Please tell me about your dishes!

[CharDee]

I've just gone on a bit of a rampage and decided to get rid of a load of our plates, bowls and other dishes. At home there so me, DH, DS (8) and my niece.

After the great plate purge we have:

8 large plates
8 large bowls/dishes (I think they're pasta bowls?)
8 side plates
6 medium sized cereal bowls
6 smaller cereal bowls

As well as 4 bigger serving dishes and a plastic set of 6 plates, 6 small plates and 6 bowls we use when eating outside.

DH thinks we now don't have enough. I think this is more than enough. We have a 6 seater dining table so I think we won't have more than 6 over for sit down dinner where we need all nice matching plates. We do have friends over quite often and have barbecues at least twice a month in the summer but I'm thinking of just using paper plates as one weekend over the summer during the clean up I counted 26 plates as I washed them!

Also niece has her own granny flat with a little space for a kitchen and she has her own stuff in there. She doesn't eat with us every night but probably at least 3 times a week.

Please tell me how many plates/bowls you have so I can work out if my clear out has been too drastic!

Same as you!

Similar to you, we culled ours during the summer when we realised we were just using the same 4 items at the top of each pile on rotation.

There’s 5 of us at home, 4 real people and an errant toddler.

We have 4 large plates, 4 side plates, 4 bowls and 4 mugs that all match. 4 mugs which are bigger and better than the matching ones

4 bamboo plates, 8 bamboo flat bottomed bowls, 4 bamboo cups. These serve toddler and outside instead of kids taking glasses out

partyware is really a different category, so i have 2 large serving platters, 2 large serving bowls, salad bowl, 2 crisps dish things, 6 mini bowls (suitable for olives, hummus, little sweets etc) and 2 crudités and dip tray things. These mostly match with other things in the party section. Also we have a star serving dish and a Christmas tree serving dish.

Oh we have two pasta bowls too! Forgot those

It's plenty.

I'm a follower of a woman called Dana K White. She's definitely not a minimalist! She always had trouble with being overwhelmed with 'stuff' & not being able to keep her house under control. Until she devised a system that works for her & she shared it with others. she's not diagnosed but appears to have ADHD.

one of her life changing sayings is

Do Dishes Daily

If all your dishes are clean everyday you'll soon see which things are your favourites/chosen first. Keep those, ditch the rest.

when your dishes are all clean do you need more than you have? Or do you only 'run out' when some are dirty?

Was she the life laundry lady?

Thanks for the replies. I am trying to reduce the amount of crap we have.

I'm after the mugs and glasses next. Just counted 14 champagne flutes, 6 wine glasses, 8 pint glasses, 7 tumbler glasses and 24 mugs - including 3 sports direct mugs. Of all of these I don't think we have any matching sets at all. Wine glasses are all mismatched, the champagne flutes are all different sizes and the tumbler glassss all have different patterns on. Why do we need so many?!!!

@greengreengrass25

ive never heard of her being referred to as that & I've read her books & listened to her podcasts & you tubes etc.

Her way of coping with laundry (after trying many things) is to A Laundry Day. She just does one load after another, tumble dries & puts away until it's all done.

that's one thing that doesn't work for me, but my brain works differently to hers in some ways, & that's ok 😁

@CharDee

the way Dana K White works is to decide what space she's prepared to give to x item/group of items & anything exceeding that space needs to go. So in this case say you decide the amount of space you're prepared for glasses to take up. Take out any you hate/are chipped etc. until all the every day glasses fit in. You can put all your 'event' glasses in a high cupboard if you wish to use that cupboard for that.

she calls this the Container Theory, well worth a listen.

obviously you can ditch ones you don't like & but some new ones, as long as they fit in the container (chosen cupboard)

There's 3 of us (Me, DH & DS aged 5).

We have

8 Plates
4 Pasta Bowls (Plate Bowls in our house)
4 Deeper Pasta Bowls
8 Bowl Bowls
8 Side Plates

And an assortment of childrens plates/bowls for DS.

Don't get me started on Mugs/Glasses though. We have way too many and yet, it feels like also not enough ever?

I definitely don't have as much as some of you and we are 4 adults here! Just haven't got room

I have way more, but I like it that way. I’ve had minimalist amounts of kitchen stuff twice in my adult life, once when I first got my own home, and once after my divorce and I much prefer having more. If you’re happier with less than that’s the right amount for you

We have 6 of everything, there’s just my husband and I though and occasionally we have my parents round for a meal or an odd couple of friends here and there! If we have big get togethers it’s paper plates