in the kitchen with dinnerware

I reorganized some of the kitchen cabinets this weekend. Here are all the dishes, saucers, coffee mugs, beer steins, etc. that I removed. I figured, what are the chances that we'll need to serve coffee to 20 people at the same time? I don't need to keep all of these cups and saucers on hand, especially considering that our coffee machine only makes enough for two. My mother has left strict directions for me not to get rid of any of her 15+ mismatched sets of dishware, however, so in the meantime I have put these into storage, upstairs in the master bedroom. At least for now.

I started to put back what was left into the cupboards but then realized, with the lovely glass doors and all, I could fill it with stuff that made me happy. So out came the bowls and pretty serving-ware.

I know, I know--you're thinking, That's still too cluttered! But it's still functional--plenty of plates, mugs, and bowls that I can grab easily from the bottom shelves, and it makes me happy to see all those bowls stacked up like that, like so many tiers of a fancy cake. And, according to my decluttering philosophies, I'm allowed to keep things that (1) bring me joy, and (2) I have room to store properly.

Next I tackled the other windowed cupboard, figuring that I didn't need to look at old plastic tupperwares and untidy piles of coffee filters every day. I moved all that stuff to the next cupboard over (which had doors of solid wood rather than glass), so that it would still be readily accessible when H. made his a.m. coffee, but also so that it wouldn't be on display. I took out more unnecessaries (more coffee cups and saucers, less-than-lovely mixing bowls and tupperwares, a plastic reusable Raiders cup that H. had got from the last game he went to) and filled it with pretties:

Finally, a place to put that lovely green mixer (formerly stored, inexplicably, on the bookshelf in the family room), which does actually work but which has a bowl too small for most purposes. I do think that my mother would be upset if I got rid of it, plus it is awfully cute.

Now if only I could get the walls stripped and repainted (my mother, as with so many other things, left the job only partially done), and perhaps get all that wood refinished (I've always disliked this particular shade of orange-y brown--I would love to have them painted a clean white but everyone including H. objects to covering up the wood grain), and oh yeah, some non-makeshift window treatments wouldn't hurt. In the picture below you can see the current state of the kitchen walls, and the previous state of the 2nd cabinet.

This has been the state of the kitchen for many years now. No one can agree on a new paint color yet (the wallpaper had been a faded blue), but it's on the list of things to do.