I was doing dishes the other night (bad luck again), and was in the process of washing the nice Reidel http://www.reidel.com crystal wine glasses we have had for more than fifteen years. I remember when we received some as a gift and then because we liked them so much went out and bought a few more.

Reidel, Spiegelau and other premium crystal manufactured glasses are expensive, sometimes very expensive. These wine glasses can cost fifty dollars apiece and sometimes even over one hundred dollars (we do not have any of those). Because these fragile crystal glasses can break in the dishwasher (some of them are more prone to that than others) the advice is to wash them by hand. Of course that’s a pain and a reason to avoid using them in the first place. But we don’t do that.

I have a thing for nice wine glasses. We use the ‘good wine glasses’ several times a week (we have a glass of wine with nearly every dinner we have at home) and there’s a certain feeling of elegance in using a high-quality product as an everyday glass.

Do you have a place in your home where you keep the ‘good’ glasses and china that you only use on special occasions? How long have you been doing that? If you don’t use them they hardly ever will break and perhaps that’s your intention. But I am telling you that you should consider using the good stuff every day. So what if you break a glass or plate now and then. The idea of making every day a little bit special will have a much longer lasting positive effect on your attitude. It will have a far greater impact than bringing out ‘the good stuff’ out a couple of times of year for guests who probably not will not remember a dish from a glass twenty minutes after they leave your house.

These thoughts came to mind when I was unpacking boxes after a recent move and I saw some nice things we have that we never use. We have put them into everyday use and are enjoying dishes and glasses as if we had just gone out to the store and purchased them last week.

Why not make everyday a little more special by using that nice stemware or china all the time?