“A tchotchke is a small, cheap, ornamental trinket or souvenir; a knickknack. Tchotchke is taken from Yiddish, a dialect of German based on Hebrew. It has several English spellings, including chotchke, tchachke, and chachki. In Yiddish, it is also sometimes used as a term for a young girl or pretty woman.”
Memento. Decoration. Knickknack. Souvenir. Ornament. Toy. Gadget. Collectible. Object. Miniature. Embellishment. Gem. Doll. Amulet. Figurine. Pendant. You get the idea.
Thanks Google. For years my family has referred to knickknacks as “Chotchkes” and I never really understood why until I finally googled it one day and found the definition! To be honest, I wasn’t sure Google would have a definition to offer, so I was pleased when it popped up instantly and the “Chotchke” was finally defined in my mind. Used many a time amongst my close family members, I needed to fully grasp the reasoning behind the term and how it morphed into a common place word when discussing one’s aesthetic or décor.
As I grew, the word began to have more of a negative connotation. When an aunt or mother would step into another family members’ or friends’ semi-cluttered, eclectic house, they would gossip about how it felt jumbled or messy because of all of their “chotchkes”. When I finally had a home of my own, I was adamant to not display too many knickknacks for fear my family would judge. Gosh, maybe they would even pull out the word chotchkes and think my home was maybe a bit too cluttered to fall into the “clean and fresh” status. Oh, the shame! The horror!
However, as I’ve grown and my home style has evolved, I’ve come to realize that there is an art to a chotchke collection. After all, we want our home to speak to who we are as people, yet we do not want it to be too visible that it becomes all others may see. This is a delicate balance, but one that can be achieved. It takes thought and desire. We want our walls, shelves and countertops to speak to our life, our experiences, like traveling and momentous occasions without inundating them with loads of things. So, I knew I would be able to obtain this symmetry, but like I said, it would have to take thought and desire. And maybe a little bit of patience. Okay, lots of patience!
Whether you’re working with a small space or you are willing your home to be open and breezy without the burden of a lot of chotchkes, breaking down your objective is key. Is the starting point specific mementos that truly mean something to you and you want to be sure to incorporate them into the room’s design? Or do you have a theme set aside for a certain space or room in your home that will work nicely with specifically-themed treasures that always catch your eye and speak to you? Do your chotchkes fall under one theme (like silver pieces or porcelain patterned dishes)? If so, consider arranging them together to create artwork on the walls or on a server. It is important to define your “why” before moving forward with your how. An example I can share is the built-in shelving in our living room. This room’s purpose is for entertaining and gathering. Our piano lives here. Our living room allows us a place to gather without the noise of a television or toys. It is a comfortable family room with a hint of serious. A place we welcome guests before a dinner party or holiday celebration. A place we gather to listen to music together. A place we hang to read our books and gain inspiration from a coffee table book or a magazine from our collections. So, therefore, our goal was to have our bookshelves share conversation within themselves. We wanted them to share tales and stories and souvenirs of our past family and our family’s past experiences. Each bookshelf “box” has a significant memento, whether it be a picture of a deceased loved one, old video cameras and cameras collected by a loved one, artwork our children made from preschool to middle school. These are all conversation pieces that make our hearts happy to view and share so much love with others learning about them for the very first time.
When I went about decorating these built shelves (that my husband built with his own two hands!), I laid everything out that I knew we wanted to be a part of this room. I played around with the boxes and spent time peering at different combinations from a visual perspective. It took a few rounds, a few weekends, but I finally achieved an aesthetically pleasing arrangement. This process was a bit annoying while I worked through it, but in the end, we’ve been satisfied with the outcome and the bookshelves offer so many interesting pieces of our own personal history as well as our present day lives. Goal accomplished. In fact, I hosted a coffee at our home and one woman – after seeing our home for the first time – said, “wow, you have very meaningful pieces in your shelves and on your walls!”. She couldn’t believe it. Every time she complimented me on a “chotchke” I would respond with a “thank you, that was my…”. This caught her off guard, as she was initially expecting these items to have been purchased for the purpose of decorating.
There are definitely some “chotchkes” that did not make it in this round of decorating. However, as we continuously work on renovating our farmhouse, I always keep these mementos in mind and look forward to finding a special place for each special piece along the way. Stay your course and keep your pace. Rather than throwing them all in a room and therefore stripping these chotchkes of their essence, their meaning, their worth in your life. I am happy to say that the chotchke term for me now is a term of endearment.
