The ancient coffee table in my living room is not, strictly speaking, clutter. It still holds coffee cups, pizza boxes, etc., just fine. The wood is mostly in good condition, except for the top board in the middle, which has veneer that has gotten chipped. But even though it is not really clutter, I made it this week’s post because it represents an area of my life that has been neglected.
The table was a gift 30 years ago from friends who no longer needed it. My husband and I meant to buy new living room furniture after a while, but when we were raising two kids, there was always something else that had a higher priority! And more recently, we looked online and couldn’t find a replacement table that we liked. Coffee tables just aren’t made in those dimensions anymore, but after so many years we’re used to that size and would not feel comfortable with something very different.
So rather than putting up with the annoyance of veneer coming off and those “old stuff” vibes every time we sit down to watch TV, we’ve decided to take the coffee table to a furniture restoration shop and have it redone as good as new. We are not antique collectors and generally prefer a more contemporary look, but there’s an exception for just about everything!
About Clutter Comedy: Every Sunday (which I envision as a day of rest after a productive week of de-cluttering) I post a Clutter Comedy article describing my most memorable clutter discovery of the week. Other bloggers who wish to join in are welcome—just post a link in the comments! There’s no need to publish any “before” photos of your clutter, if they are too embarrassing. The idea is simply to get motivated to clean it up, while having a bit of fun too!
Great that you’re taking it to be refurbished! I was almost shouting “no” when I started reading…thought you might toss it. It’ll be like new!
Thanks for the vote of confidence! Tossing it just didn’t make sense because in today’s styles, any table of that length would be much larger in its other dimensions and would dominate the living room and be very expensive.