In my last house, I kept my everyday dishes in the middle drawer of a 36" pot & pan drawer that was in the peninsula, perpendicular to the dishwasher -- standing at the dishwasher I could just pop everything into the drawer. It was wonderful - no more lifting stacks of heavy stoneware from a wall cabinet. I'll repeat it in the new house, but in the island because there's no peninsula. I used an organizer but I don't plan to use it this time. I found it easy to scrape knuckles on the posts, and when I removed them, nothing moved so I think I'll leave them out. Incidentally, the bottom drawer in that stack held paper goods. A church study group met at our house each week. People rotated bringing snacks, and I supplied napkins, cups, drinks, plates, etc. Everything was in that drawer, and I could get it out and put it away in a minute. Very handy! Arlene

What I fun thread! I'm late to the party but a few thoughts. 1) Re the poster above: I think pearls, and diamonds, do go with anything. I would say though, that right now, white pearls are less popular. I say this as someone with quite a large collection of them; they were always my favorite. But in the last five years or so I pretty much only wear my oversized grey south seas pearls. 2) In re "investment". Sorry, not really, not at all. Jewelery has some of the most egregious markups in retail. It can go in and out of fashion, also potentially eroding value. And it can be easily damaged. We recently liquidated a family estate, and I was shocked to hear that some of the diamond rings were quite highly devalued because "they had been worn 'too often' and had damage (not visible to the eye". That was news to me, that I am damaging my diamond by wearing it. 3) Girls and jewelry. My girls were both born very close to Christmas. The thought of trying to buy them gifts just a few weeks later was maddening and wasteful. So, starting when the first turned one and second was newborn, I buy them each a piece of fine jewelry each birthday. They cannot wear it -- it is kept in a safe -- but they get a great deal of enjoyment from it just the same (every few months they beg us to take it out and try it on). They will receive the jewelry to wear on their 16th birthday. I try to buy "timeless" things, and items I can see both a 16yo and a 46yo wear. 4) Watches. I wear mine for decorative purposes. In fact, given how wildly expensive the maintenance is on luxury watches (several hundred dollars every 2-3 years), I am considering letting them go and using them only for jewelry! What a crock these sellers are. 5) Everyday jewelry. I wear my engagement ring and wedding band. Usually with diamond studs but I have a lot of earrings I switch out. My engagement ring is a round diamond in a square basket setting, copied from my grandmother's ring. I lost my wedding ring, which was a rolling ring with two gold bands and one pave diamond band. I lost it about 18 months ago, but I kept thinking it would show up. I am so bummed. I just recently bought a plain gold Cartier wedding band with the little screw motif. It's simple but a little different, and it goes with my favorite daytime watch, which is the iconic gold/stainless Cartier tank with the little screws. This thread needs photos!

I moved to a smaller space recently (although the kitchen is actually bigger) so I did a lot of purging.. I allocated one top shelf for company casual 12 water glasses, 6 wine glasses and 6 martinis. I don't entertain as much anymore and that should be more than enough. I limited myself to a medium size bottom shelf for the regular everyday hodge-podge including plastic mobile versions for summer, etc. It has been more than enough and is probably half of what I used to have. As they break, I shouldn't have to replace for many years -- unless the hodge-podge randomness becomes unattractive and I feel a need to reset with a matched set. I've also noticed that newer dishwashers have smaller capacity, presumably from all the insulation keeping them quieter. So the glasses turn over more and do not get stored in the d/w for awhile -- reducing my need for even as many as I've got.

I probably have more than I need but not an extreme amount. As you can see, women have a tendency to buy more shoes than they can possibly ever wear and that's where I come in. Almost all of my shoes are from Goodwill or yard sales but still new and usually brand name (anyone else ever buy a pair of Merrells for 50 cents??? Clarks for $4.50????) I do buy my running shoes from other sources since they have to be Asics but it's easy to find a good deal on those. I buy one pair at a time, wear them until they need to be replaced, then I buy a new pair. I keep the old pair on hand in case I need a pair of getting dirty shoes (yard work, painting, etc). Whenever I get a new pair, I shift them and throw the oldest pair out so I always only have two pairs of running shoes.