Downsizing and parting with furniture

Please pack and carry all ceramics and fragile objects yourself. If you leave them to the removal firm make sure that they are clearly marked on all sides as fragile. You need to avoid that moment where the wrong box is thoughtlessly thrown down. This is why I have no serving dishes.

I down -sized last year. It was hard enough leaving the house we,d lived in for 39:years It was important for me to find an apartment where 2 pieces of furniture which my late husband and I bought when we first married fitted in the apartment .
When I’m dead and gone my children will probably throw them in the skip ! .That’s ok .

I downsized recently from a 4 bed house to a 2 bedroom bungalow. It was months of blood, sweat and tears leading to removal day. Some stuff to family, lots of clothes and bric a brac to charity shops and umpteen trips to the dump.

I expected the final stage of planning would be to offer surplus beds , chests of drawers and wardrobes to charity and if they didn’t want them I’d have to pay the council to uplift them. Not before enlisting help to carry the items outside for council uplift.

Before doing so I asked my solicitor to contact my buyer and ask if they wanted anything on the list to be left in the house. I was delighted when they said they’d have it all. It made my job so much easier. I just took with me what I needed and would fit in my bungalow.

It was daunting to downsize from the family home of 40 years but I’m very happy in my new abode.

grannygran

We downsized 2007. I loved it for the fact we had the new apartment gutted to our liking and virtually everything new. A time for new begginung not reveling in the old. Very therapeutic.

I have’t done it yet but at some stage in the future I/we will be downsizing.
Apart from my beautiful Chinese rug and some paintings and ornaments everything else can go.

I find a lot of people's attitudes to downsizing quite uncomfortable, the sense of self immolation as they throw all their most treasured possessions on the bonfire, the stripping themselves of possessions to make six months of their children's lives simpler, after their death, at the expense of living lacking things they remember for years.

I do not see downsizing as some preparation for death and the ultimate parental selflessness to our children.. Although I do find when one realistically probably only has a 10 year perspective on life, that does change attitudes to belongings. i was quite pragmatic in getting rid of furniture. We sold a lot to our house buyer, sent more to auction and organised the move knowing that more would go to auction when we arrived at our new destination. but needed them to decide which item was best for the job.

But we have also got a shopping list. We had a rug that we hoped would go in the dining room, but it is just too small, so that is off to auction and we will go and do a bit of auction hunting for one that will suit. Our downsizing is also a project with lots of work needed on the house, which is an added complication but all in all, while I do have days when I wish I had never decided to downsize. Most of the time I am thoroughly enjoying myself.

M0nica I find a lot of people's attitudes to downsizing quite uncomfortable, the sense of self immolation as they throw all their most treasured possessions on the bonfire, the stripping themselves of possessions to make six months of their children's lives simpler, after their death, at the expense of living lacking things they remember for years.

Perhaps you didn't purchase too much stuff, need too much crockery for family dinners, too many bed and bath linens for others, grandchildren toys.

We're downsizing items because we don't wish for our daughter and grandchildren to need to accomplish tens of trips to the tip and Charity shops.

We didn’t downsize, but upsized. Therefore we had to buy more furniture. We have been in the house8 years now, and I am still moving furniture around. Love doing it though.

Last time we moved we rented for a few months because we couldn't find a house we wanted and a lot of furniture went into storage apart from a few precious items and some wardrobes etc we no longer wanted.

We had no idea what would fit where.
To be fair, we upsized rather than downsized so had to go shopping.

Norah I am by nature a chucker-outer, so excess toys, bed linen, or such things were sent to a charity shop as soon as no longer needed. All LPs have gone and most CDs will follow. DVDs have been whittled down to ones we cannot rely on finding online.

Our big problem is books as we both have academic interests and research libraries, but even those are being slimmed down. DS was delighted to get hold of some of my books. All my journals went because they are all now accessible online. However having a dedicated room to act as our study in our new home was an absolutely essential.

We also sold our holiday home in France last year, again most of the contents were sold to the new owners or through the local Depot de Vente, but a number of items came back with us.

The last box will be out of the house by the weekend and our store room has neat piles, labelled, 'charity shop', 'sale' and 'boot sale'

M0nica, I suppose some chucking out depends on family size and proximity. I was having our second round of daughters whilst the first 2 were having our first grandchildren. Always babies in our home.

Now, as we're elderly, the child care and playtime with toys and books baton has been passed. Fewer must sleep here, fewer linens needed.

I buy little, I'm chucking. I know the work of 'sorting Mum's home'.

I find it sad that my children seem to have no interest or fondness for things that are in my house. Perhaps it’s because I never had a proper family home; we just moved from one Birmingham slum to another and mum and dad ended up in a high rise flat. Very few of the contents of the previous homes ended up there. So the few things from my childhood that did remain were very precious to me. I always wanted my kids to have the family home that I never had and really envy people that can still see the house that they grew up in. They did leave a couple of pieces of utility furniture that I wish I’d taken home with me.

labazs

some of the furniture people have to rehome when downsizing is out of fashion so people just do not know what to do with it. the charity shops will not take it as they know they will not be able to sell it so sadly a lot has to be dumped. at auctions often it does not sell either or goes for peanuts.
its a real shame as a lot of this furniture is proper wood not chipboard so they do stand the test of time not to mention is really lovely

I do agree. My 2 sideboards are from when we married 40 years ago, my dining table is the one Mum had when I was born (new chairs though), but I've recently been renovating & done my own decorating after, & I have a tatty old dresser that I don't really want in my dining room.
Tatty it is, & the stylish new ones on the internet look lovely, but it's a wrench getting rid of it, it's solid wood & over 100 years old.
I think I'll put it on eBay in case anyone fancies painting it up (it's quite a contemporary shape tbh but I can't face refurbishing / repainting as I've done 8 rooms now in the last 6 months & am getting to the point that I'm painting in my dreams).
But anything I get new is going to look dated or shabby in 5 years' time - so it's hard to sell the old stuff & get new, but I know it makes sense for me, at this point.

