Dear Lee,

My house is old, and one day a couple of weeks ago the basement lights wouldn’t turn on. I called an electrician—and did not expect to be told my breaker panel was on recall as a fire hazard, my light switches were no longer made, and the best way to fix everything was to rewire all of my 1950s lighting. And so began a moving, cleaning, finding, discarding and discovery week.

Every collector has to go through this sometime. But it was worth it. I now have new switches and dimmers, and new light fixtures that won’t need discontinued fluorescent tubes. And while I edited and rearranged my collections, I rediscovered forgotten antiques that may be worth more than the cost of rewiring.

My biggest problem was the built-in glass shelves holding our collection of porcelains. Its light fixture had to be replaced, so everything—including the sliding glass doors—had to be removed. First I took photos so I would know where things fit. Then I covered the dining room table with towels and moved each piece to the table one at a time!

One shelf was slightly bent, reminding me of my “rules for glass”: Start at the bottom. Breaks cause damage below, not above, a shelf. I took the heavy pieces out first in pairs, one from each end of a shelf until it was empty. Then two of us removed each shelf by holding the ends, tipping it so an edge pointed down, which puts less strain on the wide flat center. We numbered each shelf with a Post-it note and put it flat on the rug in the center of the room. Then we removed the metal braces and marked the holes where they were inserted. We noted the position of the doors, too, before removing them. A groove in each door helped it slide, so the only way the doors could be reassembled was in their original positions.

The electricians replaced the fixture and the wiring and reinstalled the cover on the light bulb, and we did the rest. We vacuumed the corners of the bottom of the space, and washed the fronts and backs of the shelves and doors before reinstalling them. The porcelains were replaced carefully and symmetrically, a heavy piece on one end balanced by a heavy piece at the other end so the glass would not tip. I left 10 pieces out—shelves always get too crowded because new treasures are added from time to time. The doors were closed, then locked with a small metal key-lock that slides on a bar screwed to the lowest spot on the door. It’s a good idea to lock cabinets, especially if you have children, a cleaning service or others in your house when you are not in the room. The shelves look great. I had no idea they had been so dusty.