Sunday, January 23, 2022

I Am NOT A Hoarder. I Am A Collector Of Nostalgia


I am, let's face it, the Queen of Tchotchkes. I am not one of those people who love a clean, spare look. 
Well, that's not true. I do like that look but I've never been able to achieve it in my own home. I've never even really tried. And that's okay. Little children sit in my kitchen and look around and say, "I want a house just like this when I grow up," which charms me to pieces. 
Adults sit in my kitchen and wonder what sort of insane mind created this chaos. Probably. 
Lately though I've been looking around, especially in the kitchen, and thinking that at least I ought to clean some of my many objets d'art. My attention has been focused on the items I had hanging from the ceiling light above the island and the aprons hanging on the walls. 
All of those things were filthy. To put it mildly. 
The things hanging from the light fixture were the mobile you see above, a sort of copy of a Chinese glass wind chime that I bought from ebay eighteen years ago, and a glittery bird. 
And this morning, I started there. Mr. Moon, because he is taller than a giant, got them all down for me. I threw the bird away. She was simply done. The mobile I put in a sink full of warm soapy water and the wind chimes I cleaned as carefully as I could because the glue holding the strings on with little gold paper dots is weakening and the whole thing is fragile. I shined up the glass on it as best I could and re-glued the strings that had come unattached, and hung it up in the window where the pantry is. 


Some of the pieces of glass have fallen and broken but there it is. If any of you know where wind chimes like that can be bought, please let me know. They have always been my favorites and I just don't think they make them anymore. 

Then I started taking down aprons and wiping down walls. I cleaned a few plates that I have mounted above the kitchen door and put them back up. I took down my ristras




and ran them through the dishwasher with a punch bowl and a cake plate that live way, way up on top of the glass-fronted china cabinet. Mr. Moon had to get those down and while he was up there he cleaned the top of the cabinet. 
"Do you need some paper towels? Rags? What?" I asked him. 
"A plow," he said. I believed him. Who cleans things that high up? 
I took down things on top of the kitchen hutch and cleaned them. I took down my precious Mexican rooster and gently bathed him. 



I took down and wiped down the...flower things? that Hank gave me long ago that I have on the doors of the cabinet above the stove. 


And as you can clearly see, I never throw away any grandchildren artwork, whether drawn or colored or cut. 
There are more things, trust me. Ribbon strung tiny Mexican jugs, pictures, extremely tacky but colorful heads of una Senor y Senora. 
Sigh. 
Sigh. 
Sigh. 
I'll never, ever achieve a Zen emptiness and peacefulness in my decor. I know it. 
BUT, I am feeling a strong urge to get rid of the things that (gag) don't spark joy. 
The senor and senora may go. EVEN THOUGH every time I look at them I think of tiny Owen insisting that they were his mama and daddy. 
I'd say that I'm not going to put any aprons back up but Linda Sue sent me some recently that are so dang cute that I might have to reconsider that prospect.
I should probably think about taking down some of the grandchildren's artwork. I doubt they even remember it's up there. 
Well. Some of it. 

And that's mostly what I did today. I cleaned tchotchkes although I did take time to go outside and appreciate the fact that the sun came out today and the sky had all of the blue that can be fit into one sky. 


Last night's gumbo was so good that we're happily looking forward to finishing it tonight. I've picked greens to make a salad to go with it. 
It's cold and getting colder. 
Tomorrow I'm going to do something about that shelf over the sink which is now a repository for hundreds of chicken feathers and bowls of china shards we've found in this yard. I told Mr. Moon that I'm going to put them back out in the yard for someone else to find. 
"Let some other kids treasure hunt," I said. He laughed. 
Maybe I should put a grow light in there and check "raise African violets" off my bucket list. 
Okay. I don't have a bucket list but I have always wished I had a good spot to grow violets in. 
We shall see. 

Be well. 

Love...Ms. Moon






29 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Me too! And he's actually a candle holder. I've just always been afraid of burning down the house.

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  2. I'd like to wander around your house.

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  3. The Great God of Cleanliness and Order will be pleased with your endeavours and your karma dial will have risen considerably. In contrast, The God of Chaos will be mightily pissed off.

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  4. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000H6RKL4?tag=bestselling-books-20

    Not as cool but might pass! I had one in my room when i was little and every time I slammed the door on my Dad the chimes nearly broke from the force. I was a brat. Cleaning up top is ambitious! Must be done but whao what a chore. At least the aprons are small....

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    1. That is the same exact seller! She makes them. But did you notice that the item is "currently unavailable"? Been that way for quite awhile. I do still look sometimes.
      Why must cleaning things way up in the air be done? Who's ever going to see? I wouldn't have if Glen hadn't been up there. I always tell him that if he can see dirt that I can't and it bothers him to go right on ahead and clean it up.

