How much furniture have you inherited?

[RoJoHen]

I don't know about you, but my mom keeps trying to pawn her old furniture off on me. I'm looking around my apartment, and aside from my couch and the desk that I just bought, there is no furniture in here that did not originally come from my parents' house. My bedroom dresser is the same one I had when I was 4!

And my mom keeps trying to give me stuff. I mean, I'm all for free things, but some of the stuff she wants to give me is just old and crappy.

"Hey, do you want this recliner that doesn't recline?"

"Hey, do you want this gossip bench?"

"Hey, do you want this old dry sink?"

I wouldn't even know what to do with any of this stuff.

 

[Kestra]

We took a coffee table from my parents, some chairs and a bakers rack from my in-laws. All of the stuff is really useful and the type of thing we would have spent money on otherwise so we've been grateful for the items.

 

[Bears Discover Fire]

I started off with completely inherited furniture/household goods, and through the years have whittled the hand-me-downs to a floor lamp, a braided rug, a few pots/pans, a small TV, a set of sheets, a few bath towels and a settee that I'm irrationally attached to. Everything else I've slowly replaced with my own (mostly second-hand) purchases.

My parents had a second home they sold around the time I was starting photography school, and I became the recipient of much of the furniture they couldn't sell/didn't deem worth putting into storage but still felt was not quite Goodwill-level...still, it was/is decent stuff and I'm eternally grateful that I didn't have to spend the bulk of this decade sitting on milk crates or sleeping on the floor.

 

[thestrangequark]

None. I moved 3,000 miles from my parents. If they'd had anything to give me in the first place, it would've been impractical.

Though my mom has a lovely stained-glass mirror she's promised to leave me.

 

[Arrqh]

Zero, unfortunately.

My parents wanted to get rid of a furniture set a few years ago that was still in great condition which I would have happily taken, but living literally on the other side of the continent made it fairly unfeasible. I liked that couch too

 

[Sakrysta]

Lots! I inherited my grandparents' house, along with the furniture. Some of it wasn't worth saving, but I have a number of pieces I love dearly. Let's see:

Living room - two console tables and an old floor radio
Library - my old piano from my parents' home, as well as a leftover armchair from one of their old living room sets, oh, and another armchair
Master bedroom - bed, chest of drawers, vanity, small table, rocking chair, cedar chest
Guest room - bed, chest of drawers, chifferobe, end table
Closet - chifferobe
Front hall - sewing machine table, dresser, buffet, chifferobe, steamer trunk

Now don't anyone come rob me or anything. Most of the pieces need some loving attention - sanding, refinishing, etc. But I love 'em.

 

[Kira's Mom]

I inherited the furniture my dad had as a teenager- desk, dressers, bed table. Don't laugh- it's all well made, good looking stuff. And I have a bed that's been in my mom's family since 1835!

 

[RoJoHen]

I inherited the furniture my dad had as a teenager- desk, dressers, bed table. Don't laugh- it's all well made, good looking stuff. And I have a bed that's been in my mom's family since 1835!

I had been using my dad's old high school desk as well until just recently. It was a corner desk, and the two back legs weren't really attached anymore. It worked fine as a desk, but it had to be wedged in between two other pieces of furniture in order not to fall down.

I made the executive decision to get rid of when I moved a couple months ago.


For some reason my family has this bizarre feeling that they can't get rid of furniture. I had been told not to get rid of that desk because "your grandma will be really upset if you throw that away." To which I replied,

 

[auntiehill]

My mom keeps offering me things, but she doesn't seem to realize that things that fit into their 7,000 sq ft home does NOT fit into our 1,800 sq ft house. I have an HUGE and heavy chair that I need to get rid of, but I can't lift the damn thing. I also have a coffee table from her, but it takes up a lot of space in our little tv room. The desk I'm typing this on once belonged to hubby's late father. Most of what we have (bed, sofa, dinning table) we bought together as a couple. Some older pieces, like the bedroom suite and our loveseat, were mine from my single days.

