We have sort of a yours-mine-and-ours situation when it comes to liquor in our house. Margaret and I had a sizable stash, most of it dating from when we (at age 23) decided we wanted to try making cocktails at home. Becky and Mike also had a few bottles. And ever since our households merged, we’ve been adding a few things here and there for novelty’s sake, or for a specific seasonal cocktail recipe.

This is part of our 100 Things in 2017 challenge. Click on the photos for a closer look!

We realized the top of our bookshelf made it look like we had a real problem.

This year, we decided to do away with having a home bar. We weren’t using it, so dedicating this much space to it seemed silly. So we stopped buying liquor, and slowly but surely started drinking down what we had.

It took nearly the whole year, but just about every bottle that you see in that photo is gone now. The only exceptions are the three little deciliters of cask-strength scotch I picked up in Edinburgh, which take up very little space, and which I actually do treasure. The rest is totally gone. Which was a huge relief when it came time to move!