The Furniture Discussion

This weekend I pretty much slept. For three days. And read when I wasn’t sleeping. I didn’t do much. But, a few weeks back we did unload some furniture that we really didn’t need.

I had been thinking about Francine Jay’s article about 15 Pieces of Furniture You May Not Really Need, but people think we are supposed to have for whatever reason. We are taking a hard look at everything in our home to determine if we really need it, and that includes furniture.

By eliminating furniture that isn’t necessary, three things happen:

1. You open up extra space in your home.

2. There is one less thing to clean and maintain.

3. You either earn a few extra bucks by selling it, get a tax deduction for donating it, or just feel good about giving it away on Freecycle.

Extra Chair

Chair

 

 

When we moved into our house five years ago, there was a period of a few days when we didn’t have much in the house while we waited for furniture to arrive from storage. Our neighbor set this chair out in bulk trash and we picked it up to use it in the interim. Except, it wasn’t an interim. We kept it.

We don’t need it, so it got donated to The Family Place. Along with the pillow.

 

 

 

 

 

Playroom Furniture

In this room, we started with easy wins. The sofa that was in horrible disrepair. We also sold a few items on CraigsList.

Our sunroom, which is currently holding all of our furniture while we do our remodel, used to be a playroom for the kids. Now that they are getting older, they don’t play with big, bulky toys. We’ve relocated what they do play with to their bedrooms, essentially negating the need for a dedicated playroom. (I say this knowing full well that a playroom is not a necessity to begin with.)

Playroom Furniture

Playroom Furniture

Several years ago we bought these storage pieces from Ikea. Only they didn’t have the white in stock, so we bought the pine ones. I had these grand notions that I would paint them white, then cover them with cushions to make them like window seats. Me and DIY? Not great friends. I started priming them, my back started to bug me, I got bored, had to go to work on Monday, and I quit. I never finished.

Bad Mommy. Bad.

The kids and I have been working on weeding out the toys in the playroom for literally two years.

Two. Years.

Finally, age and time have given all three of us wisdom. “Nah, I don’t play with that.”

We were able to donate 80% of the toys in there. I was so incredibly proud of both of them.

We also sold a kid table and 4 chairs. The kids used it when they were younger and smaller. We no longer regularly use it, so we sold it. Another $30.

The Boy’s Room

BoyDresser

Since we were on a roll, we moved to the kids’ bedrooms. The Boy has a closet with built in shelves and drawers, in addition to hanging space. We were able to relocate all of the clothes in his dresser into his under-utilized closet.

For. The. Double. Win.

He gained extra space in his room and we pocketed $160. Thank you CraigsList.

The progress made in The Girl’s room will be documented another day. But let’s just say that divesting our home of these unused items has caused a bit of a shift in our non-thinking.

Question and Answer

We’re really asking ourselves:

1. Do we use this piece of furniture?

2. Do we need this piece of furniture?

3. Do we need what is inside this piece of furniture?

4. If we do need what is in it, can that stuff go somewhere else? Where?

When we start bringing furniture back in from the sunroom, we’ll be asking all kinds of questions. I suspect a lot of furniture will be exiting our home. Which is good for a lot of reasons.


15 Responses to The Furniture Discussion

  1. You will love all the open space–and your kids will like it too. Last year (during Great Purge #1), we got rid of our living room furniture, and replaced it with a hand-me-down wicker chair, wicker loveseat, coffee table, and end table. It looks pretty, and provides all the seating we need (we spend a lot of time sitting on the floor anyway). This set-up has worked so well, that the furniture will be one of the few things to survive Great Purge #2 (currently in progress).

  2. You are doing great!! I have a saying if you don’t use it in 6 months you don’t need it. I am thinking about getting rid of the livingroom furniture since we don’t use it and maybe just get a big chair with ottoman for me to sit and read in. Just haven’t done it yet.

    You are just a inspiring person with all your post. It has inspired me to get more done around here.

    Good luck and keep up the good work!!

    Hope your feeling better to!

    • We’re on the distribution list for several charities. And yes, I think they are probably happy with the donations. 🙂

  3. I got rid of my dresser as well. I don’t have a lot of clothes as I’ve pared down to just what I need, now one shelf in a cabinet holds all my clothes for the season. I love having more space and know you will too.

    • I’ve already purged about 2/3 of my closet over the past year, but still have way too much. I’m going to keep going!

  4. That was an interesting article you linked. Our house is fairly small, so we haven’t accumulated much in the way of extra furniture, but it’s interesting to think about…

    • Trisha- I never, ever thought about the why of furniture before I read that article. Like ever. But now it’s interesting to really consider why and how we use furniture.

  5. “Sometimes the most urgent and vital thing you can do is take a complete rest” (quote by writer Ashleigh Brilliant).

    So good that you’re resting while you can. It’s important to take care of yourself.

    Reading your posts motivated me to get rid of our bulky tv cabinet (sold for $30), one of our bulky sofas and donate our very heavy and very expensive pure wool rug (our local landfill runs a shop that you can donate to – they sell the items and use the money for regeneration projects).

    I don’t regret it as cleaning is so much easier, and the room feels lighter and happier. Selling the tv cabinet forced me to sort through all our dvds (that we’ve only watched once or not at all). I gave most of them away to a friend who is sick and was very grateful to receive them. The best thing is – now we can’t buy any more dvds as we’ve got nowhere to put them!

    • Yay! Congratulations on your selling successes. 🙂 Feels good, doesn’t it? And yes, the rest was very much needed.

  6. Kandice, after reading this post, I started to look around my house. We’re getting ready to move/downsize and I thought now is a good time to unload…LOL I have an old treadle sewing machine cabinet (minus the actual sewing machine) and a bureau that needs to go. Hoping I can find good homes for them.

    Keep up your good work with your simple year, love reading about it.

    • Good for you! I never actually gave any thought to anything in my house, which is how we got in this mess in the first place. We’re asking lots of questions these days.

  7. You’ve inspired to me to sort through my wardrobe, and I now have a bag of gently used clothes and accessories for the thrift shop.

  8. Pingback: Fake IDs used to get jobs at Cleveland, Tenn., furniture maker | House stuff

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