Time to Move the Furniture!

(better be quick)

Often, when my husband is out of town, I take the opportunity to completely rearrange the furniture. This keeps him on his toes.

This might seem like an “apologize rather than ask permission” tactic, and it is - but only a little bit. The chaos of pulling things apart and putting them back together is something that I find exciting, and he finds stressful. Here is what I find stressful:

And this does not bother him one bit - in fact he creates these piles. The idea here is, as long as it is on a shelf, that shelf can be as crammed and disordered as you care to make it. Ditto drawers and closets.

This also drives me crazy:

Horizontal books on top of vertical books??? Who does that!?

In contrast, I have no problem with this:

That, to me, is a good, honest pile - out in the open. It should be obvious to anyone that the pile does not belong there, and is simply waiting to be dealt with. True, in the past I may have developed something of a reputation for allowing these piles to sit out in the open for months on end… and I understand now how that can become problematic, so have developed methods for preventing the piles from happening, and managing them if they do.

But I think my old habits have given my husband a touch of PTSD. So, by waiting for him to be safely out of the house before I tear it apart and put it back together, really that could be called a kindness rather than trickery.

Call it what you will - here’s the process.

The Problem

The dining room and family room were out of season - meaning all the mud-caked winter boots were cluttering the shoe shelves, spring gardening gear was accumulating on a side table, the music equipment set up for a party in February was still there, and the fireside chairs no longer needed to be next to a stove that won’t be lit for the next 6-months.

First Row: the dining room had become a big box filled with furniture. Second Row: clutter in the family room, as a chicken looks on in disbelief

Dealing with the Shoe Shelves and Garden Gear

This involved getting rid of shoes that are no longer worn, cleaning the shelves, and putting them back, which created room for the garden equipment. I purchased another reed basket to organize and house the seeds.

left to right from top: original big shelf, shoes to keep, dirty big shelf and small shelf, clean big shelf and small shelf, extra basket for seeds, ordered small shelf and big shelf - now with room for garden baskets

Rearranging the Dining Room

This was actually something my husband mentioned. I think he imagined just putting the easy chairs out in the family room, but I think he will like this better. First, pivot and slide to move heavy table and cat:

And here it is all rearranged:

Improving the Setup in the Family Room

Really this was only a matter of taking the long bench that no longer fit next to the dining table (stuck out too far in a high-traffic area) and putting it under the video screen to hold plants. There also wasn’t space in the dining room for my faux-Danish-designer bentwood chair, so I put that in the corner, where at least it looks nice.

Family Room before and after

The Takeaway

A nice improvement overall. I admit to there being three small piles that I have yet to sort out. With any luck I will be able to do this before my husband gets home.