Laura over at The Occasional Nomads wrote a post about mugs the other day. It has inspired this mug post from me. It also inspired a winter-clean-out of the mug cupboard! As you can see above, we had more mugs than space.
The truth is, our coffee machine does not have a lot of height for mugs. All the tall mugs had been pushed to the back of the cupboard because they are too difficult to use. Supervisor Kitty appeared, as she always does when anything is happening in the kitchen –
Under her careful supervision, I pulled all the mugs out of the cupboard and now you can see why many were stacked on top of each other –
How did all of these mugs ever fit in that cupboard? I have no idea. When I pulled them all out, I realised that every mug has a story to go along with it – where it originally came from and memories from times they were used. Some of our mugs were gifts – some wanted, some most definitely not wanted. Some of our mugs were purchased in an attempt to find the perfect mug, but when it came to using them they did not live up to expectations.
The Other Half and I made some difficult decisions – to say goodbye to some much loved mugs and send them off to find homes where the owners might have a coffee machine with more height available, or maybe they drink instant and don’t have to worry about the height of their mugs.
The brown and white mugs were part of a dinner set but the handles are weird. Not a fan. The mint slice mugs were a Christmas gift. The cartoon cats were a gift from my Mother, but these are super tall and thin and do not hold a lot of coffee. The need more coffee set are very small – good for the afternoon coffee, but one of them is now chipped. The other four were an unwanted gift and they are too small.
Mugs are in constant danger in my kitchen. Life is a daredevil adventure for them! There is a reason many of my plates, cups and bowls are plastic.
These are some of the too tall mugs that I would have loved to keep but am letting go of. We simply do not use them. Here are the goodbye mug friends all packed and ready to go to their new home –
And here is the mug cupboard when the task was completed.
There was even space for the non-mugs to reside in their own area. Measuring jugs, plastic mugs which I usually use for making chicken stock or reheating soups..
Much better! I did keep some tall mugs which you can see at the back because I sometimes use them for tea plus they have sentimental value. This has actually turned into two posts – I will tell you about the keeper mug friends next week.
I had just about that many mugs too, but when I was moving here I only kept the ones I used the most, because I knew there wasn’t space for the rest. There’s a couple that I couldn’t let go of even though I don’t use them and they’re stashed safely n a cupboard. All the ones I do use are hanging on hooks in the kitchen, there’s only eight. I ditched about two dozen drinking glasses too, since I only ever use three favourites.
We had a horde of mugs ourselves before moving to Spain. We gave all to a thrift shop; keeping my three favorites as supply holders in my office. We then bought a set of plain white mugs when we arrived here (which we hardly use) and are now starting to amass a collection of souvenir mugs from people who visit. Uf!
I purged my coffee mugs last year, but neglected to tackle the other shelves in the glass cabinet. Figured out the other day it’s time to do that.
Your first picture made me wonder where all my fun mugs are. Probably in storage. But then, oh my what a lot of mugs! We all collect something, don’t we, whether we mean to or not. I wish I was closer, I’d take some of those cat mugs. :)
I am very attached to my mugs, just as you are(the memories!) but need to go through them, as they are very precariously stacked on one another in my cupboards.