DH enjoys the final product when I've done a tablesetting. He does think I am a bit nuts while I am mapping out a table, but oh well, everyone has some hobby, no? That said, he doesn't approve of the cabinets in my office being filled with heavy dishes. He keeps warning me that the cabinets are going to just fall off of the wall sooner or later. I store all of my red dishes for Valentines, 4th of July and Christmas overflow in the cabinets over my desk in the office. Also in the office cabinets are my stacking plates, 20 Thanksgiving plates (Kohl's sale last Fall), 20 W/S white pasta bowls, 20 square white salad plates. Oh, 2 trifle bowls as well. Then there is the pantry closet - I store my "Autumn" china - service for 12, missing some pieces, which my DM gave me. The china was her wedding china so I love to use it as soon as the Summer ends. Lenox Holiday China - full service for 20 plus extra dinner plates stored in closet in D/R. Serving pieces are being stored at DM as she has a full basement crying out for dish storage. Lenox "Amythest", my wedding china is stored in the china closet in the D/R. Full service for 16. Everyday white W/S bistroware is in the kitchen cabinets - service for 16. Do you see where I'm going with this? I am not accounting for all of the stemware, serving dishes and the like which I have accumulated over the years:). Most are in the pantry closet, but many are stashed here and there!. I don't purchase everything in sets. My Thanksgiving plates from Kohls have a leaf pattern on the edge, so I picked colors from the leaves and purchased accompanying solid color plates to complete the place settings. Also, I've found with using white dishes, I can play with the table a bit more putting in different whites or colors if I like. No basement in our home, so I have made creative use of just about every other space, conventional or not. I just gave DB and DSIL my Mikasa (forget the pattern name) dishes as they have the same pattern, and I replaced the Mikasa with the bistroware which is much more versitile for me. Then there are the linens, oh my. I have so many tablecloths and napkins it is sick. But remember all of these were collected over 20 some odd years. I love to do nice tablesettings and to do them, a gal must have the things that are needed! We host all of the holidays at our home, so I guess I can somewhat justify having all of the necessary items to entertain 10-20 people at a time. I actually thought I had a dish problem until I found this forum. Can't wait to read more responses. Great topic!

I love this thread and hearing about everyone's china! I love blue and white and have: several different brands of Asiatic Pheasant (all English) in different blues, Johnson Brothers Indies, and Masons Fruit Basket Blue (This is what I use for everyday -- these blues) I have scads of Spode plates as well (in both Blue Room and Blue Italian) and use some as everyday dishes and some as company dishes -- I do have platers and bowls and covered vegetable bowls to go with the Blue Room/Blue Italian as well as blue and white turkey plates by Wedgwood and Myott. My Christmas dishes are Royal Doulton Tartan and I hand carried them home from England -- 8 plates, cups and saucers for $12 -- what was I thinking -- why I didn't get 16 or 24 at that price I don't know! Over the years I have accumulated 12 plates, cups and saucers. I also bought some Lennox Holiday salad plates which look good with the Tartan and gives me Christmas dessert/salad plates. I have my grandmother's china -- Noritake marcasite and it's a cream with gold trim -- I really like it and feel like it sets an elegant table. I also have some Famille Rose patterns which I mix and match -- Spode Famille Rose, Wedgwood Cuckoo and Aynsley Pembroke -- not the new Pembroke but the old one from the turn of the century. I have enough for 8 in those patterns and also have a tea pot, sugar and creamer (in the new Pembroke) so I can use the set for tea. And then I have Noritake Duluth which is a 1920's pattern which is a really pretty delicate pattern with a blue band and pink roses. (I use that one the least and have moved it down to the basement -- I can access it but it isn't filling up my china cabinets LOL!) My "wedding china" was Wedgwood Runnymeade -- which I still adore but my daughter admired it and wanted it and so it was our gift to her for her wedding -- we had 4 place settings and when the three of us went to England we bought 4 more -- and hand carried it home! I adore china and am always being enticed by a new pattern. I use my dishes a lot for we like to have company and it's fun to use different dishes to set a table. I also have my mother's wedding silver-plate, my husband's grandmother's sterling, a set of sterling that we bought for $25 at an auction (everyone saw "stainless" on the knife blade and thought that was what it was!). My crystal was Waterford Kylemore and I still adore it

We do not have a proper laundry room either (oh how I wish we did!), but i do have the planning desk in the kitchen like Treasuretheday, where we stash the 'not too unattractive', large food bin. Also the water bowl. We have two large Boxers and I agree with Outsideplaying... it helps to elevate the bowls for large dogs. I purchased a feeding station from Amazon, it looked like wood, but was not. After a few months, with water slopping down inside it started to smell, so out it went! Then I was on the hunt for tall metal or wrought iron stands, but boy are they expensive, and hard to find! I took a friends advice and bought metal plant stands, at Garden Ridge. They are just the right height, and the base for the flower pot is just the right diameter to fit a glass mixing bowl. They don't look bad in the kitchen, and after the dogs eat, I scoot the stands under the desk behind their big water bowl. The plant stands was a great idea, and really inexpensive.

We have a range with oven plus a wall oven, which I know is a luxury. The wall oven is the primary one so towels on the range oven door handle only flirt with the floor on holidays and they're too busy to be drying then! We have adopted the system my neighbor introduced me to - white terrycloth towels (buy in bulk at Costco) are hand towels. Flat-weave colored towels are for drying dishes, never hands. So the dish towels are still clean after drying the dishes because you never used them on your hands. Your system could be different, but this made sense to me. At the end of the day they all migrate to the laundry room. Life is too short for musty towels and worrying about bacteria. Dish sponges too, washer and dryer.