I opened the cupboard last night to get a glass for water. Normally I would perform this task completely on autopilot but because I was very dehydrated I paused to actually consider my choice of drinking glass. Specifically, I was thinking I wanted the biggest glass possible, but was slightly dismayed to find that most of the glasses up front were of the relatively small ‘converted jelly jar’ variety. I took a moment to survey the selection available. The first thing that struck me was how I was hard pressed to find two glasses that matched. We received an attractive set of 8 drinking glasses as a wedding present 32 years ago and there were only three survivors all located in the rear and on different shelves. I noticed a badly faded Shrek glass, several plastic cups with various sports team names, a lone surviving glass that was once part of a set from my childhood (not sure how we got that), a pint mason jar, a couple nice British pub style pint mugs…you get the picture, it was a complete mish mash. Now that I think about it, this state of affairs seems to be fairly common and recall seeing a similar mish mash at friends and acquaintances houses. The other thing that struck me was the sheer volume of drinking glasses. I didn’t count, but there has to be easily 30 glasses in the drinking glass cabinet. Apart from the pint mugs, I don’t recall buying any of them. Yet there they are.
Tell us about your drinking glasses. Do you have a single set of 8 uniformly matching drinking glasses or do your kitchen cabinets resemble the mish mash described above? Any particular ‘favorite’ glasses that for whatever reason you value beyond others?
I have a matching set of 24 (originally; now 22 after a couple of losses) which I’ve had for 20 years. Basically this pattern…
… in three sizes — 8 “highball” tumbler, 8 “old fashioned” low glass, and 8 in a medium size sort of between those (don’t know a category label).
And then, like you, I have a bunch of mismatched bullshit. Unlike you, it’s not a collection of jelly jars, specifically, but it’s similar — mustard jars.
Like these:
Thankfully, they break pretty easily, so there’s turnover and they haven’t completely filled the cabinet.
I forgot about those. I’m particularly fond of a German mustard, Alstertor Dusseldorf Style Mustard. It looks like they specifically designed the containers for use afterwards as drinking mugs. We have several of these.
Yes, we have a mish-mash of various sizes and styles of drinking glasses. We also used to have a very nice dinnerware set we got as a wedding present, consisting of heavy-duty metal spoons, forks and knives. Somehow most of them have disappeared and been replaced with flimsier versions that bend and warp more easily.
I think having kids is a big factor-- they break a lot things and empty leftover food from plates into the garbage along with the silverware left on the plate. Giving one of our kids the job of emptying the dishwasher was a big factor- a broken glass or a chipped plate was an almost daily occurrence.
I sorta cheated by getting rid of substantially 100% of my housewares last year when I left my now ex- second wife. So what I have now is almost all new and almost all matching. All my drinking glasses are matching style though a couple of different sizes.
Even before that she & I together had mostly full sets minus some breakage. The random accumulation of unmatched singles was never her or my style over our many years before combining households. Reusing a jar as a drinking glass is unthinkable.
So my case is boring in isolation, but will probably prove an interesting outlier in the context of the thread.
Several Tupperware generations of plastic tall cups and tumblers.
Glassware from a couple of different patterns (mostly one specific Corning pattern) but inconsistent sizes. Like the company’s definition of “tall glass” changed over the years as we bought replacement pieces for the inevitable losses. Plus a few bits from completely different patterns, because they were inherited and the wife can’t part with them.
Random glass and plastic water glasses and coffee mugs of various sizes.
Several wine glasses, not in use.
4 race logo etched souvenir champagne flutes from a race that included a (non-alcoholic) champagne brunch. Never used
1 water glass from a different race. Race logo painted on. Never used.
4 Anchor Brewery beer tumblers. Only used for Anchor products.
We mostly use a couple different styles of mason jars. The previous occupants of the home left behind a slew of Ball canning jars, some of which I use to store dried fruits but the rest (about 20) make good drinking glasses.
I have a set of 4 deep blue tall glasses with an etched pattern and 4 matching smaller sized ones. They’re beautiful but the large ones are not large enough. I want a glass to be large enough to fit ice and a full can of pop. So they don’t get used often, which is probably why they haven’t been broken.
