Storing china

What's the best way to go about it? I've just unpacked this little dinner set from the cupboard, where it's sat for years, and a mold has spread through the crazing and had a jolly old time. Some of the plates were completely brown. I'm bleaching the worst of it and am peeved to find a chipped side dish, too. It's not particularly valuable but it is a pretty and compete old set -- teacups, gravy boat, lidded tureen, etc. Would bubble wrap and tissue paper between each item suffice? It is always going to be stacked and crammed; there's no luxury of empty shelving in clutter city.

 

There may be something you can put in with them to retard mold.
There are those little packets of silica for one.
I would also use smaller boxes with less in them to reduce weight on the lower pieces.
When handled, lighter is better too for there is less chance of dropping them and if that happens fewer pieces are at risk.
If anyone is helping they’ll handle lighter boxes more carefully.

 

Note that with a properly constructed box they could store on their edges as well.

 

I've also heard that china needs a level of moisture. Eurgh! Since teacups/table ware are stone dead in Australia -- really, take it to market, drop price, pack it up, repeat -- it seems daft to be bothering. The bleach is winning. I will suds, rinse, re-bleach where necessary, leave it out in the sun to dry thoroughly, re-assess the crazing and possibly kick the dog. Or shout at the bloke. Or pour a large wine and say rude words ...

 

Just a word of warning if you're using chlorine bleach. It will cause the body of the piece to start to degrade in time.

Use peroxide (like hair bleach) for ceramics then a long, long soak in clean water to get it all out.

 

Hi,
OMG not bleach ever!!!!! Use peroxide you can get a large container of higher percentage stuff at a place that sells hair stuff to beauty salons. I had a friend who found a large barrel of china which stank from mouse pee. She went and had the pieces refired in her kiln. I would have used the H202.
greg

 

Whatever, I hope that something works. It is a pretty set; what I call "grandmother's china." (That kind of china I have loved since I was about four years old! Now, finally, I'm entitled!!)

 

Thanks, I will suggest peroxide and make it a mission to find some. It has come up very well but I suspect the mould has shortened this set's lifespan considerably anyway. It is a Johnson Bros "Pareek", Silverthwait. The mould was quite something. Some plates were completely covered in a brown dust, which fortunately doesn't seem to have spread to other shelves.

I will repack with bubbles and tissue paper when confident everything is bone dry.

How are china sales faring elsewhere?

 

King of Things is right: you do store plates on their sides, with bubbles or whatever between each. I've been going through cupboard No.1 repacking and it is so mind-boggling sensible and takes up less space. The number of times I mutter about a star fracture in the saucer at the bottom of the pile ... No more. Never again. I will spend the rest of the month flipping china onto its side. Trouble is it's not as pleasing to look at this way, but neither was that mould.

 

Cheers - I recognized the Pareek pattern. I have had several individual pieces of Pareek at one time or another. With several exceptions, there are some charming patterns. (Once in a while the designer would overreach and produce a very formal design which did not match the quality of the china.)

There is even one which is rather modernish. Someone here sold a lot of dining chairs with seats covered in bright blue/aqua plastic (?!). Oddly enough, they looked fabulous, and Pareek had a perfect pattern to go with. "Bermuda?"

 

Can you angle them a bit?
Know someone who could make a nice wooden rack to stand them in?
Though I bet you can find such a thing.

 

I have a BUNCH of simple wooden plate stands, similar to the one shown below, storing 4 different sets of china & glass, inside those big Rubbermaid tubs. Each "space" holds 2-3 wrapped dinner plates or 3-4 saucers/bread plates/dessert plates, and even the matching platters. My stuff is wrapped in packing paper, with bubble wrap around that.

p.s. I also have several of these in my lower kitchen cabinets, storing baking pans & the like. They've gotten MUCH cheaper of late, and are available now in bamboo, as well as wood.

 

I was thinking deeply notched ones so they hold more and angled closer together.

 

Ah, but they weren't SELLING those when I was looking to buy!

 

I'm not sure they exist at all which is why I wondered if she knew anyone who could make them to fit her dishes.

 

I don't know how to quote you, King, but I know someone who can make cardboard boxes fit my dishes. Behold! A new order begins in cupboard No.1. The dinner set came up really well and I will try to offload it very cheaply, with the proviso it is Extremely Old (almost rare, even), is mightily crazed and is perhaps best as display only. There is only one damaged cake plate and items like the lidded tureen were spared the bleach altogether. Hopefully if it's cheap enough there will be satisfaction all round. I've had it stashed -- never used -- for maybe 25 years. I think only a fire will make sense of the stuff in this house.

 

Omg!!! DON’T say such things!!!

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I was more suggesting nice, lowest profile possible, plate racks for the cupboard.
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