Mexican Tiles and clutter

 

This is a piece of my handiwork that has been mostly hidden for the last seven years.  Well, when I first created this counter top it was a showpiece for a while, so maybe it has been hidden for only five or six years.  When we bought this house the kitchen was very compact and lacking cupboard space.  We added cupboards in the actual kitchen, and this lower unit backs up to the half wall that separates the kitchen from the dining area of our living room.  It was to be our dessert or coffee bar.  Little by little things got added and the last was a fancy coffee machine, which was the end of any free space on this counter top. 

The tiles for this top were bought at the Mexican Market and I quickly learned how to lay tiles and then apply the grout. It was a fun and quite rewarding learning experience that I likely will never repeat.  

About 3 days ago I determined that I could replace one coffee maker with a smaller unit, then the fancy coffee maker could be moved onto the stand beside the other coffee maker, and thereby  clearing one end of the counter.  Turns out I did not need to buy a new smaller unit, as the fancy machine had the hot water function... which was the reason to keep the other unit.  

I have become much better about reducing clutter lately.  It is not quite as hard to throw things away as I had thought for so many years.  We have way too many coffee cups and mugs... but some do have sentimental value.  I had a big wooden bowl in the middle of this counter with wrapped pieces of candy in it.  I put the candy in a couple of the cups sitting in the back and voila, I could remove the wooden bowl.  Because I didn't have to take space for a second coffee maker, I had room to move a stack of other items to the stand at the end.  I threw some things away, and I ended up exposing at least 2/3 of the counter top.  Reminiscent of how I remember it when it was first completed.

I am confident I will/can avoid loading this counter up again.  Although it may not always be quite as open as it is today, I truly think I have determined that clutter is not a good thing, and once a space has been de-cluttered... it shall not become re-cluttered.