How Often Do You Replace Your Dishes?

[tvguy]

Had our original dishes for about 35 years. Got a new set 3 years ago.
My mom used the same every day dishes for 53 years, she got them with Blue Chip Stamps. They are now 60 years old and they are my daughter's everyday dishes.
My mom used the same china for 63 years. they are now 70 years old and they are my daughter's now.

 

[DisLiss]

I have never replaced any yet. I have a few sets and I love them and we still have most or all of the pieces, so we just keep using them.

Now, I do have a 20 year old set of Pflatzgraff that has seen better days. It has a lot of marks from being set in water (even though I tell my family not to do that!) and marks from utensils that I quit trying to remove, LOL. But we still like them and so we just keep using them.

 

[TLSnell1981]

I've had the same pattern for almost 30 years. I replace pieces as needed.

 

[AuntieMe3]

We're on our 3rd different set of dishes in our 23 years of marriage. I think we got our current set (simple white) last year after I got tired of our old set. We never had any fancy china or anything like that.

 

[PrincessShmoo]

I've had 4 different every-day sets in the 25 years we've been married; changed to go with the decor whenever we moved. My current set is only 5 years old but I feel like they need changing as the dinner plates have been weirdly fragile; all of them have unsightly chips on the edges. We strictly use them for the 3 of us now - if we have company I put the china on, even for casual meals. Instead of replacing the entire set, I'm keeping a lookout for open stock plates that would mix-and-match alright.

Have you checked Replacements, Ltd.? https://www.replacements.com/

They have a whole lot of replacements for china, silverware (flatware) and crystal. It's a great source.

 

[disykat]

I'm even using the same GLASSES we got when we got married 29+ years ago. (Not crystal or anything - $10 for 4, back in the day before buying sets at Costco was a thing.) A few have broken, but not many. I do have a set of corelle I use too that I got 26 years ago when the kids were little. Dishes aren't something I have even considered changing out. That said, I chose VERY carefully so that they wouldn't be outdated. I have something called "chinastone" which, like it sounds, is like a cross between fancy and everyday dishware. It's plain off-white with a grey stripe around the edge. It goes with everything, including both my mom's and my grandma's china.

I was 29 when I married and had been eating off of my mom's incredibly ugly old "melmac" for years, so getting good dishes was a priority on my wedding registry. Now there is lots of mid-range dishware available so getting the good stuff at your wedding isn't a big deal. My dishes were expensive so I use them, but even if they were super cheap I'm not big on tossing old stuff and getting new so I rarely do it. Even much of my wardrobe is years old.

 

[kirstenb1]

OP, we were married in 89, and also have Noritake everyday dishes. They have held up so well! Color is still true. We also have Noritake fine china, and I've begun using that for everyday too, just because I love it, and we were rarely using it. At this point in my life, everyday is a special day, so no point in not using it! I need to break out the crystal more often too.

 

[Searc]

I'm even using the same GLASSES we got when we got married 29+ years ago. (Not crystal or anything - $10 for 4, back in the day before buying sets at Costco was a thing.) A few have broken, but not many. I do have a set of corelle I use too that I got 26 years ago when the kids were little. Dishes aren't something I have even considered changing out. That said, I chose VERY carefully so that they wouldn't be outdated. I have something called "chinastone" which, like it sounds, is like a cross between fancy and everyday dishware. It's plain off-white with a grey stripe around the edge. It goes with everything, including both my mom's and my grandma's china.

I was 29 when I married and had been eating off of my mom's incredibly ugly old "melmac" for years, so getting good dishes was a priority on my wedding registry. Now there is lots of mid-range dishware available so getting the good stuff at your wedding isn't a big deal. My dishes were expensive so I use them, but even if they were super cheap I'm not big on tossing old stuff and getting new so I rarely do it. Even much of my wardrobe is years old.

Ours was the Heritage pattern, so it went with everything.

 

[disykat]

This reminded me, I did buy a set of glass mixing bowls at Costco a few weeks ago. I decided I couldn't look at my brownish mixing bowls with mushrooms on them for one more day, so I splurged.

 

[DisneyHardin]

I'm super impressed by the person using the almost 30 year old glasses - we are on our 3rd or 4th set of glasses and we've just been married 12 years because we break them all the time.

We are on our second set of dishes. I like to change things out, so when we got married, I registered for fairly inexpensive dishes from Target knowing that I would want to keep them forever. I did get tired of them a couple years ago and we got some new (but still inexpensive ones) from IKEA.

 

[Kitty 34]

I still have three sets of plates that we fed the boys on over 15 years ago. One set (minus a plate) was a Tupperware set I bought at my sister's Tupperware party.

