Our furniture

No one could say that we've gone overboard buying furniture over the years!

Reduce

We've never bought much furniture, but have accumulated it from relatives, from garage sales, or even as castoffs put out to the curb.

We've kept these things thinking that our kids might want to have these someday, but now they're living too far away to transport these items. We're ready to sell or donate some of the excess. This will accomplish two things: it allow someone else to reuse them, and it will make our own home more spacious and liveable (not to mention making the attic an easier place to use.)

Reuse

Boy, have we reused! We have a truly eclectic style, but "style" is probably too strong a word.

We have bought some furniture such as our dining room suite second-hand, so that would be an example of "reuse."

We even acquired from the curbside three sturdy chairs (and one that needed repairs) that matched our porch table perfectly.

Recycle

The sad thing is that there's no way to recycle furniture. All that furniture that we see put out to the curb (and there's a lot in our neighborhood) is going to the landfill.

Repair

Some of the furniture we see at the curb seems to need some repair—some slight, some more substantial.

John has been able to repair our own things over the years, but I guess these skills (or the motivation to use them) have disappeared in our society.

Another aspect of this, though, is that people aren't careful with furniture. I've seen some of those little wooden fold-up tray tables being left outdoors until they're rotten. These are generally made by stripping rain forests or other forests! Just because they're artifically and unrealistically inexpensive doesn't mean they should be regarded as disposable. Repair wouldn't be an issue if items were well taken care of to begin with.

It's also probably more cost-effective (both financially and environmentally) to buy a few well-made pieces. Some of the junk being sold will never last and apparently is designed to be disposable.

Regret

We haven't bought a lot of furnitute to lead to much regret, but we do regret having so much in the house.