We’ve long struggled with souvenirs and tchotchkes. We like them. But we don’t want to be overrun.

It’s easy to have too many mementos: every weekend 5k generated a t-shirt back in the day, more than I would ever wear. Lee ended up cutting the writing out and making a quilt, which was a lot of fun. Every work trip involves airports, with their fridge magnets, shot glasses and so on. You get to ‘enough!’ really fast.

Even little bits of art can accumulate beyond our capacity to display it… the Jamaican lady, the Pont d’Avignon, and quite a few others we picked up from artists by the side of the road are now in storage.

Practical souvenirs have been our favorites. When I went to Germany in 1999, I got a big Henckels chef’s knife. Still going strong. Last year in Toledo (Spain) I got an olive oil dispenser decorated in the local style. Use it every day.

Recently we realized that all our tea towels / dish towels were old and ratty. We had a conversation with a friend who self-deprecatingly talked about how she still likes to have a nice — not to be used — tea towel hanging on the oven. Ok, that’s a good, practical souvenir!

Two or three trips later, the problem was solved for the next xx months or years.

So, the souvenir I brought back from Sydney was this picture of pretty tea towels in the airport. $31.49 not spent, and no decision to make about whether or not to wipe our hands on the towel.