So, all this talk of French Farmhouses made me want to resurrect all my 'stuff'.
You know the 'stuff' I mean...the 'stuff' that husbands look at with narrowed eyes from time to time, remarking that perhaps some of the 'stuff' could be put away for a while. What is it about men that makes them minimalists except in the garden shed?
Well, I decided that the way to display my 'stuff' without The Musician wanting to immediately heave it all into the rubbish bin, was simply to be judicious and selective about my display.
So, during my absence over the last few weeks, I've done some soul searching and decluttering. Personally I think decluttering is the scourge of the sentimentalist, and have many decluttering regrets where I heaved personal mementoes into the bin on the premise that I could carry that memory in my heart and didn't need to have physical reminders. Hmmmm...might work for some.
So there was no bin involved this time, although I did dispose of some of my less noteworthy collections. I then reorganised my 'collections' into displays, united by their commonality.
This melamine dinnerware is a good example. These shell shaped dishes belonged to Mum. A hostess of the 1970's, these were well loved and well used by her. Of course they fell out of favour over ensuing decades, but are enjoying something of a revival. After drooling over the collection pictured below, I decided that Mums melamine was indeed worthy of displaying, and so it now is, as seen above.
Equally, I gathered all of my Depression era glassware together to display. Now, before this I didn't even realise that I had a 'collection' of this stuff. But there it all is now....
The best thing is, having decluttered the cruddy stuff, and put the good stuff out on display has freed up so much of my cupboard space, it's unbelievable! I now have beautifully organised kitchen cupboards, new space in my bathroom, and a place for my table linens that never seemed to exist before.
A good little nesting urge is very constructive from time to time!
