How many sets of Dishes do you have & Where do you Store it All?

So many of you have asked those questions that I thought I would do a whole post to answer.

I have a LOT of dishes. I don't know how many. It seems a few years back I attempted to count them and it was something like 30 different dinner plate patterns. Here are a just few of them:

I don't have full sets of all of them. I like an eclectic table and prefer to mix and match, so I buy a lot of item in sixes--six dinner plates, six salad plates, six wine glasses, etc.

I am very fortunate to have a lot of cupboards. I have been collecting dishes for a long time. About 17 years ago we had a good sized family room/kitchen addition put on our very small ranch-style home. Because I already had the dish addiction, I designed my kitchen storage space to accommodate them. This is my main dish storage space. It's 8ft of extra deep shelves. There are 24 shelves. The four cupboards above hold extra large items--things like baskets of cookie cutters, large Tupperware cake and pie holders, etc. I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful this wall of cupboards is! In the beginning, I had a few shelves that were empty. I think they remained empty for about two years. Now, of course, I have these shelves stacked to the max.

I like to use felt rounds between the plates to prevent scratching. I learned that from Martha many years ago.

I also have a section of cupboards directly opposite this one that holds glassware. These shelves are just normal depth. I don't know how many stemmed glasses I own. It's a lot and I love them all.

That center blue glass is all alone because I have the others on the table right now.

This center cabinet holds only my amber colored glassware. When the world hated amber, I loved it and as you can see, I accumulated quite a collection. I also have one of those extra deep cupboards full of Tiara amber glass plates, cups, saucers, etc.

In the kitchen I also have this cabinet which holds more glassware on the top and table linen on the bottom.

Everyday glasses are here:

Everyday dishes here:

I have 4 china cabinets/hutches that I use in different rooms to store items. I try to arrange my items in pleasing vignettes, which I change now and then. It's not only great storage space, but it's also a way to enjoy the dishes when they are not on the table. This cabinet has a display of peach lustre dishes.


This curio holds only red and white wine glasses.

The hidden part of this cabinet holds charger plates and placemats (and a few pencils!).

This is part of a large entertainment center in the family room. It holds more glasses and centerpiece items like the huge martini glass.

The bottom of the peach lustre display cabinet holds tablecloths and napkins. It's overflowing and I am planning to move the napkins into these boxes that I recently purchased and put on top of the silver storage cabinet. So there you have most of my dish storage spaces...at least the spaces that are somewhat neat and tidy. I also have a full basement that is unfinished. Thus, it's only purpose is to store things. ..a dish collectors dream! There are two or three sets of china down there.

Wow, as I read through this, even I am amazed at just how much space I have for my hobby. I guess I planned that kitchen addition pretty well. It may not be fancy, but it works very nicely for me.