I said that this week I would tell you what I have in my kitchen to use - or at least start. Obviously the amount and assortment of plates, etc. that you need will vary by what you use them for, how many of you there are, and what you need. I wanted to tell you what we have, why we have it and where I keep it and how I organize it to help you decide what you might need.
In the wall cabinet over my dishwasher I have a set of everyday dishes for 8. Why 8? This was the standard set for dishes when we were married. We also never thought that we would stay a family of 2. We have dinner dishes, bowls for soup or cereal, small plates (for cake or side dish), cups, and saucers. Do we need them all, not really, but we do not want to break up the set and if we break some - oh, that’s right. I actually have 15 bowls, 2 of which have small chips. I broke a bowl - okay, I have broken several bowls, but the others were replaced. When I went to replace the latest broken and the 2 chipped bowls I found out that the company had completely changed the shape of the bowls and complained. They sent me 8 bowls in the new shape - free. I am used to the old shape and will need to break a few more before I switch to the new ones. So the old ones are with my dishes and the new ones are in the other wall cabinet with my glasses. (Since I use ceramic dishes the chipped bowls are good for use around the house where an electric connection has to be made, say with an extension cord, that would be sitting on carpet and could be a fire hazard. I use the chipped bowls to hold the connections and help to prevent a possible fire.
I do not keep the set together - a stack of dinner plates, a stack of small plates, a stack of bowls... I used to. I realized that it was inefficient to keep it all like that. I am on the short side and can only reach the bottom 2 shelves of my wall cabinets (and only the front of the 2nd shelf ). So I decided that it was silly to keep things together just because “one does”. I put what I use most often where I can reach it without a step and the rest above where I need a step to reach it.
So on the bottom shelf of the cabinet I have 2 dinner size dishes from the set in a stack with 4 other dinner size dishes. 2 of these others are “Corelle”. I use these for working on as well as in the microwave. (My ceramics can go in the microwave or the oven, but I prefer not to put them in the microwave.) I also use these for cutting up food on. The other 2 are heavy weight plastic plates. They were inexpensive and are used under food in the refrigerator - such as for meats which might leak.
Next to the dinner size plates I have 6 of the 8 small plates, mixed with 2 of the saucers and 2 “Corelle” small plates. We do not actually use the cups and these saucers are used under gravy servers and such. The “Corelle” plates are used for the same purposes as the larger ones. Why 6 of the 8? That is what fits in the space with the other 4 plates.
Between the two stacks of plates I keep the bottles of our medications. They stay dry and are convenient for filling our weekly pill boxes on Saturday nights.
I have a wire rack which sits over all of the above so I can put more items on this same shelf - remember I can’t reach too far above it without climbing up. On the wire rack I have 4 stacks of bowls - the 7 soup bowls to my dishes, 3 of the 7 (broke one of these also) small bowls that match my dishes, 2 small serving bowls (same company as my dishes, different pattern), and 2 “Corelle” small serving (or large soup) bowls. I think what most of these bowls are used for is obvious. The “Corelle” bowls are used for the microwave as are the plates.
Boy, all that on one shelf. This is probably about 90% of the dishes we use for dinner. I can reach what I need and put it away easily. Storage this way is easy for me.
Between the wire rack and cabinet wall, standing up is a trivet and our small collection of rarely used takeout menus.
Do you store your dishes as sets or as you need to use them?
“Corelle” is a trademark name of items made by Corning Glass. I am not endorsing in any way the plates, merely mentioning that I use these unique plates/bowls in this manner.
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