Disclaimer: This post does include affiliate links for your convenience. This is at NO additional cost to you but earns me a small commission. To read more, check out our disclosure policy.

How I Organize and Store My Dish Collection

One of my most asked questions is how and where I keep my dish collection. If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that I have a lot of dishes. I figured it was finally time to share all the details of my dish pantry and how I organize and store my collection. Keep scrolling for dish organization tips.

Organize by Color

One of the easiest ways to keep track of what I have is to organize by color. It makes it much easier when I’m creating a tablescape to be able to see everything in color order. It also looks really pretty!

I love how the pastel colors are in one section.

Another question I get asked often is where do I buy or find all my dishes. Many of them are from Homegoods, some are from the dollar store, many are vintage that I’ve found in antique shops and online from Replacements, Etsy, Mercari, and eBay. I am really good at finding dishes anywhere! My husband can attest to that!

I also store my serving pieces, pitchers, and cake stands in color order.

Utilize Extra Storage in the Kitchen

I am also fortunate to have a lot of storage in the kitchen area, and I’ve managed to fill up those extra spaces with dishes too!

The yellow and white sunflower dishes are hand-painted, and I found them at a dollar store almost 20 years ago when my husband was stationed in Kansas in the US Army. I still love these dishes as much as I did when I bought them, and I’m so glad I saved them!

One thing I really love about my kitchen area is that there is a built-in china cabinet and a side bar area. I have filled up this space with dishes too! I know, shocker! LOL, I store my favorite silver and gold sets in this cupboard along with some antique milk glass.

How to Store and Organize Cake Stands and Serving Dishes

I store odd-shaped items like cake stands and pitchers on the top shelves, and I put my serving dishes and trays on the bottom shelf as they tend to be heavier and are easily stacked on top of each other. I organize them by shape and color.

I also use wire baskets to store smaller items.

Mixing the Old with the New

I collect vintage and antique dishes. Some of these have been gifts from my mother, and the rest I have found one piece at a time. One of my favorites is depression glass. Mixing vintage dishes with newer items adds character and charm.

My Blue Dish Obsession

I don’t know why I’m drawn to blue so much, but I can never pass up blue dishes! Maybe it takes me back to my Danish, Swedish, and English roots.

I’m especially drawn to English china patterns. Some of these are antiques, and some are replicas that are making a comeback. I’ve mixed the old with the new in this section. I also love Royal Copenhagen and hope to have a set of it someday!

I also collect Polish Pottery, which is handmade at a handful of different factories in Poland. I dream of visiting these factories someday!

Last year, I had already outgrown this space in the pantry, so I decided to do a little remodel of the space to make it more functional as well as create more shelf space.

You can see in the photo above that the shelves are starting to bow a little in the middle. We added new supports to the shelves and replaced some of the shelves that were damaged.

The dish storage now extends all the way to the back of the pantry, where the food is, and the bare wall now has shelving that wraps around to the other side. I shifted all the food and other pantry items to the back section.

I like to keep my pantry staples in bins and containers so that it’s easier to find things and stay organized.

Organizing by Season

Last summer, I had this crazy idea to put all my red, white, and blue dishes in one section during the month of July in honor of  Independence Day. It was a lot more work moving the dishes around than I anticipated, and I was regretting my crazy idea, but when it was all done, I was glad I did it. To see more of my Patriotic Pantry, click here: Patriotic Dish Pantry Post

I put all the red, white, and blue dishes and serving pieces in one section, then added a flower arrangement and a few other items to the shelves.

You can also see the supports we added to the shelves above. This has helped keep the heavy dishes from bowing the shelves.

The Details

I’ll share a few more of the close-up photos of all the dishes below for those who love to see the details! I know many of you will want to see some of the dish patterns up close.

The light pink dishes are depression glass.

I love gold and white dishes. The gold and white scalloped plates are vintage pieces that I’ve collected one by one. They are Limoges Haviland, Ranson Pattern. I love mixing these older dishes in with the newer sets I have.

