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More trouble than it’s worth, or Bye-bye recliner, hello peace and quiet
By Meg | February 27, 2008
Some things are just more trouble than they’re worth.
My husband and I have been looking to replace our recliner in the living room for some time. It came used, and while not ugly, it just doesn’t fit into our decor and it’s not particularly comfortable. But my husband and I have been waiting to replace it with a recliner that we’ll both love — something comfortable for him since he sits in it the most, and something that looks nice since I have to stare at it the most.
O.k., it wasn’t ugly — until our cat Felix became obsessed with scratching it up. He’s never scratched any other furniture and has plenty of scratching posts, so there’s just something about this particular recliner. He’ll scratch it right in front of me, then run off knowing that he’s done something wrong. We’ve covered it in anti-scratch sprays, we’ve yelled at him, we’ve sprayed him with water… nothing has helped.
I didn’t realize just how frustrating it had become until the other night when I had screamed at Felix over and over again. I couldn’t get anything done for all the scratching.
So, when my husband got home that night, I looked at him and said, “Can we just get rid of the recliner?” Turns out, we were both ready to get rid of it, and it was out of the room within minutes.
Then he said, “Wow, if I had known that it would have opened up the room even more than cleaning, I would have done it long ago.” And you know what, he’s right. The room feels a lot bigger and now I have some room to do yoga again, while he has room to work on stuff on the floor.
And don’t worry, he still has somewhere to sit because we have a couch. In fact, it’s nice since the couch is closer and we can sit next to each other. Later, when we find the perfect recliner we might replace it, especially when we do open up the room as part of our renovations.
The best part is that now we can stop yelling at Felix.
But it doesn’t stop there. I started looking around for other examples of stuff that was more trouble than it was worth and found a few more things to toss onto the Goodwill pile like a shirt that I have to constantly pull down, a pair of shoes that just don’t fit right, and some more knick-knacks that don’t do anything for our decor, but collect a whole lot of dust.
Tags: De-stressing, Fashion, Home & Garden, Organization & Decluttering
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February 27th, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Great for you, Miss Meg, for freeing yourself and for passing along what you don’t need .
February 28th, 2008 at 6:16 am
This kind of thing has happened to me a few times. I wonder what it is, that blinds, or lulls us into being unable to see things that seem so obvious in hindsight? In my case, I suspect I sometimes hold on to my stuff out of guilt. I make excuses for why I can’t part with things, for example, I spent “good money” on it, someone nice gave it to me, or I have some other reason I “should” keep an item and I don’t realize when possessing that particular thing has ceased to be a blessing and become a form of bondage. For others, perhaps it is fear that causes them to hoard things. The mother of a friend of mine hoards food, often past the point where it tastes good, or is even safe to eat. But she grew up during the Depression, and as she gets older, she seems less able to control the anxiety she feels about not having enough.
I’d love to hear what other people have to say about this topic!