I have a confession to make. This is the third time in the last five years I’ve purged coffee mugs. And only a handful have come into the house in that time. Which is frightening.
I counted nearly thirty. And I know, without a doubt, that this does not include the 16 or so that belong to china sets we got as wedding gifts. Those are still in a box somewhere.
I headed to Unclutterer to see what other people do about coffee mugs. Specifically, how many. I checked out the comments and found some useful information. It made sense to start by looking at our usage and at which mugs we use more than others.
Both Stephen and I drink coffee every day. And some nights I’ll have a cup of tea. Stephen has his favorite coffee mugs, which are actually beer steins we got as a wedding gift. We kept two for him. He likes using the beer steins for coffee because: (a) he doesn’t drink alcohol; and (b) they hold a lot of coffee.
I kept my favorite coffee mug which I love because it’s ginormous, a tea mug and two additional mugs for guests. I also kept four plain white ones to use to stage our house for sale. Once we move, I’ll likely donate those.
Also sticking around are two mugs for the kids – these have their names on them and we use them for hot chocolate in the colder months.
In the meantime, I will be listing these on Freecycle later today:
There are two glasses in there as well as a koozie. We don’t drink soft drinks so it makes zero sense to keep the koozie.
How many mugs do you have? How do you keep from having them multiply like bunnies?
I have 17 mugs and I LIVE ALONE. What the heck is wrong with us?
I don’t know! š It’s insane.
This comment cracks me up!! This is what I say to myself at least once a week as I journey down the path of trying to become a minimalist!!
I have three mugs in my office at work. One I use for oatmeal and soup. The other two…meh!
We probably have about 12 mugs. We have one section of shelf for them, so if we get more, something has to go. It seems having a defined space for items like that helps to keep them from multiplying – when something new comes in, something else HAS to go!
For us, that number is about right because we put mugs into the dishwasher and it takes 3-4 days for the dishwasher to be full enough to do a load.
It takes 3-4 days to fill up your dishwasher? We run one load per day, more if there’s any baking. How many are in your household? 12 sounds pretty good. And we need to adopt the one in-one out rule for sure.
Since companies seem to think coffee mugs are just a wonderful advertising tool, we have gazillions at work that sneak into my car periodically to go home with me. There, they multiply in my kitchen cabinet until I notice I can’t get the door closed anymore and finally dump them into an Amvets donation bag with a cushion of clothes that don’t fit me anymore. Crazy…
One of the ones I kept is from a former employer. I like it because it’s big. And you’re right, they are used a lot for advertising. And they multiply like mad.
What is Amvets?
This is Kerry- Amvets is short for American Veteran. They have thrift stores.
I purged my coffee mugs once again during a recent move. My husband and I each have a mug that we use all the time and we have 6 plain white mugs for company and the kids. A total of 8 is pretty easy to deal with on a daily basis.
I’d love to get down to 8. That definitely sounds manageable.
We’ve purged our mugs twice in the last year and still somehow have 2 soup mugs, 3 travel mugs, and 7 everyday mugs. We got a lot of them as gifts. I finally suggested to my family (the worst offenders of mug gifting) that something to fill the mugs we already have – coffee, tea, soup mixes – would make a much better gift š
Yes, they are common gifts, aren’t they? And I agree, the consumables would be a great gift!
I have two mugs I drink liquids from; one huge, one small. I have eight mugs that I use as single serving snack bowls or microwave-safe containers. I measured them and they hold 1C so I know how much I am eating and they have handles to make them easy to grab once they are warm. And they can still be guest mugs if someone comes over.
That’s a great idea about measuring how much the mugs hold!
I actually counted ours a few weeks ago when I knew I was going to embark on the minimalism journey – we have 35! And there are only 2 of us! And that doesn’t include the travel mugs! Crazy, just crazy! Cleaning out that cabinet this weekend for sure!
Okay, well, I don’t feel so bad then. Good for you for cleaning out that cabinet!
AMVETS is an organization that benefits American Veterans (see and at least in our area, they call about once a month in to solicit clothing/household items….you put everything in a trash bag, mark it AMVETS, put it on your porch and their truck picks it up. I have made a vow to myself that whenever they call, I will always put a bag out….good for me and good for them. š
When I attended an Organizational class a few years ago, the instructor said anytime a volunteer organization calls asking for donations (clothing/dishes/household items) that the smart thing to do would be say ‘YES!” because we can always find enough for at least one bag/box of items; probably more. I have found that I do not have time then I will tell them ‘no, but please call me the next time you’re going to be in my neighborhood.’
That’s excellent advice!
I wonder if we have one of those in Dallas. I get emails pretty regularly from several charities and I always set something out. Of course, I have months and months worth of stuff to get rid of. Even still, I will use that going forward as my reminder to look at what we have for items that we no longer use or need.
There are three hot beverage drinkers in our home. We keep 3 in the cup/glass cabinet. One that everyone wants and uses “the favorite child”, a second huge one when someone needs an extra caffeine hit and then the third that rotates between the 3 that lurk in the far back of a corner cabinet because my husband can’t bear to part with his Pittsburgh Steelers, Guy Noir, or Jack London mugs. Good job on the reduction!
That’s great that you have so few! And I totally understand being “attached” to a coffee mug.
We have 16 plain white mugs to go with our 16 plain white place settings. We host larger gatherings often enough to make this a good number for us. We also have two travel mugs. If we are gifted mugs they are automatically relegated to the ongoing donate box. If we are offered free mugs we do not take them.