Thanks for stopping by, and don’t forget to subscribe to my blog so you’ll never miss a post!

xoxo,

I’ll link some of my favorite dishes below!

Here’s a link for the Antique Limoges Haviland Ranson Pattern China mentioned above. You can find depression glass at antique stores and online. It comes in many colors.

The post How I Organize and Store My Dish Collection appeared first on Home With Holly J.

Patriotic Dish Pantry Organization

I have so many red, white, and blue dishes so I thought it would be fun to organize them by color. This patriotic dish pantry organization project was definitely more work than I had expected and I was wondering what the heck I was thinking after I started! At first, I did it with all the colors mixed together and I didn’t like it very much. I have a lot more blue and white dishes than red dishes and there was not enough red to balance it out. I then moved all the red to the middle and did white and blue above and below with more white on the top shelf.

Disclaimer: This post does include affiliate links for your convenience. This is at NO additional cost to you but earns me a small commission. To read more, check out our disclosure policy.

Dish Collecting

I have been collecting dishes since my early twenties and I’ve accumulated some really beautiful pieces over the years. One of my favorites are polish pottery dishes. I have a lot of the blue stars pattern which is so fun to use for the patriotic holidays. I collected many of these when my husband was serving in the military twenty years ago.

I like collecting a variety of dinnerware as well as serving pieces. I’m a sucker for a pretty serving bowl or cake stand!

The red and white dishes also work for the Christmas season. I love dishes that do double or triple duty in that they can be used for multiple seasons and occasions.

Another thing I love to collect is white milk glass. There are so many beautiful patterns that were made years ago that add so much character to my collection.

 Organizing Your Dishes and Serving Pieces

Organizing the dishes is not as hard as it may seem. I try to keep like colors together and then stack plates biggest to smallest. I also like to stack similar shaped items.

Set smaller items like teapots on top of the stacked plates or serving pieces. This saves room and allows you to have the smaller, lighter things on top that are easier to access.

Alternate the heights of the different pieces. You can see here on the top shelf that I put the taller items in the corners, smaller items next to them, and then a taller focal point in the middle using the pitcher.

Add Some Character to Your Shelves

I added some red, white, and blue flowers to one of my tall white pitchers and set it on top to add some character and color. Since I had all white up top, I added a few of my favorite white and blue vases. This adds a little pop of color to the upper shelf and a pretty focal point.

Add some signs or other accessories to fill in gaps. It’s fun to dress the shelves up!

I hung this flag sign on the door that leads into the pantry.

You don’t have to have a ton of dishes in every color to create something like this. Start small and if you enjoy collecting dishes and have the storage space, pick one color and search for those pieces. I tend to be inspired by what season it is and that helps me refine what I’d like to add to my dish collection.

You can never go wrong with collecting white dishes. They go with everything and you’ll get a lot of use out of them.! I use ALL my dishes. Nothing is off limits and I figure they were meant to be used and enjoyed.

I hope you enjoyed seeing this fun little project of organizing my red white and blue dish collection. This was a lot of work to move so many dishes around but now that it’s done, I’m so happy I took the time to do it!

To see more of my dish collection check out this post: My Pantry Organization Project

Enjoy!

Here are some of the sources or similar items I have collected to create this patriotic pantry.

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Disclaimer: This post does include affiliate links for your convenience. This is at NO additional cost to you but earns me a small commission. To read more, check out our disclosure policy.

My Pantry Organization Project

When we bought this home, one of the things I liked the most about it was how big the pantry was! With my love of cooking and entertaining, this was a big priority for me. The pantry was an excellent size, but I really needed to find a better system to store all my dishes and pantry items. I happened to see that one of my followers had an organizing business, and when I clicked on her profile, I was so excited to see that she was near my Highland, Utah home.  I reached out, and she graciously agreed to come help me tackle my pantry organization project. This job seemed so overwhelming at first, but with the help of a professional organizer, it was a total transformation! Keep scrolling to see these pantry organization tips that sparked such a positive change in my home!

