Well now that some of us have unburdened ourselves about collecting foodstuffs, what about cookware, knives, serving pieces, linens, wine glasses & etc. ?
I plead guilty to all of the above & probably have about 1500 cookbooks. I do need a 12 step program…
1500?! Wow. That’s quite a library. Honestly I have no idea, I guess cook books + magazines + books about food = a few hundreds, should I include ebooks too?
I like looking at bowls, dishes, cups and other serving pieces like trays in shops and on internet. Luckily due to limit cupboard space and resources, I can’t have everything, but once I’ve decide on a collection, I tried to gather as much as I can on that collection, sometimes YEARS, I wait for the sales, outlet sites.
I have also a lot of different cake moulds tin, silicones, stainless steel etc, much more than I ever need in bakery.
Cake stands, frequently glass … or at least I aspire to collect them faster than I can break them!
Serving plates…GUILTY
I need to present with beauty…
Have been known to purchase antique and modern serving plates when the kids come for breakfast…( we are empty nesters)…
Terrible habit I have …except when you plate a side of poached Salmon with a garlic mayo sauce… on a beautiful plate…!!
Yes, I do think e-books count. I have so many of those I forget what I have; fortunately A lets me know if I’ve already bought something. Also I’ve bought a lot of stuff at charity shops or yard sales. (Here in Wa they are more frequently called garage sales)
I have to admit that I need to stay away from Home Goods, Target and Goodwill. I would like to buy stuff for gifts, but the spawn live in very small city apartments in Seattle.
To make it worse my BFF doesn’t seem to like stuff and has generously given me some of her late mother’s kitchen & dining items. Several pieces of Polish pottery, tropical serving pieces & other wonderful things. She is moving & is doing serious purging.
Oh & forgot the very old couple of Boston cookbooks, Very well used antique heirlooms IMO.
Kitchen Christmas stuff here. Seems I buy another towel or two every season. A bit amusing to see a reindeer towel or Santa’s Workshop on the towel rack in late March.
Absolutely agree!
Old single-serving teapots and coffee biggins. I used to serve guests their own brew but now I’m too lazy. But they are cute. The aluminum teapots were from the railroad dining cars, I think.
Linen table cloths. Sometimes the huge white ones can be had for a song. Linen dyes like a dream. Have made smaller cloths, napkins and even clothes from big cloths w/burns or holes. That linen! Can’t get the likes of it today.
Blenko glass water bottles. The flat kind.
I would like to collect transferware but there has to be a limit. And the old stuff is fragile.
I’m too old to be a minimalist. But for me a collection is “a few” not many, many.
I left out teapots, it is one of my soft spots. Most in ceramics and porcelain, a few in glass, one in cast iron. Actually I don’t own a clay one yet. 
I forgot shot glasses. 23 so far as souvenirs of our travels.
You will need to hide your eyes if you were to dine at my place. Since I usually have small dining room tables, Thanksgiving and other holiday gatherings that I host will usually involve a few things being served in recycled take-out boxes or the dish it came out of the oven from to conserve space. 
No joke – I like pretty plates too, but they are usually so big! Not efficient for tight spaces.
Aside from way too many gadgets/appliances, which we’ve discussed in various threads, I can’t say I’m over the top with other things. The small space forces me to show more restraint.
With that being said, I do have a lot of lunch/bento boxes. And the one thing that probably is more ‘useless’ is pretty chopsticks. I probably have about 10 pairs of artistic chopsticks that I find too pretty to use, on top of the 20 pairs of plain ones that get used daily. The pretty ones will end up sitting there in the box until someone buries them with me one day.
I have zero teapots! 
There’s still hope for me yet!
I probably have more knives and more teapots/teaware than average.
Same here except over 350. If I count the money that I spent on shot glasses I just cry!
Do you have any “sentimental” favorites?
I just looked through our collection and decided my favorites are from the Babe Ruth Museum in Baltimore, The Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, and Whitefish Point Lighthouse on the shore of Lake Superior.
Can’t say if I have a favorite, but when I decide to clean or move them a litte it sure does bring back great memories. I keep mine in and on top of a antique pie safe that I purchased 30 or more years ago.
We need to coordinate your plates, my domes. Domes are my guilty pleasure. Big cake domes. Small butter domes. Intermediate cheese domes.
But regular guests do come into the dining room now and peek to see what cheeses are under one dome, and if there is any dead giveaway about dessert under another.
But what really float my boat are European meter-square linen table napkins. With big white-on-white embroidered initials. Tedious to iron, but so pleasant to set a table. I don’t use tablecloths, just mats and these big folded napkins.
These are fairly inexpensive in country flea markets. Up through the early 1900s, young girls would embroider a set of 12 for their hope chest/dowry. Often these were considered “too good to use”, at least with any frequency, so they were kept in a chest or cabinet until an eventual estate sale. It makes me happy to think that these young women share pride of place at our table.
