139? Really?! (...on One Shelf?!)

Indian casinos

So we're just about done with cleaning up the downstairs level of our apartment, and it's time to hit the last pile of junk in our living room; namely, the clutter collection. Old bill stubs, the mishmash of pens and pencils, the overstock of CDs, and my collection of shot glasses.

Ah, the shot glasses... for years now, I've been collecting shot glasses from special events I've attended (the Gilroy Garlic Festival); trips we've taken (Monterey, Pismo Beach, San Diego); a myriad of Casinos (Vegas, Tahoe, Laughlin, and all of the Indian casinos we've hit throughout California); and shot glasses that were given to me as presents (which I appreciate and the memories of which I'll hold on to, but the storage of which is threatening to bury us every earthquake that comes along.)

Cities and Stuff

I take pictures of the glasses arranged by theme, and after a quick count am startled to find that I've managed to amass a total of 139 shot glasses.

This is not conducive toward a clutter-free domicile.

This is a sickness which needs to be stopped.

This is a collection that needs to be culled, and drastically.

...But first, a trip to IKEA!

Misc.

DRIIVE, SCHLEPP, BUKSHËLF, HÕM. ÜNBACHS, ÜSSEMBAL. PRÖÇËÊÐ.

(...Aaaaaand I've just killed that joke, beaten its corpse with a shovel, and mocked its descendants. Sorry.)

Lucie and I go through my collection, choosing only those shot glasses whose sentimentality outweighs the clutter factor; and then we narrow our control limits, and go through them again.

Destinations & Events

It's actually kind of painful. I mean, they're just things, and they're mostly just whimsical spur-of-the-moment tourist kitsch at that, but it's painful. I don't want to get rid of them, but I'm a grownup, and sometimes that means having to grow up, and sometimes that means getting rid of novelty glassware.

We end up keeping one glass from each trip to Hawaii, one from the Ponderosa (which might be long gone but shall be forever to be remembered in 2-ounce increments), a glass from the Philippines, and a few others; ten glasses in total.

Destinations, Part 2

I also end up having to get rid of 63 CDs and 12 Dreamcast games in order to get everything to fit into the shelves, drawers, and carousels to which they've been assigned; but for some reason it's the shot glasses that are the hardest to lose.

Let's just hope that we don't have to get rid of any of our coffee mugs any time soon; not sure I could handle that just yet...

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The finished product.

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