are all your dishes matched? or do you have mixed colors and different kinds?

We have only one set of dishes that is whole and that is only because it is still in the box. Everything else is missing one plate or bowl. We don't mind them being different cause it is not like we are having any fancy dinner parties. I don't really think my family or friends mind either just as long as they get fed.

I have a 12 place dinner setting of good china I brought from Germany 3o years ago, it's used only on special occasions. For every day I have a whole conglomeration of bits and pieces of sets I've used over the years.

Where I used to have we would have one set which was all the same colour, always blue which we kept for best, the rest of the time we just used the mish mash of plates, different sizes, and different colours. To us it didn't matter for guests we liked to put on a show and do it properly.

I don't like matching dishes, so I have combination of few different styles. I like white porcelain and I have plates and white cups with many fanny shapes and sizes. Somehow it looks great...

Mixed colors and different kinds. You would think I collected dishes, but I don't. People keep giving me dishes, which is good because I keep dropping dishes and breaking them. I need plastic dishes or a rubber floor.

I have a terrible compulsion when it comes to dishes. I keep seeing sets I like better than the one I have. Often when I see interesting dishes on sale, I will buy a new set or sometimes a few matched settings. Then I go to the dollar store and see another set of cheap dishes that are attractive and I decide I like those. I end up with far too many plates (though never enough bowls - wonder why bowls seem to get broken and not plates). My mother hated having a few odd plates in her cupboards and had a unique solution. When an oddball plate began to chips and scratches, she would drop it on the floor and break it. I asked her why she didn't just throw it away, why break it first? She said "Your father would never let me throw away a plate that was only chipped".