More Organization

Thrifting WonderlandHoliday decor, Photography, Room makeover18 Comments on More Organization

Welcome, Everyone, to the next installment on clean-out and organization. I am a bit of a crystal nut and I really like the “good stuff” but like most of you out there I can’t afford to spend $50 or more per glass of good crystal so I thrift store shop for crystal. Pretty much everything you will see in the cabinets today was thrifted. I know that sounds impossible but it’s been over about 12 years and it takes time to find bargains. THEY ARE OUT THERE. More than you think.

This week I collected the crystal glasses from all over the house. The only ones I’m not showing today are my everyday crystal which is Park Lane by Mikasa. I have been collecting it for a long time and now have a service for 12 in all the pieces except the Martini glasses. They are quite lovely and I use them everyday.

Once I had collected all the crystal together, I went through and identified all the patterns and the relative price of each piece. I used Replacements, Inc. for most of the pricing but also used Amazon for a few. Then I separated the crystal into what I wanted to keep out and what I needed to store or sell. The glasses that didn’t make it into either the display and use glasses or the keep to sell glasses went back to the Thrift Store.

Sounds easy but it took Hubby and I about two days to do that. I’m in the process now of creating a Master List with Mfg., pattern name, number of pieces, type of pieces and price.

In this part of the cabinet I have Opal Innocence by Lenox. Most of this was found at Goodwill and then pieces were added over the years. it is so pretty and I now have champagnes, white and red wine and water goblets. The nice part about this one is they still sell it new so you can add any pieces you are missing.

On the third and fourth shelves are a mix of Waterford, Mikasa and some hand blown green Mexican crystal. You would be surprised at how many times I find Waterford crystal in the stores for $1 a glass.

In this part of the cabinet I have crystal by Goddinger, Mikasa, Waterford, Pairpoint (very rare) and some silver goblets. It’s probably a bit more on the traditional side but I love the elegance of these older pieces. The yellow and pink tags have the information about the glass waiting to be incorporated into the Master List.

This cabinet holds Vera Wang, Goddinger, Mikasa, Calvin Klein, Waterford, and Fitz & Floyd. The Calvin Klein sell for $110 per glass. Of course, I didn’t pay anywhere near that much but they are fun balloon glasses for red wine. I found the Vera Wang as a set of 8 red and 8 white wine glasses. The cost of the entire set was less than one glass. It was a very lucky find.

The final cabinet holds Franciscan, Rockport, and some unusual pieces and more modern shapes. I love to mx and match crystal in a table setting and now I can see what I have and it’s all in one place.

Here’s a look at the whole cabinet. I’m also going through the bottom part of the cabinet and organizing for trays, platters, etc. It’s great to feel so organized.

I imagine some of you are thinking, “What was she thinking to buy so much stuff?” I ask myself that question a lot. However, the things that I have and collect are used all the time. They are not stored away for best as I think every day should be best. We enjoy using beautiful pieces and knowing it did not cost much money. Seems like a Win, Win to me especially now that I am only keeping what I can accommodate in realstic storage.