to reach it. Half the time it’s not worth the trouble, and isn’t that what turkey-themed paper plates are for, anyway? Nobody cares if you break those.
I’ve always been a fan of making ordinary moments special for no special reason, so it’s surprising that it took me so long to take the fine porcelain and crystal out of lonely storage and high cabinets and put them where they ought to be – that is, put them to use. Now, I use them everywhere, all the time. I put them where the kids can reach them. I put things in them that are not “special” at all, other than that they are things I use all the time, and thus, I appreciate the treasured dishes that my maternal forebears held on to, and passed down, all the time. They are well used and well loved, and touched frequently by the hands of little children. Do they sometimes get broken? Yes! But like the hearts of the women who once owned them, and the one who owns them now, risking a break is a worthy price to pay for being loved.
So, here are 4 of the everyday ways I use “the good dishes”:
- Holding things
What things, you ask? ANYthing! I’ve used these beautiful containers to hold everything from bar soaps or jewelry on the bathroom counter to extra plastic clothespins in the closet. I even have some in a kitchen drawer that I use to organize paper clips, stamps, and pens. The things collected inside them aren’t special, but they’re frequently used – which means that I get to enjoy the very special vessels these common items are collected in all the more often. Win, win!
- Candle coasters
If I’m going to light a candle, I’m going to make the most of it. Candles relax us, and their scents can evoke memories, emotions, and feelings of nostalgia. Placing a beautiful candle on an antique salad dish or coffee saucer not only makes for a practical coaster, it turns your candle into an item of home decor and adds a visual element to the evocative sensory experience that candles create. It’s also fun to swap out China patterns to suit the season, holiday, or candle style. (Bonus: add a cloche to the mix when the candle is unlit and fully cooled, and you have a beautiful and personal piece of art in your space 24/7.)
- Holiday decor
I don’t know about you, but I always have a surprising amount of assorted, random ornaments left over after I’ve finished decorating for the holidays. I’m not sure how I came to acquire all of these extras given that I never have anywhere to actually put them, and I used to leave these orphaned decorations scattered around the house for a while, eventually giving up and packing them away with the vague idea that “next year, I’ll think of something really BRILLIANT to do with them” (read: brilliant but time consuming, as if I have lots of extra time on my hands around the holidays 🤣). Then one day I had the ACTUALLY brilliant idea to just set them together in a lovely dish, add a string of battery-powered fairy lights and – Voila! – I had a quirky, festive decoration that made me smile to look at. Ornaments are great for this, but assorted children’s crafts, pine cones, Easter eggs, plastic Halloween spider rings, or really any hodgepodge would work well. Grandma would be proud!
- Eating on them!
Revolutionary, right?! We eat on the plates and bowls from our various dish sets all the time, and for everyday stuff. We keep them in a mid-level part of the kitchen so the kids grab them for Cheerios or pizza more often than we ever take them out for special occasions. And yes, we put them in the dishwasher (gasp!). Any wear and tear they receive as a result of being used for their purpose (and honestly, it’s not all that much) is well worth it to me for the satisfaction of using these family heirlooms in our family’s daily life. The legacy of these dishes is, after all, one of family, love, and female history. That’s not something I want collecting dust. 💓
I encourage you to give these ideas a try! And if you ever find yourself looking for a container to hold your assortment of mismatched socks in the laundry room…take a peek into your great grandma’s dinner service. I’m sure you’ll find a serving gadget in there that could not have been created for any other purpose. 🙂
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