Sunday, January 19, 2014

My Three Plates

Just so you know - as I'm writing this, in the back of my mind I'm humming the theme song from My Three Sons, and my foot is tapping.
Ya - I'm that old.


I have to say, I feel mighty silly blogging about my three plates.

First off - you must know - I DO own more than three plates.  I had a few comments on my post about streamlining, and it sounded like a few of you thought that's all I owned.

Oh my.

No - I have three plates out in my everyday area.  The reason for the three?  Well - these delicious 1970's vintage plates were purchased at a thrift store, and there were 5 of them.  Two are out in the camper, three in the kitchen.  Luckily my OCD has calmed enough so that I can own odd numbers of things (as long as they match), and given that there are three people living in the household at the moment - it works.  
I change my plates often.  As soon as I tire of these, they'll get donated, and I'll find others that make me happy for a while.

The three plates reside on my shelf in the kitchen near the sink, and they are the everyday plates.
What I love is the ease of getting them, and the ease of putting them back right from the sink.  Nearly everything I use can be put away from standing right in front of my sink.

What I also love is that I'm not opening a cabinet chock full of dishes and items that I'm not using.  For my delicate brain - this is a good thing.  I truly believe, and I betcha there are studies to back it up - clutter stresses.  

these chickens belonged to my dear Aunt Jean, and therefore, one of my most prized possessions

Here's where I keep the company dishes (again, I'm feeling mighty silly)


This is where you'll find me every morning making tea.  Right in front of my tea pot is a reminder of my kitty love, Slinx - she jumped on the hutch when the paint was still wet - I just had to leave it - it was too perfect.


Now, there are six plates to that set, but the other is stashed underneath - I just felt to have all six up there was too visually heavy, and needed breaking up.  


So my odds and ends are under the cupboard.  Please note the vintage butterscotch coffee cups and saucers scored for 25 cents each.  


 I find myself completely satisfied after culling this area out.  A month ago, you could barely open the door without stuff falling out.  My rule?  If I haven't used it in a year - it goes.
And so it went, and I was exceedingly happy - until I saw this on Pornterest, I mean Pinterest -


Then I was all like - 


Oh snap, I got rid of all my dishes!

But then I think of my mantra - 


And I realize - there is nothing wrong with setting a lovely, over the top table, but it's just not in the cards for me - I'm much happier with less stuff in the house - less stuff to manage, less stuff to store, less stuff to clean and move and pack away and take out.  I'm not saying this is the "right" way to live, but it's right for me, and I've felt so much better mentally since I've decluttered.  
The house stays clean, and my time is freed up tremendously!

Simple is my way, and I'm sticking to it.




13 comments:

  1. Two snaps girl!! I am working on it... I have a hard time with the minimalist look; I like cozy. I am finding the happy medium and the main motivation is LESS to work around, clean, dust, etc. I have dubbed this year Frugal Fourteen. I can do this!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Two snaps up! You go girl. I am culling too and it feels good!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Jayme I know my comment has nothing to do with this post but your picture on your weight loss caught my eye. I am trying to lose at least 20 pounds and was wondering what your plan was. have you been able to keep it off? I started doing the Nutrisystem an so far so good.
    Thanks
    Earlene

    ReplyDelete
  4. Dearest Jayme-

    You are so wise.
    I have enough dishes to host a dinner at the White House but who wants to?

    I want to be a culler too!

    Laura
    White Spray Paint

    ReplyDelete
  5. I keep getting rid of stuff although I love my dishes . . . Clothes, "sitty-outies" I can part with but love my dishes. Wonder what freaking thing I ave going on there . . .

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have a bowl fettish...I know, what's up with that? But bowls can be so lovely. And they are quite useful. But I do have too many...I got rid of a couple this year, and I don't regret it. Perhaps more will join the donation pile this year. It's just so hard....

    You crack me up Jayme! Someday, we will have tea, together, in the squirrel...and we'll use those other two plate, by golly!!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I get stressed when there is clutter as well. If one of my men starts making piles o stuff I begin to spend so much time wanting to remove their stuff that it becomes hard to make decisions. Cluttered mind. So when they are foolish enough to leave, I am clearing the stuff and I can sit and relax finally.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your minimalist thinking reminds me of a book my sister gave me called The Joy of Less. You could have written that book! I have hoarding issues, so it really hit me these past two years while wildfires destroyed homes in minutes around the Colorado Springs area, that people didn't have time to collect much that was important to them. In the end, they realized the only precious things were the lives saved. There were many articles about peoples' responses to losing everything, and what they learned from it. I now look around my house and just see "stuff" and not extensions of myself anymore.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I am down with getting rid of crap. If only the rest of the family shared the feeling... *sigh* "Where are you going with that?! I might use that!" omg....

    ReplyDelete
  10. I totally agree. Befre if there was a sale I would go aand buy. Now I think ' that is just more crap I don't need to bring into my life '. My mantra is 'use what you have' and it is working for me. I am trying to jse things in new and different ways.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I love your vintage dishes! I've just started collecting vintage Pyrex and jadeite and can see how this could get out of hand!! But it felt so special to mix up our pancake batter this weekend in a purdy jadeite bowl :) when you love cooking it's such a useful thing to collect :) my other weakness is crocheted blankets at the goodwill, unless it's really ugly I will grab those up, I really appreciate the hours spent eyesight loss and arthritis it took to make them :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Refreshing . YOU . even when frozen! Thanks for the recipe! I plan to make it as soon as they let me out on the roads to make the trip to the chicken houses store . . . I like the scarf!

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for leaving a comment!