I guess a more complete answer would add that we also have 16 teacups and saucers that match that set of mugs. And 16 that match our china. And another 8 in a teaset. We do use them though. Lots of parties!
I like the all white/matching thing. The plates/bowls we are keeping are all white. The coffee mugs we kept are not (except for 4 that we’ll set out when we stage our house). And yes, refusing free mugs is a great idea.
I have 4 bone china tea mugs that are a set, and are just right for drinking tea. Then there are the ever increasing numbers of Starbucks mugs from different places we have visited, I’ll stop when the designated coffee mug shelf is full!
I have six matching each other then three from the original set of six that match the day to day crockery. Those thee act as ramekins cause I don’t own any (oh the other three died of natural causes). My local thrift shop gets people buying out all his mugs – must be for an office? I’d never heard of the term koozie! But I have none. Ps I hardly use the set of six mugs if I’m honest
You use coffee mugs for ramekins? I’d never thought of that.
I live alone yet have 6. All but one was a gift with special meaning, for example one was from a place my son was stationed while in the Army. I rotate around which I use and will use them to hold small snacks for the grandchildren or for a small bowl of cereal or soup. It always makes me smile when I drink.from one, reminding me of something good that happened in my family. And with the cups I don’t have to have as many bowls.
I am very territorial about my mugs. Insane, I know! I have one that I use most of the time, then a pretty one for fall and my snowflake mug for winter. It just feels better drinking tea out of a seasonally appropriate mug for some reason. I wish I could purge the remaining 20 or so, but when I see a cool mug, I can’t resist. I think I will go tackle this cupboard right now!
Just counted 31. I see 5 that can go right off the bat. Want to get it down to under 20. Wish me luck!
Good luck! You can do it. š
We still own 10 (for the two of us) and about twice as many teacups and saucers. It’s still too many, and you wouldn’t believe that I cut that amount by more than half already.
I do believe it. I really do. If I had to guess, based on what we’ve already donated, we probably had close to 50 or 60 at one point, not counting the fine china ones. Which is obscene. Like, really, really ridiculous.
We have 19 and I have already decluttered mugs. The problem is that BP likes some and I like different ones. I think we need to get a handle on this (get it? handle? ahh decluttering humour). I reckon we should aim to pare it down to 10. We also have a set of 12 white mugs with saucers for when we entertain (which is often enough to justify them), so we don’t really need to have 19 every day JUST IN CASE mugs, because WE ALREADY HAVE 12 JUST IN CASE MUGS. Phew. Thanks, you’ve riled me enough to create action.
PS Thanks, we just consulted and cleared out 7 into our charity box.
Yay!
I swear there must be like 4 coffee mugs for every friggin’ person on the planet.Billions upon billions. The thrift stores near me are overflowing with coffee mugs (and picture frames). If I were a crazy dictator I would ban the manufacture of new coffee mugs (and picture frames) as there are already too many out there.
I don’t drink hot drinks or own a coffee maker. I have 2 mugs I got from the freecycle in the rare case someone asks for some tea which is the only hot drink I can offer.
I know, it’s ridiculous really!
I have a set of 4 tea cups that match my plates and one very large mug that’s bad for hot cocoa because it has a thing molded in the bottom that gets in the way of stirring. My boyfriend has 2 small and 2 larger mugs. I also have a glass beer stein thing from work. So that’s…10 mugs for 2 people. Since we don’t run the dishwasher every day (not enough to fill it), this actually works to get us through a few days between runs. I don’t actually distinguish between glasses and mugs when I’m thirsty. Apple juice tastes just fine out of a mug.
What I do have that gets little use are wine glasses. My mom insisted that I needed to have a set of wine glasses. I don’t drink alcohol. My boyfriend doesn’t drink alcohol. His sister and her husband don’t drink alcohol. Mom says it’s for when we have guests over, which would imply that I’d serve wine (nope) or that they’d bring wine (let’s see…pizza, Mario Kart, chips, oh and yes, a cabernet sauvignon). I suspect it’s really so she can bring and drink wine when she visits.
I occasionally have wine, but not often. We do have wine glasses and I’ll be decluttering those, as well. (Round one had me getting rid of at least 16.) But when we were without a kitchen, I received a bottle of champagne as a gift. I drank it out of tea cups and it tasted just as lovely. You’re right, it doesn’t matter what the beverage is served in.
oh dear….I draw the line at champagne out of a tea cup š
You wouldn’t if your champagne glasses were packed away. But, the champagne was a gift. Otherwise I don’t buy it, so there’s no need for me to keep champagne glasses around. On a side note, though, I’m not above drinking out of the bottle. In desperate situations. In theory.
So, I see so many comments about mugs as gifts. We should all form a pact not to give mugs as gifts…I once went to a retiring teacher’s garage sale and she–no lie– had over 400 mugs with apples or other teacher related phrases on them for sale. I switched to gift cards after that.
I’m in for the no-mug-pact. We usually do gift cards as well. Although we didn’t this past end-of-school-year. We did necklaces from Stella & Dot. Going forward, though — gift cards.
So we’ve moved around a lot of hubbies job! So I have gotten rid of a lot of mugs. I have a Longaberger mug tree that holds my Longaberger mugs, I have 2 travel mugs and a Starbucks cup that when you take in to get hot chocolate or coffee you get .10 off purchase. I got rid of a lot of them I just didn’t need them. I don’t do coffee but hubby does but I love hot chocolate and there is only 2 of us so we don’t need tons of mugs and I don’t have the space and I don’t want to move them either.
Keep up the great work!!