need furniture advice

[Imbrium]

I had to move some furniture out of my living room when I moved the bunnies in and most of it's piled up in the tiny parlor area. with all the darn hammy babies, my house is feeling rather cramped.

it's perfectly good furniture... a couple chairs and small tables. if I ever stop having bunnies, decide to let them free-range or somehow end up living somewhere larger, I'll need it again. however, there's a reasonably good chance it'll be 10 years or so before that happens (and that's assuming I don't replace Nala and Gaz with a kitty cat when they pass away).

I hate getting rid of stuff when there's nothing wrong with it and I might have to pay to replace it down the road, but at the same time, I don't really want to look at a pile of furniture for a decade. I thought about storing it, but of the few storage units that have prices posted online, the cheapest I found was $19 a month ($228 a year) and at that price, it would be counter-productive to store it to save myself the cost of purchasing new furniture later. I don't want to store it in the garage, 'cause the door's broken and doesn't shut all the way and I've got cats and raccoons that moved in there (plus roaches can get in... my garage is basically dead to me right now).

I'm bad at getting rid of stuff, especially anything that was mom's. I guess what I'm looking for here is for someone to convince me that I really should donate the furniture to charity and get some of my house back.

 

[whitelop]

Donate it. haha. Or is there a bedroom or something it could go into? But they say if you don't use it, get rid of it. I've had to do it in the last few months and its difficult but it makes you feel better to get rid of things and de-clutter your life. Its nice to have some space to move around in.
So I say donate it. Maybe keep a smaller item like a table, so you don't feel like your giving everything away, like a baby step. And then give the rest of it up. You'll probably feel better if you do. lol

 

[Imbrium]

well, I'll keep one chair, since it was already in that room before I piled stuff on top of it, and one table (probably the one from the living room instead of the one that was already in that room since the LR one is nicer)... and I'm definitely keeping mom's rocking chair because it's got too much sentimental value to get rid of (the other furniture was purchased after we moved to San Antonio when I was 11, but she's had the rocking chair since I was a baby). I'm also keeping the marble-top coffee table 'cause it's *really* nice and it fit in the back bedroom (aka the "cardboard box warehouse"... bunnies need to nom their boxes faster, lol). I really need to do something about the bedrooms... never did get rid of all of mom's stuff, then my best friend from high school moved in on top of mom's stuff and moved out without taking everything with her and I never used the rooms anyway, so I just closed the doors and ignore them except to store stuff in there. I tried to get started at one point recently, but I wanted to start in mom's closet and the light didn't work... apparently there's something wrong with the socket, 'cause a new bulb didn't help. the clutter drives me nuts, but my solution is usually to just not look at it ><

 

[whitelop]

You sound like me. We have a front room in our house(thats now my dads room, that looks like Eurpoean hostel, lol) It used to be our "storage" room, thats the nicest way to put it. But really it was a big pile to sh*t in that room, with some baby clothes in storage containers here and there. I cleaned it all out to fit my dad in. Got it all gone, except for my China hutch. It felt so much better to get rid of it!

I can understand that you wouldn't want to get rid of anything of your moms, that makes total sense to me. You have to get rid of what you feel comfortable giving away. I wouldn't want to give away things that are sentimental. But the other things, give it away. Like your friends crap, get rid of that! That is totally unnecessary clutter. lol
You'll figure it out. Just do what you feel comfortable with.

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, I know I need to get rid of a ton of stuff... and I know I'll feel better once I do... it's just really hard to find the motivation to get started when the project is so overwhelming. my friend was *supposed* to help me clean stuff out years ago, but ended up making it worse and then disappearing.

 

[whitelop]

lol. It is a big thing to undertake. When I did it, it was totally overwhelming. I was the same way with that room, out of sight out of mind, lol. It got out of control, real quick.
I wish I was closer to you, I would totally help you out with it.

 

[Imbrium]

hehe... I'd love the help... and love to send you home with a hammy baby! darn geography!

 

[whitelop]

I know right, because I really would love one of those hammy babies. But I don't want to dole out the cash for the shipping, its so freaking much!

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, lol... bad enough with a sugar glider or something that costs about the same amount as the shipping charges, but hammies are WAY too cheap and common to be paying $175 to buy one a plane ticket

 

[Anaira]

No! Don't do it! They'll feel sad, and rejected. You can't do that to them! Furniture is for life!

...I'm totally not joking. *pack rat*

 

[Imbrium]

I know! is MY furniture! it's been around since I helped mom pick it out like 17 years ago! I think it's time to choose between furniture and what's left of my sanity, though... well, once I move hamster cages and dig the stuff out, anyway. I don't have a truck or anything to transport it in, so I guess I need to see if there's a charity that will come pick it up.

 

[agnesthelion]

This thread cracked me up! I can totally relate! Here is why..

Even though I'm a neat freak...theres a little hoarder within me . Like, my house is always clean but, for example, I have 3 junk drawers in the kitchen instead of one. Or, my closets tend to be jam packed. I can "keep" things as long as I don't see them. So overall, the neat freak personality is winning the battle because I'm forced to eventually throw things away. But it's so hard.

