Dishes are to kitchens and dining rooms what rabbits represent to the animal kingdom.  If you allow them, they will breed behind the closed doors of your cupboards.  By the time many of our clients have reached their middle years, they are well on their way to ownership of four or five sets.  There are the everyday variety and the “good” china for company.  Many users of our decluttering services are holding on to their mother’s and sometimes grandmother’s china, no matter how chipped or crackled the surfaces may be.

These once revered china patterns, some of which require hand-washing as opposed to the dishwasher, so coveted a generation or two ago, have lost their cache, in addition to their gold leaf rims.  Your kids have their own sense of style that may rely heavily on the use of paper plates and plastic utensils pilfered from the cafeteria – they most certainly will not want to take your china with them as they go forth into the world!

CRUD Challenge

Unless you have full sets, in pristine condition, sale is an unlikely proposition. Regardless of what you paid for it several decades ago, chips and missing handles can deep six the value. You can donate the individual pieces to thrift stores or try to unload them at garage sales, flea markets and swap meets. Or, we suggest starting to use the “good stuff” more often instead of saving them for company. Remove them from those little quilted zippered coverlets and enjoy eating on them.  It is a little like deciding to use the expensive brand of hair dye, because you are worth it.