 |
| Old furniture (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Furniture is typically among the items we most take for granted in our homes. The furnishings that we fill our rooms with are some of the most enduring possessions many of us will ever own. On first acquiring furniture we may admire it and administer great care, then as the years pass we tend to just accept that it is there as it gathers dust and typically a few nicks and scratches as it staidly remains in repose in whichever room it has been placed.
If we happen to relocate to another house, often the furniture will be moved with us. A move might require a large truck accompanied by professional movers or we might go the do-it-yourself route with a rental truck or even our own or a friend's vehicles. Furniture is among our biggest household investments. The practicality of periodically replacing old furniture with new is out of many of our budgets so whether we like it or not we are often stuck with many of the furniture purchases we make in our lives.
My parents bought their first furniture in 1958 when they bought their first house. Until that time we had always lived in furnished houses or apartments, but home ownership required the sizable investment of furniture for our then young family. They had to purchase furniture for a living room, a dining room, and three bedrooms. I'm not sure how much they paid for it all or where they bought it, but I do know that it was all brand new. Most of that furniture stayed with our family through three subsequent moves and the raising of five children.
We went through a number of upholstered pieces and a few dining tables during that period, but most of that early furniture purchase remained with us and it took a beating. Gradually, piece by piece, furniture was replaced, moved around the house to be used for other purposes, or discarded in one way or another. A couple of the pieces went with me when I moved away from home into my own place to live.
Over the years, the furniture that I took sometimes made its way back to my parents' house for storage until I was ready to use it again. Once the furniture was relegated to a paid storage facility in Richmond, Virginia--that was a huge waste of money. Eventually most of the possessions that were stored in that locker was sold, given away, or trashed. Two pieces of furniture I did keep. Both of these were part of that initial purchase my parents had made twenty years earlier.
Now, about thirty years later, I still have those two pieces of furniture. A large dresser that had originally been in my bedroom and a china hutch were pieces that I recovered from my parents' house in 1988 after my wife and I left the road life to settle down in an apartment in Tennessee not far from where my parents lived at that time. In 1991 we loaded up those two pieces of furniture into a rental truck along with all of our other possessions and made a drastic move to the Los Angeles area.
Once again we fast forward to the present. Since that move to California I've gone through a divorce and then got married to another woman. Together we bought a new house and consolidated our furniture assets, getting rid of what we didn't need. The well worn dresser and hutch that had been in my life for so many years ended up in our garage where they remain to this day. I use them for storage. My wife would prefer to get rid of them and probably that will one day happen. I'll have to find a place for the stuff stored in those pieces--possibly a lot of it will end up in the trash.
Those pieces of furniture, now out of sight and out of mind most of the time, still hold so many memories in the history of my family. They are not particularly special other than that. Maybe they do have value of which I am unaware, but I doubt it. I'll check before ever actually getting rid of them. If I ever do get rid of them. Those pieces of furniture have been in my life for so long that they seem like a part of me. In a way I guess they are.
Do you have any pieces of furniture that have been in your life for almost as long as you can remember? Has any furniture that you own been appraised at any significant value? Is there any particular furniture that you own that is stored away and not used in your home?
I made a big move in 2003. Putting what was "valuable" in a storage unit, I had the premonition that I would get rid of that in time. And I did. I now live in a house full of stuff and part of my big plan is to unload it by the year end. I haven't started. But it is on the agenda.
ReplyDeleteMy older brother has two rockers that my mother recovered many times in his basement. He plans to move later this year. I have a feeling of all of his things, those chairs will make the move.
After my mother died in November of 2014 my siblings and I began the process of deciding what to keep and what to get rid of. Since one of my sisters had moved in with my mother a lot of the furniture was hers since a lot of my mother's furniture was old in needed to be discarded. Still there was a lot of furniture and all of us had furniture so didn't want any of what was left.
DeleteOne of my sisters kept a rocking chair and a few other items. My brother and his family also too some things to keep. Since I'm in California I didn't want to take anything big. Most of the stuff was sold for a cheap price or given away. Sad to see those pieces that had been in the home for so long go off to who knows where. Hopefully they will bring happiness to the new owners.
