Letting go

Try repairing a whole vintage Crown Ducal tea set! With the best will in the world...
I did, a fine bone china Wedgewood 12 place dinner service.

I've given up on sentimental attachments to inanimate objects. People are more important than crockery
Agreed, but I am also a stickler for finance and saving up to buy our own house and when things cost the price of above, a pot of ceramic glue is much cheaper and I am rather skilled at gluing things back together after plenty of practice given to my by my brother and sister when they were toddlers and I was a teenager!

We recently took the decision to box up our best china because we were no longer able to replace items. And whilst the 2 of us managed perfectly well on 4 dinner plates, 5 side plates, 2 pasta bowls and 4 breakfast bowls when we broke the last unrepaired dinner plate and it was beyond any sensible repairing (flakes missing left right and centre), we called it a day. We replaced the dinner service that cost us a significant amount of money (£20 per plate when it was on sale) with one that cost us £20 for the entire 6 place service from Ikea....We added a couple of items to it, and bought a spare of everything, which was rather useful because I promptly dropped one of the bowls! :o_o: On the bright side we now have a dinner service that can go in the microwave (or the dishwasher we don't have) which is something we are really not used to because the last one couldn't go through either!

Cheap and cheerful with no attachments is the way forward for us.

We also have a few items from our attempted world cycle tour that are completely useless to us, but have that sentiment. We were given some handknitted thick woollen socks by a little old lady in Lithuania. We had camped the night on her granddaughters lawn (after asking directions to the nearest lake and deciding it was too far). The following day the grandmother had given us these socks, along with the rest of the family all giving us bits as well. The socks are really thick and we have never used them, probably never will, but it is the memory that is important from our time there. They were so very helpful and kind. The daughter had been appalled at us sleeping in a tent (it was later in the year than this and getting below zero at night - best time to camp in our opinion) and had actually offered us her flat in the town to stay the night in, but it was back the way we had come and we were happier in our tent.... I'll stop whittling... the link to our tour is below and given how few nights we spent in Lithuania it won't take long to find if anyone is actually interested... :whistling:
 
I've given up on sentimental attachments to inanimate objects. People are more important than crockery. A mug is a mug (and I'm determined not to be a mug). Anyway, I'm trying to de-clutter. All I want is nice white plates and mugs and bowls. :cool:
The mugs my boys decorated for Father's Day when they were young will always have a place in my cupboard !
 
My friends dad worked for a very up market china shop for 30 years ,he told me people would buy China and keep it in the safe as investments ,as he's now,retired and the company sold off he purchased a gravy boat for his set ( given to him by the owners of the company when he started)£75 !
He also has a set of old school hand blown crystal glasses and he told me of the history of his set and the blowers ranks of passage
And yes he does use his best crockery and glasses a lot
 
The mugs my boys decorated for Father's Day when they were young will always have a place in my cupboard !
As said the man interviewed on the radio 4 programme which I referenced.
I don't think my kids ever decorated any mugs and we never celebrated Father or Mother's Day in our family. I'm not sure why, except that neither me or my partner ever celebrated it in our respective families. Maybe its a class thing. Recently, my mother died and there was a box of things she left me which included my plaits! Cut off when I was ten! What on earth am I supposed to do with them? They have no sentimental value to me. And no (before anyone suggests it) I'm not going to have a hairpiece made from them.
 
As said the man interviewed on the radio 4 programme which I referenced.
I don't think my kids ever decorated any mugs and we never celebrated Father or Mother's Day in our family. I'm not sure why, except that neither me or my partner ever celebrated it in our respective families. Maybe its a class thing. Recently, my mother died and there was a box of things she left me which included my plaits! Cut off when I was ten! What on earth am I supposed to do with them? They have no sentimental value to me. And no (before anyone suggests it) I'm not going to have a hairpiece made from them.
My next tick of things to do is sort my lofts out , my plan is we will all have trunk I have two family trunks already from my grandad who was Put in a orphanage
We will then put the sentimental stuff in there
I am encouraging my parents and in laws to sort stuff now!
 
So sorry for your loss. Sometimes it is hard to let go of something that is near and dear to our hearts.
To others it may be just a mug but to you it was special. It holds memories and of good times shared.
 
So sorry for your loss. Sometimes it is hard to let go of something that is near and dear to our hearts.
To others it may be just a mug but to you it was special. It holds memories and of good times shared.