The Before

The After Transformation

Alicia immediately shared so many great pantry organization tips to make this pantry organized and functional. She was thorough and asked me questions about our use of the room, took photos and measurements then was off to work! She came back later with bins, boxes, baskets, and other storage items that worked with my style and the functionality we wanted in our pantry.

Dish Storage

I get asked where I store all of my dishes quite frequently. Before I met Alicia, I had some of them in the back of the pantry stacked in order with similar colors and styles. I stored others in cupboards and other cabinets in the kitchen. When I’m creating my tablescapes, I’ve found that I need to be able to see all the dishes in one place and have easy access to them. The pantry organization by color helps me save a lot of time when I’m in my creative mode! Alicia took this piece of information and decided to make a few changes from my previous set up. She suggested that we move the dishes to the front of the pantry and the food and other items to the back. This way, when the pantry door is open, you see the beautiful dishes instead of all my food, and I LOVE the way it turned out!

Organization Continued

For my food and other pantry items, it was important for me to have my storage solution be easily accessible and functional. I wanted it to look nice and organized, but at the end of the day, I need efficiency! Alicia separated out all the food and organized it by different types. We’ve got a bin for salty snacks, sweeter snacks, and one for our crackers and chips. She used different storage containers and systems for canned goods, perishables, and my paper goods. She helped us store all of our non-aesthetic kitchen accessories in the right places. This will also keep them organized (like our zip lock bags, food storage, and bulk items).

This has made such a huge difference in the functionality of our pantry from before! We are loving the changes and it has been easy to maintain. It took a week or so to remember and get used to where everything is stored now, but it has been nice having the set spots to keep things clean!

I learned so much from Alicia! Here’s a few of the pantry organization tips I took away from this whole pantry organization project that can hopefully help you brainstorm ways to incorporate some of these things in your living space too!

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Holly’s (and Alicia’s) Pantry Organization Tips:

*When buying your storage and organizing items, make sure they are functional for YOU and your needs!

*Arrange items that are similar in style or in usage together so it is easier to keep it organized longer!

*Make sure things are labeled well and that you do a walk thru with your family to show them where everything is so that everyone can help keep it organized. You can even enlist their help! I have always included my kids in projects around the home as I think it gives them ownership and helps them learn good skills at the same time.

*Throw out things that have been around for way too long! Purging feels so good! Before Alicia came, I made sure to purge items I no longer needed and any expired food items. I think I threw out at least 10 bags of half eaten chips.  Please tell me I’m not the only one who has done this!

*Put things you use more frequently in easier to reach places. I am short, so I keep a step ladder in the pantry so I can reach the upper shelves.

Isn’t She Amazing?!

*Organize bins for things you use frequently together. One of my favorite ideas that Alicia had was creating a smores bin. We have a fire pit out back and love using it with the kids! The bin has everything we need for smores, and it has made it easy to take the whole bin outside!  Depending on your needs, you can create bins for things you use the most. I wanted a basket or bin for baking items so I can just pull out the bin and everything is there.

*While stacks of OXO containers may look beautiful with all of the snacks in them, it might not be realistic. Especially for families with little kids who go through snack items quickly and change up snacks frequently! A big basket of snacks, like we put in our pantry as well, is a lot less maintenance!

*Organize your dishes and serving pieces stored by color! This has worked so well for me, but I am also aware that not everyone hoards (or collects as I like to say) dishes like I do!

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Organizing your space takes a little time and money up front, but if you stay on top of it regularly, it becomes habit and saves you time and money in the long run!  After my experience with Alicia from Lux Simplicity Professional Organizing, I’d highly recommend her. Her services are great for anyone needing a little assistance tackling those organization and storage projects!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my pantry organization project and the amazing transformation!

XOXO,

For more inspiration on dish collecting/hoarding head to my friend Leslie’s -My 100 Year Old Home– blog post My Life as a Dish Whore-Der

You might enjoy seeing these tablescape where I’ve used some of the dishes from my collection.

Green and Blue Spring Tablescape

Pink Spring Tablescape

Shop the Look

Sources linked below. Just tap on the image. Some items may be out of stock so I’ve linked similar items.

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