If you’re anything like me, you probably have duplicates of lots of things you own. One set for every day, one set for “best” or “special occasions”.
From stationery to cutlery and shoes to umbrellas, I have always harboured this strange sense of keeping things for a special occasion.
Writing last month’s Ink Drops inserts for the monthly boxes, with some glorious metallic pens which definitely fell into the “best” category, See, only the best for you lovely lot! I found myself revelling in the smooth way the pens moved across the paper. The shimmer of the ink on the card as I wrote was amazing.
Why would I keep something that joyful only for special occasions? The set of pens is, after all, replaceable if I wear them all out. Most things are.
If you’ll allow me a hippy moment or two, isn’t it denying the pen its life purpose? Indeed, pens are not made to it be kept it in a box and used only occasionally. All things considered, why shouldn’t every day be a special occasion of sorts? We are alive, we’re creative, we’re here and we’re loved. What could be more special? (I have been reading Elizabeth Gilbert’s Big Magic – can you tell?)
Of course, I am keeping this in mind as I unpack my worldly possessions back into my house. Almost nothing is irreplaceable. And those things which are are all the more precious and special for using, and allowing their beauty and rarity into our lives each day.
All the precious things
When you adopt it as a philosophy, it’s amazing what it applies to. Crockery and kitchen gadgets, nightwear and underwear, most of my shoes, coats, pretty dresses, files and folders, lots of stationery and notecards and beautiful pens, suitcases, and even towels. Overall the amount of things I have been keeping for an unspecified “best” is astounding.
I’m a firm believer in not waiting for New Year or birthdays to make resolutions, set goals or make promises to yourself. To this end, I am promising, myself and you, that I will never again keep something only for “best”.
(and if that means that at the next letter-writing salon we organise I turn up in an adored but rarely worn ballgown, why not?!)
What have you been saving for best? Will you use it more often?
After clearing out my mother-in-law’s house after her death a few years ago, I never keep anything for ‘best’ now (except for something like my new faux fur coat, which I do not wear to walk the dog in!). She had cupboards and drawers full of lovely things like fluffy towels (she was using old ones that had gone grey and holes), new socks (whilst she was darning old ones) and Xmas gifts like the posh toiletries set I gave her the year before she died (whilst she used the cheapest soap day to day).
Life is definitely too short – don’t take it for granted that there will be a ‘best’ time.
That’s all too familar from my cupboards, Ali – my fluffiest towels have hardly seen the light of day and my favourite perfume is almost unused. Thank you for sharing – even more inspiration to remember that every day deserves the best!
(Also your faux fur coat sounds amazing!) Carla x