Thank you L_B. I knew you would understand:). I have read everything and I have made my decision. I just pulled it from the top of the garbage ( my husband must have put it there). No shame here. I have decided I will hold on to it for a little while longer and go out and try to find a couple of that size. I might even make my last mug cake from it.
 
One use for old broken china is to make it into a mosaic. There's even a name for it 'pique assiettes'. The French translation suggests to me that broken plates might work better than broken mugs, though....

Pique assiette.jpg
 
I have some kitchen ware and equipment that are old, but they are still useful, even though they may have some rust spots on them, so I would not get rid of them. However, if something is broken off, like a cup or mug handle, for instance, I have no trouble parting with the cup or mug since it would have lost its useful stage. I cannot drink a hot beverage out of a mug or cup that has no handle, so out goes that. A chipped plate is a bit different though, since it would still be useful. Basically, though, I do not consider myself to be sentimental where inanimate objects are concerned.
 
I have a sieve that I should have thrown away ages ago. I have no sentimental attachment whatsoever to the thing but still it hangs on. Some things cannot be explained by pure, cold logic. It's not that it's even that useful, having even more holes in it than a sieve should.

As that excellent band Half Man Half Biscuit observed, "There is surely nothing worse than washing sieves."
 
Odd cups and saucers seem to be very much in vogue ,so that's up to date in trends in our house ,
Odd plates you can get plate stand kits on eBay and you drill a hole in three plates and join them together so you have tiered plates for afternoon teas,I did a load for work they look real smart
 
I am encouraging my parents and in laws to sort stuff now!

With my parents having to sort out my grandfather's estate (his funeral was two weeks ago today) both of them have promised me that they won't leave the same for me to do. My grandfather never opened my grannie's cupboards (unless it was in the bedroom) after she died just under 5 years ago. He wasn't a hoarder like both my parents are, but it has taken them nearly 4 weeks to sort through his house and they haven't even done my grannies photos and albums. That has been my job. So far the back of my BMW estate had been filled twice with them!

On the bright side of things we have found photos of my brother where previously we had nothing of him at all before the age of 4, but most of what I have been given means nothing to anyone other than my grannie and it is really hard sorting through her stuff when she died nearly 5 years ago. She and I were close and I thought I had come to terms with her death, but I realise now, going through her stuff, how much I still miss her!

Sadly, I don't believe one word of my parents promise that they won't leave the same for us to go through, so I have threatened to kill them if they do!

Both my parents are hoarders. My mother still has my hair from my first hair cut, my crib and rocking horse... Too much has sentimental value for her. She is trying to get me to have my grandparents furniture because she wants it to stay in the family yet she won't store it for me when she has the bungalow with double garage and I live in a tiny house which used to be a stable block housing 2 horses only!
 
With my parents having to sort out my grandfather's estate (his funeral was two weeks ago today) both of them have promised me that they won't leave the same for me to do. My grandfather never opened my grannie's cupboards (unless it was in the bedroom) after she died just under 5 years ago. He wasn't a hoarder like both my parents are, but it has taken them nearly 4 weeks to sort through his house and they haven't even done my grannies photos and albums. That has been my job. So far the back of my BMW estate had been filled twice with them!

On the bright side of things we have found photos of my brother where previously we had nothing of him at all before the age of 4, but most of what I have been given means nothing to anyone other than my grannie and it is really hard sorting through her stuff when she died nearly 5 years ago. She and I were close and I thought I had come to terms with her death, but I realise now, going through her stuff, how much I still miss her!

Sadly, I don't believe one word of my parents promise that they won't leave the same for us to go through, so I have threatened to kill them if they do!

Both my parents are hoarders. My mother still has my hair from my first hair cut, my crib and rocking horse... Too much has sentimental value for her. She is trying to get me to have my grandparents furniture because she wants it to stay in the family yet she won't store it for me when she has the bungalow with double garage and I live in a tiny house which used to be a stable block housing 2 horses only!
There are so many things I see in your post ,what would I do with it ?
When my close relations died you get left rings and cuff links ,I've framed all of them ,I hide them when I go on holiday as to the value ,and the same with military cap badges and medals I frame them other wise they are lost in time ,pictures are the big ones ,I'm getting my parents to label them now and sort them
 
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