Okay, peeps.
Let’s talk about my early-Fall/Back-to-School To Do list. My typically frenzied, let’s-get-stuff-done mojo that always kick in this time of year.
Two years ago, this particular phase was brutal, as it consisted of mostly insane outdoor (hard) labor.
Then last year, things focused a bit more on prepping the kiddos’ rooms for the craziness of virtual learning. And on making sure the house was in tip-top shape in order to minimize distractions.
Now, this year, I’m happy to report that I’ve been working my way through my To Do list at a steady pace, and without my typical go-go-go insanity. Imagine that? And it’s been so lovely to tackle it all at a slower pace, and—dare I say?—enjoy it a bit. Well…some of it, ha. ;)
Many of the more time-consuming and arduous tasks are pretty boring and standard issue year-over-year. Like kiddo bedroom and closet cleaning—complete with rotating/donating clothes and finding a place for everything (or covertly donating all the odds and ends that are slowly but surely cluttering up our space).
But. I had a handful of other random projects I added to the list this year, and this one was a pretty intriguing one. And involved a deep dive into the numerous boxes we’ve dragged around from house to house to house for nearly 20 years without ever really using! OYE.
I give you…fine china shenanigans!
I find it holy hilarity to say that this fine china—and crystal stemware—was part of our wedding registry and has been such a rarely-used item for us that I often forget we even own it, or I wonder why the heck we even do!
Truly.
While I will fully admit to loving a bit of flair with my holidays, or regular meals, or just for the heck of it, I am just sooooo not a fine china person. And neither is the hubby. Mostly because we’re a bit more modern than traditional in our taste, and I doubt we would have ever registered for any of it if we hadn’t been absolute babies when we got married, just going with the flow of the recommended registry items to tick off the list, ha.
That said…I gotta commend us on a fairly classic china pattern of just crisp white with a silver, minimalist edge. The kind that ages well and can be paired with some fun, edgier items for a bit more flair.
Like with these accent plates we have, as well…
For the record (a very boring record you can skip right over reading, ha), after unpacking every bit of it and taking inventory, heeeere’s what we have:
9 dinner plates
10 accent plates
11 holiday accent plates
9 salad plates
8 bread plates
8 tea cup plTes
7 flanged bowls
1 serving plater
1 set of salt and pepper shakers
1 sugar bowl
1 creamer
1 gravy boat
I mean…a gravy boat??? If you know me at all, you’ll probably chuckle a bit over the visual of me actual using it. Ever.
In fact, I can confirm for the record that we have officially used our fine china only twice—TWICE—in nearly two decades. Which is why I began this project to begin with.
Basically, my thought is that I had to get it out in the open, organized, and easily accessible so we can at least try to use it once in a blue moon. Otherwise, it’s just pointless!
So I took inventory, purchased some simple, space-saving racks, and arranged it all nice and purdy in the dining room cabinets.
And I have high hopes that I’m gonna bust these bad boys out a couple of times before the year is out—especially at Christmas, when I’ll have a happy reason to use these holiday accent plates. ;)
Oh. And I made the crystal stemware more easily accessible, out in the open in this recessed little nook that’s just outside the dining room.
I still highly doubt the crystal will get used much at all, but…here’s hoping!
Also, also. To try and pique my interest and heighten my likelihood of using all this fancy shmancy stuff, I decided to scrounge for a couple of inexpensive accents bits that would make it all feel new and fun to me. Like these really coolio wooden placemats with some beautiful gold tones.
Aaaand—again, in the interest of spicing things up—I found some very inexpensive sets of champagne-colored flatware I’m going to use with the china. I love the modern take of mixing some warmer gold tones in with our traditional silver place settings, so…here’s hoping it will inspire my desire to use it all!
Again, I have no idea if all of this making-it-accessible work will help get this out on our table at all, but I’m having visions of some beautiful place settings in our future, so I’m crossing my fingers!
Now. Please enjoy these shots of the freshly organized kiddos’ closets/rooms—that would be far more dramatic if I’d taken some heinous before shots, ha.
And for one final holy-random-but-time-consuming project…I spent several weeks (on and off, as time would allow) laminating all of our precious doodles from the past year.
I have no idea what I’m going to do with them (I had grand visions of binding them in book form, but that’s proving difficult), I just knew I had to preserve them, as they’re so precious to me.
This stack is only my set of doodles, if that tells you just how many I had to laminate for myself and the kiddos! But it was fun to go through them in batches and relive all the wonderful memories.
So there you have it. Most of my To Do lists for this annual cleaning wave o’ mine.
So there you have it. Most of my To Do lists for this annual cleaning wave o’ mine.
And, lastly…since my kiddos were so patient as I tackled the yucky closet cleaning of the past couple of days, I tried to treat them here and there—like with a surprise pizza order (that we always like to enjoy in the dining room; perhaps we should have used the fine china???) and a couple rounds of swimming.
Gotta mix the play in with the To Do list!
Going in to our final summer weekend feeling pretty chill—and the kiddos have been asking how many sleeps until school begins, ha. So all is good here in our casa.
Happy Friday, peeps!
Over and out.
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