Remember that line?
Well, it doesn't apply to me!
When I was younger, starting out, making a young officer's pay, I thought I would buy one major piece of furniture a month. Fortunately, that never came about. A thing that helps my thriftiness, perhaps combats a compulsiveness is that I'M LAZY!
Those pieces I did pick up early on were folding chairs, high director chairs, and side tables from Pier 1, a folding big table, phone tables from either the "quick" appliance stores of the time or office furniture outlets or mail order, and a wonderful queen size bed where the frame was just some boards that connected well together.
When I got off sea duty, the parents gave me a butler's table
http://www.scullyandscully.com/image...t/63354_LG.jpg
and a field desk (essentially like this:
http://fshenemaderantiques.com/wp-co...k-2234-051.jpg ), probably from the Bombay Company and an old family leather chair (which now, ghost long given up, has gone to Goodwill). That, along with the nut and bolt steel shelves and a half file cabinet, it made for a decent apartment.
So, cut to the chase, fast forward a few decades and now inherited from a few, I have two more desks (Dad's big wooded desk and a grand aunt's secretary desk
http://www.jameskrollfinewoodworking.com/images/Furniture/LgFurniturePics/1a_secretary_desk.jpg )
(I could easily have a wooden desk compulsion if I wasn't so lazy), a standing desk, a craft table/desk, three curio cabinets, one wicker curio stand, 5 oriental floor screens, an additional bedside table, a small rattan sofa, a larger sleep sofa, my bed, a dresser, a camphor chest, a small folding side dining table, a cabinet for dining linens, another coffee table, a rattan rolling bar, three executive desk chairs, three half, two tall (one of them King size)(and one rolling hanging that is being used for tee storage) file cabinets, and an entertainment table......at least.
When you have to move it, one occasional might have the question, "Do I have too much furniture?".
Now, some things along the line, I'm "chucking". There were a number of put together TV stands the family had when Dad went into the nursing home. One was destroyed (weight) by a fish tank so it went into the dumpster today, the second is whole and destined for GW (along with my steel bike, another gone the ghost executive chair, tower desktops, old monitors, scanners, & a box TV, at least). As the phrase goes, a lot of it is surplus to needs (if it works). But it also falls into another category in that it's not......
"You have a lot of nice things.".
"Cats are Angels with fur" and my cats may be helping me make decisions down the line because......they have certainly done their paw work on the sleeper sofa. So down the line or in doing house plans, maybe. Equally, as my shredder has been getting a lot of use, (asked and got clearance to dump boxes of family files) I may be able to reduce, eventually the number of file cabinets...or, at least not pick up any more.
Things that are already moved have the benefit of not weighing on the current conscience. It is when they are still waiting to be moved that they come up on consideration, especially if they are not in the "nice things" category.
I have an Emerson box TV, have had since 1987 and it still works, probably the same as it worked 28 years ago. With two flat screens and a moved Sanyo box almost 20 years it's junior, though, it may be time to let it go (with the older box TV inherited from grand aunt which is destined for GW). Reduce the number of TV stations although as TV stations are reduced, the DVR/VHS units associated with them increase around those left. By practice, I'm not really a minimalist but there can be such inputs to calculations. That is, if there needs to be a TV in the bedroom, my night shift lifestyle has seen that TV really not used for anything but a processing station for the past few years, then it can be done smaller but better, if eventually.
Pity because 28 years ago or so, that was one of the "small fantasies" of how I pictured life might be, watching the late show in bed before going to sleep. Being a grave yard worker, however, really shakes up how one watches TV. This gets back to one's concept of furniture.
How do we, how did we picture our lives, what did we want our surroundings to be and is that vision similar now or even agreeable?
Most of the furniture already moved and that which remains have probably got their meal tickets for now. But this move has made me wonder about things, both from the time and effort it takes to move it around and how much time I have left overall to whether it is really worth it to keep around.
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