 

[disneychrista]

I've never been able to afford "good dishes." I've probably replaced mine 3 times over 30 years. Most of my current set is chipped. Every time I do dishes (by hand, no dishwasher) I am very aware of how in need of replacement my current dishes are.

Honestly, I will probably keep using the ones for at least a couple years. As long as I have a plate and a bowl (I think there is only one left in the original set) I am good.

 

[ronandannette]

I'm super impressed by the person using the almost 30 year old glasses - we are on our 3rd or 4th set of glasses and we've just been married 12 years because we break them all the time.

We are on our second set of dishes. I like to change things out, so when we got married, I registered for fairly inexpensive dishes from Target knowing that I would want to keep them forever. I did get tired of them a couple years ago and we got some new (but still inexpensive ones) from IKEA.

Grrrr...glasses. I've got TONS of glasses; a cabinet full mismatched ones because of breakage. Every time I buy a set of 8 so I can set a full table, DH or DS decides those are the ones they need to use for everyday and several quickly get broken. I don't really have space to put them aside somewhere but the next time I get a good set, I'm going to figure something out.

 

[Luv Bunnies]

OP, we were married in 89, and also have Noritake everyday dishes. They have held up so well! Color is still true. We also have Noritake fine china, and I've begun using that for everyday too, just because I love it, and we were rarely using it. At this point in my life, everyday is a special day, so no point in not using it! I need to break out the crystal more often too.

Our stoneware is Noritake Roxy and our china is Noritake Blue Hill. I never really wanted china. I didn't see a need for it. But my MIL insisted that was all she wanted to buy us as a wedding gift so we chose a pattern. I think I've only used the set once in 32 years! We've hosted lot of family birthday dinners at house, but they've always been too casual to break out the china. We usually host Christmas dinner, but we have a set of Spode Christmas Tree china for that. Years ago, my boss and his wife got me a starter place setting of Spode and it just grew from there. I suppose we could use the Blue Hill more often, but I'm just not a fancy person!

 

[MrsCobraBubbles]

I still have my Corelle set from when I got married 20 years ago. It's the only dishes I have, we don't do fancy in this house I'm missing a couple bowls and a few saucers and one dinner plate, and somehow in my move I lost all the matching mugs, either my ex-husband still has them or they fell off the moving truck. But I don't drink coffee anyway so I don't miss them too much. If I ever replace them it will be with another Corelle set, because I am a klutz and I break stoneware.

 

[chicagoshannon]

We use the same dishes I bought after graduating college so 20 years. My parents are going on 50 years with theres. No need to replace unless they're broken. We do need some more silverware as we seem to be missing a lot of spoons. No idea where they went. We moved a few months ago and none turned up. I guess they just disappeared into thin air.

 

[Kirby]

When I got married 38 years ago my grandmother said to take any of the TexasWare dishes/glasses she had in her cabinets and I did. My grandfather worked for that company and brought home the "blims". I have used them ever since and have a few left. Dishwashers are not kind to the kind of material they are made out of. I look for that brand of dishware when I go antique shopping, they are not easy to find, mostly mixing bowls. I also use Corelle because they are light weight. I don't like using dishes that are heavy. Some of my Corelle I purchased at thrift stores. I don't really care if I have matching sets or not.

All of my drinking glasses are Texas Ware. They are harder to find than the dishes.

 

[OrangeBirdGirl]

I used to buy the sets at places like Target, then when one broke we'd have to go out and buy a new set. Since then I've switched to Fiestaware and not sure I will ever buy a different actual set. Sure if one breaks I'll just buy another plate. I have 10 main plates in 5 different colors. So if the color is no longer available it will be fine to have a different color. But the dishes have held up well in the 5 years I've had.

 

[Meriweather]

We're on set 4

Got our first set when we got married (Corelle wear)
Second set when we moved into our home that we had built......12 years later......Pfaltzgraff
Moved to AZ and needed brighter dinnerware....the last was light with pink roses. 24 years later. Still Pfaltzgraff.
Couple of years later, decided I didn't like them. The plates were too flat and the food tended to slide off if you moved it too fast. Gave them to DD
Loving the new ones.....once again Pfaltzgraff.

I also have fine china......my mother's and Christmas dish set

 

[bananabean]

Pretty much never. I use my grandparents’ dishes that they got when they got married (early 1940s). They replaced a few over the years as things broke, which I figured out from the company name changes on the bottom (started out as Burgess & Leigh and is now Burleigh). I’ve broken a few in the last decade, but they had place settings for about 15-20, so I haven’t needed to replace them yet.

If anyone has older dishes that aren’t produced anymore, I recommend checking out Replacements Ltd. if you need to replace any. They have a huge collection of discontinued styles.