Always stuff to get rid of after having it accumulate. And how it all seems to accumulate! Good luck with your house purging.
Lee
When I came to Canada, I brought no furniture, so all I have has been purchased here. We have many items from the 1870s up to the 1930s or so, golden oak pieces I would never part with - they were sometimes gifts like a 1850s rocking chair, and sometimes finds, like a 1870s sewing machine-treadle, to a 1930s furniture we bought from a carpenter pal. We have had to sell a carved oak bed, and a bowfront oak dresser as they were too big for our current place, other items have gone to our daughters. We've gotten rid of the fluff pieces and have had offers on some, like our golden oak icebox from the early 20th century. And yes, we've dragged some of these heavy pieces from house to house. . .c'est la vie. . .Enjoyed this post, Lee!
ReplyDeleteDG, it sounds like you have some pretty cool antiques. My wife doesn't like having old things around (though she puts up with me) so I can't see us ever having any antique furniture in our house. I'd love to live in an old house (refurbished to some modern standards for comfort sake) with fine antique furniture. My wife would never let that happen in her current mindset.
DeleteLee
My mom still has all the furniture in her house that I grew up with...bought in the 50s and 60s. My stuff is pretty new. The only old piece was a gold wing chair that my parents let me take when I moved to the west coast in 1989. I took it with me when I moved back east in 2011 but I had it taken to the dump after I got my recliner. Sadly, I had to leave a lot of my own furniture back in Washington when I moved b/c my ex wouldn't let me take hardly anything. I think my dresser is about 25 years old though.
ReplyDeleteJoJo, going into a house where someone has lived a long time and still has the many of the original furnishings is kind of cool like stepping into a time machine. When one moves it's not always possible to retain furniture. Getting rid of stuff and leaving other stuff behind is kind of a norm for many people when they have to move.
DeleteLee
I haven't become attached to any furniture I've ever owned -- each time I made a big move, I sold almost everything and started new later. Even now that we're staying put, I periodically send pieces off to Habitat for Humanity and buy new (I don't buy expensive, mostly because of pets, so this is not a huge drain on the finances). The only thing I can think of that I really regret getting rid of was a huge soup pot that had belonged to my mother-in-law. I sure wish I still had that pot.
ReplyDeletePatricia, I think a lot of people in our age are less inclined to make huge purchases where furniture is concerned, but so much of it is mass produced now unlike in times past when a piece of furniture could easily be an heirloom.
DeleteLee
We still have and use grandma's car ramps for oil changes, etc. I really hated to let her ancient weed-eater go during a yard sale because at some point, she had pinned her and grandpa's wedding bands inside the bag!(The buyer, bless his heart, brought the rings back). I wish I knew what to do with a miniature crib that has held a great many babies in this family. No one wants it, but I'm afraid I'll be a creep if I get rid of it.
ReplyDeleteDiedre, never considered something like a car ramp as an heirloom. Why wasn't your grandma wearing her wedding ring? Interesting place to hide that jewelry.
DeleteLee
Grandpa passed away at age 45. Grandma remarried once (for three months) but kicked him out for cheating. After that she "washed her hands of the business of men" and carried on alone. As for hiding the rings, grandma took care of and thought of everything except for her "thinker going on the blink". She got Alzheimer's. I took care of her for the last ten years of her life.
DeleteDiedre, okay that makes sense. I sometimes think that I've hidden stuff away somewhere and have forgotten. Some part of me senses that I once hid around $5000 in cash somewhere back when I was still working, but I've yet to figure where it is if indeed it exists. What a bonus if I were to come across a stash like that.
DeleteLee
To me anything can be a form of memoir of our late direct family members and ancestors. However, it has to be something that reminds me of them like their favorite sheets or the pair of pajamas they used to wear. Furniture pieces are suitable too but I would rather keep something smaller like lamps or teacups because I cannot afford to keep bulky items in my apartment unit.
ReplyDeleteMichael, so true. Furniture is a difficult thing for many of us for the reason you cite.
DeleteLee