Thursday, September 22, 2011

And the Dish Ran Away with My Son

I bought some new dishes today.


When SOB and I first moved in together his mother gave us a set of plain white dishes that she had in her basement. They were actually very high quality, but since we were living in a rather generic apartment, with a plain white kitchen, the plain white dishes got to me after a while. I always felt like I was eating in a cafeteria. So we passed them onto his sister and went shopping. We got our current/old ones at Ikea about twelve years ago, and we loved them so, so much. We had never before made a big-ish collaborative home purchase, and the addition of those twelve matching plates and bowls and mugs, for me, meant we were grown-ups making a home together. There was some serious commitment involved, and no one had to buy jewelery!

They have served us very well. Sadly, time marches on, and some have gotten chipped. Some others have gotten down right busted and thrown in the trash. Ever since we moved here I've been on the lookout for a new set, and today I found what I was looking for (on the clearance rack, no less!) and now we have a whole set of un-chipped, pristine dishes.

So what to do with the old ones? We still have at least 80% of them. The dinner plates, which saw the most use, have had the highest casualty rate, but there are still nine of them. We barely ever used the cups and saucers.

I was thinking I could re-use the packages from the new dishes and we could store them in the basement. Then maybe one day Sam could take that box when he gets his first apartment, girlfriend or not. Imagining him eating home made mac and cheese (because he will learn how to make it before he's permitted to set out on his own) out of that bowl with the chipped rim makes me smile. Maybe one night he'll sort through them so he can use the nicer ones for a dinner party. And then when he's ready to go out and buy his own, he can pass them along to Lucy.

Who am I kidding? Lucy won't accept hand-me-downs. She's the one who will demand her very own brand new set of stone wear for her first dorm room!

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3 comments:

Lora said...

I've packed up the dishes I got at my bridal shower in a box that reads "Jake's first apartment"

There is some other crap in there too.

So I'm all for your idea!

Lora said...

also, the china that I have was marked "Lora's china" ever since I was about 5 or 6 years old.

craftyashley said...

Our handmedown first apartment plates were from my Mom. There were large sunflowers and blue plaid. They had to go as soon as possible- obviously. I donated the sunflower atrocities to the Goodwill, but now I'm thinking about making apartment boxes for my kids- that would be so awesome.