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  5. Every week my mother-in-law would drag a chair around her house and hoist herself up and clean the top of stuff. I was reprimanded for not doing the same. I once mentioned I had a full time job, a part time job and a weekend job plus two children to feed, bathe, put to bed, get up and put out to play. But only once.
    My husband used to do things like whip the cushions from the sofa to demonstrate I did not vacuum under them. He was lucky I vacuumed on top! Anyway, I made it 9 years.
    My mil was 5'1" both ways. I don't know how she got up on chairs. She really was a nice woman and one fine cook.

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    1. Oh god. How in the world did you not smack the shit out of both your husband and your MIL at times? I can't believe you vacuumed at all!

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  6. Who cares what other people's kitchens look like? You do you. I learned that from a young coworker and I like it.

    I have cabinets that going to the ceiling now for that very reason, grease and dust and cat hair accumulating on top of the cabinets.

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    1. Excellent design, dear Pixie. Just eliminate that problem.

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  7. I love a clean spare look too, just not in my home. I'll settle for clean. I still have some of the artwork my kids did at school, but it's packed away in a box, in a suitcase, inside another suitcase, up in the top of the wardrobe, and has been since several moves ago. My sister is appalled that I didn't keep every little thing and display it all. I love your bits and pieces. My mum had one of those glass windchimes, with rectangular glass strips and one diamond shaped one lower in the middle to catch the wind and blow against the others.

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    1. At least you know where your kids' artwork IS! I'm impressed!
      Yes, those wind chimes used to be ubiquitous. I keep thinking that somewhere there must be a warehouse full of them, packaged and ready to be sent out into the world. They just need to be discovered.

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  8. I do love a house that is full of " stuff"....things that mean something to the owner. My house is full too! It does make cleaning much more of a chore though when 25 photo frames have to be moved to dust the sideboard top! Doesn't get done as often as it should therefore. Just looked over at my kitchen wall cupboards.......they have about an inch gap between them and the ceiling, best not try and check as they have been there for more years than I can remember!

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    Replies
    1. Yes! And who actually looks at the pictures? I mean, maybe once in awhile we do but mostly, they have simply become...part of the furniture. Right?
      Oh, no way you're going to be able to clean that inch gap between cabinets and ceiling. Just let it be.

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  9. I love that mobile in the first photo! I occasionally put everything on our kitchen windowsill and on the shelves through the dishwasher, so I know what you're going through. Fortunately we don't have much hanging on the walls in there, though.

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    1. I even wash my Cozumel beach glass in the dishwasher! I have an uppermost rack in mine that is perfect for the job.
      You are smart not to have too much hanging on the walls!

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  10. Now I may have to check out the stuff I have hanging on the kitchen walls...
    Thanks!

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  11. I've been looking at the long shelf above my sink lately that's filled with my little treasures, so dusty/dirty. I'm gonna have to follow suit soon. I do love your mobile. I have a glass wind chime, different from yours, that I got at an estate sale. Cleaned it up, restrung it and it hangs from a hook in the ceiling by the door to the garage, the one we use most often, and it tinkles every time we go in or out.

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    Replies
    1. When I was gluing string to dots and then glass yesterday I thought of you, Ellen! You are such a good putter-back-together lady. I love wind chimes.

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  12. I feel you! I’ll never be a minimalist either. Your wind chimes are vintage Japanese ones, my mother had one very much like yours. I checked on Etsy, where some are available, but at a very steep price! $175!!!!
    I love your Mexican rooster, he’s very handsome. I always feel so virtuous doing those rare “things high up” cleaning.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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    1. No, they're not the vintage kind. A lady made them and sold them on ebay but their design was indeed based on those vintage ones.
      Isn't funny the things that make us feel virtuous? Like...why? But I sure do know what you mean.

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  13. Darling Mary-
    I was talking to my friend Beth who is a housepainter and I told her I need her for the bathroom and the (gulp) kitchen. So many um, things in the kitchen that would have to be taken down. Don't even get me started about the top of the fridge and the hood over the stove, yuck with grease and dust and gawd knows what else. You have inspired me as you often do. XXX

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    1. Remember when the underneath of my old range hood was so bad that little tiny August asked his mother if they could bring over some rags to help me clean it? It bothered him so much! I'll never forget that. And I did clean it! I try to keep my new one clean-ish but we'll see how long that lasts. I wish I was getting my kitchen painted and not just because it needs it because it does but because it would make me take down all that stuff.

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    2. That greasy dust above the stove can be quite flammable because of the grease content, if you have a pot catch fire your stove hood could quite easily go up too, then your kitchen.....regular cleaning of that one area is highly recommended. Sorry to bring down the mood here :(

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  14. I love your knick-knacks - but cleaning them is something else, isn't it. As for cleaning walls - uuughhh! I once moved a picture from the white wood walls in my TV room and noticed the yellow stain from all those cigarettes my ex used to smoke. Had to wash the whole damn room down because it's never "just one spot", is it!

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    Replies
    1. Cleaning walls is a drag. My kitchen really needs repainting but my husband keeps saying, "But we used really good paint. You can clean it!" And I'm like, "Honey, it's been eighteen years. In some places I've cleaned the damn paint right off the wood."

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.