The rest are mismatched glasses of various sizes. I do not like plastic cups except for my bathroom cup. I have a set of 4 large copper “glasses” with a metal liner to keep the beverage cold, but the copper has dulled (I’m sure they aren’t real copper) on 2 of them so they’ve been pushed back in the cabinet. There are Welch’s jelly jar glasses, Batman McDonald’s glasses, a few tall plastic cups with lids and straws. As I’m typing this I’m thinking I should clean that cabinet out and buy glasses that I like and will use!
Being a beer geek, 90% of my glassware is pint glasses. Those that aren’t are probably tasting glasses from beer festivals. The remaining 4 are big plastic iced tea glasses. That’s ignoring the cabinet full of wine glasses from all over the Santa Ynez Valley.
I have this thing about my kitchen. It must be clean and well organized at all times, so I would be totally horrified by your state of affairs. I would immediately hustle you out of the kitchen, sit you in front of your TV, and admonish you to stay away until I give you the all clear.
When we remodeled our kitchen, all the odds and ends were discarded, and we got new sets of everything. Glasses, plates, bowls, cookware. Everything. For drinking glasses, we have a set of around 12 small and 12 large glasses on an open shelf. Also have about 12 white coffee mugs.
For us it’s wine glasses that accumulate. We have complete sets in cabinets, and another set that matches the drinking glasses on the open shelving.
We have several sets of drinking glasses (glass and plastic), but coffee mugs are the vessels that tend to accumulate for us. I don’t know if any of our mugs match.
We have two shelves of (non-matching) mugs that get the most regular use. I use them for coffee, my wife for tea and my kid prefers them as his drinking vessel of choice. A shelf of clear glassware where only the front row ever gets used and the rear is dominated by some heavy “picnic” glasses with a koi design that never get used. The worst offender is the top shelf which is full of wine glasses and champagne flutes. We drink wine maybe twice a year and, honestly, I could swig it out of a coffee mug if it meant freeing up some space.
They’re cool in an I’d love to use them at you house but don’t necessarily want 'em in mine type of way. That being said, most of those that I might be interested in buying are in the sold out/retired category.
I thought the kids cereal shot glasses were, ummm, something. Amusing? Horrific? Hilarious? So Wrong? I’m not sure what to say about 'em
As for mine; looks like seven of the eight original glasses are in there, along with a sent of four pint-style plastic glasses, one each primary color + green. There is also a small bar’s worth of pint glasses, pretty much one each from breweries I was at or events I attended; some never used. At least one was an AG award from a race (rather than a medal). On the other side of the cabinet, there’s a set of coffee mugs that match the dishes, a set from an old job (I was the last person w/ a key to the marketing closet before we were shut down after a buyout) + a handful of odds & ends ones, including one a kid painted, another that was a race AG ‘medal’ & some as gifts over the years from a current job. I probably only have ½ dozen cups of tea/hot chocolate a year; only when I’m very cold or have a cold (tea w/ lemon juice & honey for a sore throat)
What’s just slightly more interesting are the etched glass goblets we inherited from hubby’s aunt less than two years ago. Well, a casual form of inherited – a bunch of family members were cleaning out her house after she died. Lots of stuff donated to Goodwill, smaller amounts of stuff just adopted by whoever felt they could have a use for it. One of the items I claimed was the set of etched glass water goblets, still packed in a ritzy box with gold paper covered dividers and all.
The consensus was that they were clearly wedding presents from nearly fifty years ago, that had always been ‘too special’ to be used for just every day…and as a result, had never been used at all, though dutifully shipped from house to house over the decades of their marriage. Everyone admired them, but nobody else wanted them: “We’d just end up storing them endlessly, too.”
So I brought them home, and defiantly put them right at the front of our drinking glass shelf. Hey, it’s a household of two way mature adults, we deserve to use nice things and know how to treat them, right?
It was a set of eight. About 18 months later it’s a set of three. Oooops.
(I tell myself the glasses were so happy to be finally let out of the eternal darkness that even a few months of finally being used was worth their demise…)