I have old furniture in my storage room right now that my hubby wants to sell or donate but I can't bring myself to do it.

So, with all that being said, we recently did a HUGE clearing out of things before thanksgiving. It. Felt. So. Good. So my opinion is to get rid of it and you will be glad that you did. Because right now you look at it everyday and you have to think about it. Onces it's gone, it's out of sight, out of mind (hence my tendency to have junk drawers, lol)

But anywY, I totally relate and if I didnt have this second persona to me about wanting things in order, I'd probably end up with a cluttered house. My neat freak side is VERY thankful that's not the case....

 

[Imbrium]

I do definitely prefer the clutter out of sight... rather glad I'm not a neat-freak, though, or I'd go nuts in my house. I STILL can't believe my mother thought it wasn't the stupidest idea in the world to get white berber carpeting and white tile floors in a house with two dogs, a cat and a teenage daughter. EVERYTHING shows on that floor. you sweep or vacuum and turn around and there's more stuff on the floor! you can never get it 100% clean-looking and it drives me nuts to try. I vacuum and the next day it's a mess again.

 

[Imbrium]

when debating what to get rid of, I seem to have overlooked the elephant in the room... the baby grand piano (which is NOT an upright). it kind of serves as a divider between the parlor area and the living room, but now that I have the bunnies, their pen and condo do that too .

once upon a time, it was a really nice piano... we've had it for at least 20-25 years, maybe 30+... but I remember mom fussing a lot because it really needed to be restrung and I know she never got around to doing that. it looks pretty, but it takes up a lot of space in a small house and I don't play piano, so it seems impractical to keep it around. if I got rid of the piano, I'd have room for the two chairs and the table I took out of the living room and there would actually be places to sit in my house other than the dining room table or in the bunny pen (not that I ever have people over, lol).

part of me thinks it might still be worth something even though it needs to be restrung, since it IS a nice piano and I think it was expensive when she got it... but there's another part of me that says "screw trying to get any money out of it, just find a way to get it out of the house without having to pay anything".

should I do some research to make sure it's not worth selling, or just call a charity to come get it the hell out of my house?

 

[kmaben]

Do a little research first. Even if you get a couple hundred out of it that's a lot of rabbit toys! Or send me a PM and I can look it up for you since I am into pianos. You can always just boot it out the door later.

 

[Imbrium]

a couple hundred bucks wouldn't be worth the hassle of finding a buyer and figuring out how to get it out of the house, lol - I'd end up donating the couple hundred bucks to charity instead of the piano anyway. I guess my threshold is about a grand before it'd be worth selling instead of donating.

I'll clean up the stuff that's sitting on the lid and see about finding out what brand it is.

 

[Imbrium]

huzzah! the piano has found a new home and will be getting the hell out of my house the second or third week of January at no cost to me

after being single for 11 years, my mom finally met someone and got remarried less than a year before she passed away... I was already moved out at that point, so I didn't know Joe all that well until after she died, but he was a really nice guy and was head-over-heels for my mom. I heard back from my aunt today (who I emailed for her opinion on what to do with the piano)... apparently she and Joe had talked at some point (I guess before I convinced her that I was keeping the house) and he mentioned if I were ever to get rid of the stuff in the house, the only thing he was really interested in was the piano - he and mom used to play it together and it has a lot of sentimental value for him.

I'm a little miffed that I'm JUST finding out about this - they know I don't play piano; if I'd known at the time that he wanted the **** thing, I would've told him to take it when he moved out of the house after my mom died.

I phoned him up and asked if he was still interested... told him if he'd take care of getting it removed from the house for me, he could have it for free. he jumped on the offer and is going to make arrangements and then call me back... he's out of town the 1st-7th of next month, but will have it moved to his place when he gets back.

mom left everything to me in her will, so I'm happy for the opportunity to give Joe something to remember her by that he really wants. given that it's in poor condition/needs a lot of work and probably isn't worth much money at all, it makes me feel better to have it go to someone who really appreciates the sentimental value. I appreciate it for that as well, though probably not as much as he does and it's just so impractical for me to hold onto it.

 

[whitelop]

Thats really awesome that you'll be able to give it to him and give him back a little piece of your mom! I bet he has really fond memories, so he'll really appreciate and enjoy having it back!

AND it opens up your house for more things to be moved around! haha. So its a win-win for everyone.

 

[Blue eyes]

That sounds great about the piano -- good all the way around.

If the rest seems overwhelming to deal with, you could do it in stages. You could just tackle one room at a time.

There are places that will come pick up donations. I used to do this when we had multiple garage sales before we moved. Anything left from the sale was scheduled to be picked up the next day. Teen challenge was the group that would come pick up -- not sure if you have to get it on the driveway or if you can explain that there are heavy objects and could they take them out for you.

 

[Imbrium]

yup, I'm getting everything I wanted - the piano gets out of my house, I don't have to pay anything to make that happen and I don't have to worry about feeling I might not have "gotten my money's worth" out of it in the process, since it's a gift to someone who will treasure it and that's worth more to me than whatever I could've sold it for or whatever a charity could've gotten for it.