All our furniture is secondhand, except the settee and the mattresses. Some of it is inherited from parents, grandparents and other relations, some we bought, mainly at auction.

When we sold our previous house last summer, the 30 something couple who bought it, also bought a lot of the antiue/old furniture we had in it, including wardrobes, chestof drawers, table and chairs, arm chairs dressing tables. They would have liked our study bookshelves, but we needed those for ourselves. Other things went to our children who almost fought over one or two items.

DS dropped in this weekend and headed home with a wool rug in a traditional oriental pattern.

I am amazed that more people haven't discovered the charms of brown furniture, what can be done with it and the fact that it is made of decent pieces of wood and will last longer than stuff made from plastic and MDF and costs a fraction of the price of new furniture.

M0nica

All our furniture is secondhand, except the settee and the mattresses. Some of it is inherited from parents, grandparents and other relations, some we bought, mainly at auction.

When we sold our previous house last summer, the 30 something couple who bought it, also bought a lot of the antiue/old furniture we had in it, including wardrobes, chestof drawers, table and chairs, arm chairs dressing tables. They would have liked our study bookshelves, but we needed those for ourselves. Other things went to our children who almost fought over one or two items.

DS dropped in this weekend and headed home with a wool rug in a traditional oriental pattern.

I am amazed that more people haven't discovered the charms of brown furniture, what can be done with it and the fact that it is made of decent pieces of wood and will last longer than stuff made from plastic and MDF and costs a fraction of the price of new furniture.

Same.

We have secondhand furniture. Apart from mattresses, island height chairs, a few very large wool rugs. Parents, grandparents, and aunts all have furniture here.

Our children do paint or dark stain brown wood, to good effect.

I have been slowly either selling or giving things away. It's slow work but very satisfying when a young couple go off with FiL' s old wing chair.

I have managed to sell 2 chests of drawers (solid wood) and a couple of tables, a corner cupboard.

I wouldn't say it's impossible to get rid of brown mahogany furniture but you have to be patient.

I am slowly going through books and some will go to a dealer, others to charity.
Yesterday 2 ercol armchairs with perished webbing were sold. Not a huge amount of money but that's not really the point.

In my experience if you put a price on something, the people usually collect it.
If free , sometimes they don't turn up .

Grammaretto my parents' prized corner cupboards were nearly impossible to shift.
The auction houses nearby wouldn't even list them.

Well done you for finding someone to buy yours!

I have just found a list of my mother-in-law's "valuable" furniture items.
She doesn't include her Danish and Swedish 1950s/60s pieces but the old dark wood is all in there!

We have some Tapley SL furniture, relegated to the study now and I'm astonished to find it is more saleable than our good, solid dark wood furniture which replaced it.

Must tell DS not to throw it in the skip!

Well surely someday the mahogany furniture will come into their own NotSpaghetti

The corner cupboard I sold was a pine wall cupboard bought by my DD but given to us as she hadn't measured it and had no space.
I didn't have a spare corner.

The massive mahogany bookcase may have to be left in this house as it's 9ft tall and big.
I'm sure it helps insulation.

I used gumtree at the moment but I have used Facebook marketplace and eBay. Some things stick around for ages.

I'm sure I will end up with a skip or 2 when I go but I hope most of the good stuff finds a new home.

Allira

We have some Tapley SL furniture, relegated to the study now and I'm astonished to find it is more saleable than our good, solid dark wood furniture which replaced it.

Must tell DS not to throw it in the skip!

What is known as 'mid-century modern' is in the front of modern fashion - Get a copy of the magazine 'Reclaim' it is all trendy houses full of Tapley, G Plan, Ercol, Loyd Loom etc etc.

DD bought a pair of Loyd Loom bedside tables at auction on Friday and paid £100 and felt she had done well.

It is well used, M0nica!
Probably needs some tlc but it has been very useful for over 55 years.

I would like to change our old kitchen table and chairs for a small Ercol set but it's hardly worth it unless the present set falls to pieces.

DD bought a pair of Loyd Loom bedside tables at auction on Friday and paid £100 and felt she had done well.

We kept MIL's for a few years but sent them and a linen basket, to the charity shop in the end.

A charity shop has finally taken our corner cupboards

I was sick of tripping over them to be truthful whilst i tried to sell them. They filled a big part of the "dining" room where we had stored them.

I sold 2 ercol chairs recently. £40 for the pair. I never found them very comfortable. The chap who bought them says he wants a project and will restore them.
That's good enough for me.

Grammaretto

I sold 2 ercol chairs recently. £40 for the pair. I never found them very comfortable. The chap who bought them says he wants a project and will restore them.
That's good enough for me.

I purchase Ercol, paint white. Daughter 3 stains 'Double Espresso'.

Acceptable in the children's playroom, kitchen table, and games table. We have kitchen island, however height from floor isn't best for children.