{"id":2131,"date":"2013-07-14T10:50:13","date_gmt":"2013-07-14T16:50:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.happysimpleliving.com\/?p=2131"},"modified":"2023-08-15T15:34:54","modified_gmt":"2023-08-15T21:34:54","slug":"got-vases-a-mini-decluttering-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.happysimpleliving.com\/got-vases-a-mini-decluttering-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"Got Vases? A Mini Decluttering Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Jelly<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I love fresh flowers on the table here at the urban homestead, and more often than not I’ll just pick a few posies and loosely arrange them in a jelly jar to brighten the table.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So the other day as I was trying to find something in the jam-packed laundry room cabinet, I suddenly saw my overflowing vase collection with new, critical eyes. Do we really need quite so many containers to hold flowers, I wondered?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Crowded<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To face the question truthfully I removed every vase from the depths of the cabinet and arranged them on the kitchen table, where I was somewhat astonished to discover 25 vessels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Vase<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Faced with the vases, I was also confronted with the two opposing sides of my domestic personality. The happy simple living side of me is, most of the time, truly content to whittle down possessions, enjoy orderly spaces, and keep just a few things that I really enjoy<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Martha Stewart side of me loves having many, many choices of domestic goods in every color, size and shape. 25 vases? Sure, in case I want to get creative and make pretty arrangements: a red vase for Christmas and Valentine’s Day, a tiny bud vase for little flowers, a pale green vase for January days that need a dash of spring color, a large vase for those times when men arrive bearing unexpected bouquets (hmm, why is that one so dusty<\/em>?), a curvy bulb vase in case I want to force hyacinth bulbs (even though I haven’t been thusly motivated in ten years), and so on, and so on….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Vase<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Twenty-five vases is too many, though, so I steeled myself and ignored my inner Martha. To thin the collection, I eliminated the duplicates, waved goodbye to the plain cheapies, and let go of the ones I never use. (I kept one large model for those unexpected bouquets, because hey, a girl’s got to be prepared.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To some minimalists this might not seem extraordinary, but I did get rid of almost half of the collection. Thirteen vases made the final cut:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Small<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It only took fifteen minutes to send a dozen vases to the curb, which is a figure of speech because I actually drove to the box to the ARC drop-off center and handed it over immediately before the clever little voice of She-Who-Likes-To-Have-Infinite-Vase-Choices could dissuade my resolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The best part of all? When I put the remaining vases away, our laundry room cabinet had room\u2014glorious, spacious breathing room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cleaner<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Vases, like candles and baskets, seem to multiply faster than rabbits here at the urban homestead, until they threaten to take over an entire room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How about you? Could your vase collection use a little weeding out? Would you like to tackle the task this week, perhaps? If you do, be sure to let us know what you keep and how many vases you let go.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

… Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[774],"tags":[252],"yoast_head":"\nGot Vases? A Mini Decluttering Challenge - Happy Simple Living<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Got Vases? A Mini Decluttering Challenge - Happy Simple Living\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"... 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