Storage, or, A Trip Down Memory Lane

Am scrapping other posts in the hopper, as I was visiting the Perfume Posse this morning, where March summarized her approach to storage.

The wise thing would have been for me to read and move on.  But, as often happens, I feel compelled to open my mouth.  And, as often happens, I attempted to find the balance between responding and oversharing.

Guess which direction I failed toward?

And guess what I am going to subject you to today?  Further meandering on the topic.  I'll start with my comment:

Erm…more than one storage system. Should I really tell?

Because…there’s the first “discovery sets” I picked up from Perfumed Court. Which I keep, still in their category grouping (“roses” “101″ etc) stuck into sea salt which is in odds and ends vintage stemware. Then there are the miniatures and precious morsels, a.k.a. put in the bottle by the maker items, which stay in the velvet lined drawer in my dresser. Then there are the Precious Decants and Smalls, Influenced by the Early Years which reside in a place of honor in my, erm, lingerie drawer. (LOL…lingerie in my mind conjures images of pegnoirs and camisoles and other dainties…suffice to say they are well cushioned, but not so much by silk and lace.) A few full bottles in the front of the other two drawers.

Decants in boxes, loosely grouped by house, unless they are workhorses grouped by season, in which case they are likely to be in a bigger bottle anyway. Back up bottles (yes, I have as many as five of those) with odd vintage things (Intoxication, Hay, etc) up on the high shelf in the clothes closet.

Sigh. I almost feel like this is a confessional. I can almost hear the perfume years zing past…I remember when I first fell, I had a bottle of Norell (picked up at an estate sale as a curiosity in memory of my grandmother), a few samples plus the discovery sets, and then a full bottle of Magie Noire, my first “real” perfume since I had KL in college and Carolina Herrera from my wedding day. (I didn’t wear perfume then, but felt like I should have something for a wedding.) Husband purchased that for me the summer I fell down the rabbit hole.

Smile. As long as I’m confessing…there’s one more box. Not full. But overflowing with memories. I keep the perfume I purchased in Paris in that one, along with a vintage bottle of Apres L’Ondee that I split with friends who came to me via perfume but have become very dear to me.

Which would probably summarize the storage system overall. There is logic and method to it, but all considerations are subject to and generally molded by sentiment and history.

I didn't even bother to mention the whimsy of how certain splits end up out and on display.  They are there to remind me to play with them.  Unless, of course, they are carefully packed away, a game of hide and seek I play with myself when I squirrel away treasures to be re-found at another time.  The display:

Antique lipstick holder, a recurring item.  

Broken pottery, repurposed. 

 One of the stemwares mentioned in my comment.

Vintage manufacturers samples, about to be gifted for the new year.  Samples somehow mixed with other ephemera in an eggcup.  Samples from long ago, still in the (intact) cup where I first put them.  Because when/how they came into my life is sometimes a better way to retrieve from storage than "A-Z" or "Manufacturer" or "author."

Mind you, I admire Bonkers' perfume refrigerator.

Hmm, this one must be a misfit.  

These photos are mostly pictures from a favorite spot to write. The perfumes are not those that I generally wear, or that are "in storage."  They are..."in process."  

Kind of like me, when I am here.

I tried to speak about storage before, in this post ("Door #1: Ways of Storing").  Go there for more pictures, if you like.  There will be madness.

What I did not try to address before is what I recognized in my comment to The Posse.  Which is...I treasure memories.  And this exploration into perfume is mapped by memories as much as it is by scent families or style or even type of bottle.  Memories of where I was in the journey, to a great extent.  Memories of how a certain perfume anchors outward, certainly -- usually broader questions like does it connect to a geography/vacation/season? does it remind me of a certain friend, because they introduced me to it/helped me learn to love that scent family? does it evoke a certain period in my life?  But sometimes simpler ones, like "did I panic houseclean when this one was out and it ended up in my son's closet?"

And, it turns out I not only treasure memories, I have allowed myself to allow them to trump any Dewey Decimal style of organization that I might try.  A fair number of what I have are entered onto a spreadsheet, separated into sections labelled "Sample" "Decant/Partial Bottle" and "Full Bottle."  But not all.  A number of my "regulars" are sorted into boxes by season (warm v cold, basically), but not all.  

A number of my treasures are cloistered in the dresser.  But not all.  

treasures, yes, but whimsically collected here, largely because size allows

It occurs to me that if I end up fully charting, with this combination of words and pictures, in serial post form, I might actually accumulate a functional mind map.  A portrait of How Things Work in there, as it were.

(That laughter you here might be yours, but it most certainly the author's own.)

Anyway, I offer you sincere happy wishes for warmth and good cheer as the holidays wind up and the year winds down.  I'd like to give you a hint of what else is coming this week.

But I know enough now to know that what I would offer is the muscle of plans hung upon the skeleton of intent.  All of which would be subject to that little box of whimsy.


all photos author's own

Door #1 : Ways of Storing

When someone comes to my house and says, "Okay, where is this perfume collection?," I'm in a bit of a quandry.  Because there is no "here" or "there" to point to.  No wine refrigerator dedicated to perfume.  No shrine of bottles on top of the dresser.  No drawer or chest of drawers, no special basket, no pie cupboard.  No linen closet with dedicated shelves.

Oh, no.  Not that.

Some of that (a drawer, a basket, a shelf).  And some other (old glasses, egg cups, boxes, candle holders).  And general drops here and there for good measure.

The "filing system" is the same way.  Some things are gathered by source, others by house, others by season.  It makes sense for me.  Hey, one must adapt the best of Melvil Dewey, Carl Linnaeus, color theory, vintage formulation changes, frequency of use, and general attractiveness of bottle, right?

Not to mention that when it comes to sourcing, I have places/people that I am confident I got what I asked for.  Then there are those forays into the unknown, with varying degrees of risk, but those procurements often go into quarantine until I determine with greater or lesser certainty whether or not the contents inside are a) what they are supposed to be, and b) even if they are, what shape they are in.

Right here, at this point, if you'd like to make a judgement about how much mind space and time I allow for this little interest of mine, feel free.  All I ask is that you consider:  A) my mind works this way anyway, so the time factor is minimal (sorting everything into One Grand System and cataloguing Every Last Vial would indeed be time consuming, and frankly, a little mind numbing).  B) If this blog were about something else, we could go through a similar investigation of the way books are "stored" in my house.

(Aw, what the heck; real quick--largely assembled by type (fiction, reference, cookbooks, gardening books, history + historical fiction, antiques, series, nostalgia, more than one pile of To Read, in process next to the bed, in process out and about, oversized books, books of interest that are in public places (coffee table type and other, try to rotate), vintage cookbooks (a subcategory of cookbooks, further sorted into "from the family" and "collected on my own"), professional reference and interest (further sorted into "film" and "education"....)

((Don't ask about the CDs and LPs.))

the minis have their own lounge; more precious ones tend to hang together

A lot a Fume Folk eventually get around to talking about their collection, where and how it is stored, etc.  I loved when Brian came clean on sheer volume; when Kevin calculated just how long the juice would last; and when FlitterSniffer fretted about defrosting.  As it turns out, just today Nathan reveals he has been taking pictures of Abigail's collection.

I've been wondering how to publicly address this myself.  And when I threatened offered to show what was behind Door #1 in this week's "Let's Make a Deal," I pretty much planned to start the reveal.  I figured I'd spread it out over a few entries, letting each entry be a "portal" into the collection, with the mega confession Big Reveal at the end.

I think that, instead, I am offering up a mind map first.  That's right, I'm using the term "mind map," not "brain {flatulent event}."




I'm not going to go inside each of my drawers.  The filing isn't perfect, it's always in process, and unmentionables by definition shouldn't be, even if only visually.

But, look-see here; there's a pull-out, which is a sort of drawer.  Which, for those keeping score at home, doesn't see the light of day unless the door is opened.  Where it was all going to be kept.  "It" being the perfume.  All of it.  Or so I thought when I started.  Said I to myself, if it doesn't fit on this shelf, well, then, I've a problem more than extravagance.  (Speaking of which, no, that Amarige isn't Extravagance; it's the regular variety, not a flanker.  And it was no lower case extravagance, either; dirt cheap at T.J. Maxx.  Just so you know.)

Hey, has anybody been playing the "I recognize that!" game?  No, not psychological disorders.  Bottles and what is inside.  I kind like doing that with other people's pictures.  I've gotten a lot better at it over time.  But I'm still a piker.  

Here's a basket that hides under a bunch of scarves.  Bottles too big for my boxes, and bottles I want relatively easy access to.  Also in there is One Big Lesson that I've talked about in the past.  (It has to do with reputable sellers...mmmm hmmm....)

Hang on--what was with the muffin tin of stuff?  That's samples I've recently gotten that await testing before being assigned to a more permanent location.  That high shelf in a closet?  Full size, non-regular rotation; vintage peculiarities; a couple of back ups for beloveds that are discontinued.  Note the Ivoire edt prominent in the front, ready for swappage.  Oh, and though that splash of red on the right is distractingly close to Malle's red, that is actually a box with a collection of miniatures inside.  (I *know* I've talked about how awesome those are, right?)  The last thingamajig is a lipstick holder, which it turns out is a great way to hold 5ml decants.  If you like to display them/have them easily accessed and don't mind a some light exposure.  (Not a bad option if you are screaming through a decant.)  Notice the lid open onto 1mls, held inside the powder compartment.

Okay, OKAY!!  Sometimes things get left in the light.  Just how much time and energy do you think I spend on this, anyway??? 

Hee.

Honestly, really, not as much as you might think.  I've been at this for a few years now.  I spend a lot more time writing or thinking about it than I do storing it.  And, to be honest, I kinda like thinking about it, in the ways that I do.  

Brian, it's almost been a year and a half since you threw out your invitation to share pictures.  Consider this my late reply.  The rest of you, I offer a hint of my Big Reveal.  I promise, temperature is stable and cool, and the most precious are not exposed to light.  But this is a living collection.  Sorted by my brain.  And asking to be visual in at least some respects.

 Thanks for coming by.  Have a great weekend.


All photos the author's own, which I hope is apparent.  Also apparent is that I have not yet quite "formalized" my ownership of this photos, so sure, if you're unscrupulous, you can grab them and share them without attribution.  I'm working on making it easy for one-click honesty; meanwhile, just include my name and a link to my blog/today's entry.  You know, if you are documenting personality disorders, or who you know with Nuit de Longchamp, or want to send an amusing note to An Official Nose saying "I know that people talk about powdery scents, but do you suppose this person knows that *powder itself* is not classified as perfume?"  Or something like that.