 

[Gepard]

I don't know about you, but my mom keeps trying to pawn her old furniture off on me. I'm looking around my apartment, and aside from my couch and the desk that I just bought, there is no furniture in here that did not originally come from my parents' house. My bedroom dresser is the same one I had when I was 4!

My apartment is exactly the same way. I'm probably going to have to put most of it in storage or donate it when I move.

Future logistics aside, I quite like it currently; it's nice to have the good old family coffee table next to my computer desk and store my clothes in a familiar dresser. It doesn't hurt that all of the furniture is in fantastic shape, too.

 

[Bears Discover Fire]

For some reason my family has this bizarre feeling that they can't get rid of furniture. I had been told not to get rid of that desk because "your grandma will be really upset if you throw that away." To which I replied,

Oh I've been there.

My aunt gave me a glass/rattan dining set and some rattan book cases. They were on their last legs when she bought them at a yard sale a decade before she gave them to me. They were full of dry rot, exposed nails and uncoiling, splintery bamboo strips. The frames were warped and they sat askew. The veneer would flake off and drift to the floor in chemical snowflakes. But I couldn't replace them with something a little less...toxic because my aunt would be "devastated" if I gave up her gift.

I held onto them for 5 years, until I just couldn't take it anymore. I tried to sell them at a garage sale. They didn't sell. So I tried to give them to Salvation Army, but they wouldn't take it with them during the pick up. I felt bad about setting them out on the curb, but the nasty veneer and plastic sheeting under the unraveling bamboo made it impossible to burn the stuff as kindling without poisoning myself in the process.

My mom came over and saw the stuff was gone, she freaked out on me and I had to swear her to total secrecy to never reveal to my aunt that the furniture had gone to the landfill/unlucky broke apartment dweller who got what they paid for.

 

[Mallory]

When I first got married we blew about 4K on furniture prior to the wedding. And back in the 70s the dollar bought a whole lot more. Consequently, we had no real need for any of my parent's furniture. Once we bought a house and had kids though, we ended up with a few pieces.

 

[jamestyler]

I inherited some weird furniture a while back. I moved into my own place after living with people since I was 16 and ended up with some odd shelves and lawn furniture. My living room looked like Joey & Chandlers in Friends after they were robbed.

This furniture has since been abandoned nd my mother has inherited furniture from me that I can't fit into my new place.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I read awhile back how people, when just starting to live in a new house, get a lot of furniture from their parents. Then, when they can afford new stuff, don't get rid of the old stuff because it now has sentimental value.

Since there's a lot of stuff of my grandmother in my parents' house, I'm making an effort to take as little of my parents' stuff as I can afford.

 

[SmoothieX]

I passed on any furniture. Their tastes are different than mine, plus a lot of their stuff was hand me downs from their parents so it's just old stuff I didn't want.

When I was in my early 20's, they re-did their kitchen, and wanted new dishes and cookware and silverware to match. The old stuff was a mish mosh of various sets from over the years. Knowing I would be moving out soon, I asked them to pack it up for me.

My wife (nee girlfriend) moved out first so I let her use them figuring I'd eventually move in with her anyway. Once we got our feet on the ground, we passed much of it onto her younger sister.

 

[Finn]

I used to have old furniture from when my parents first got married, in my first apartment. The dining set went first. Then the dresser (it was horrible, almost impossible to close).

But by the time I get married and live with my fiancee, we'll have furniture from her parents

 

[RandyS]

All my furntiure used to belong to my mom. I got it all when she died. The only thing that was mine was my recliner--which was a gift from my mom for my 25th birthday.

My girlfriend's mom also gave us a couch.

 

[Warp Coil]

Nothing. When I moved out of my dad's house into my own place, I bought myself all new furniture. I think my Dad may have offered up his bedroom set but it really wasn't my taste (he had moved in with his girlfriend, who is now his wife, and so his bedroom set in his house didn't get used). The only piece of existing furniture that made the move with me was my TV stand, which I continue to use for the TV in my bedroom. Technically, it isn't "inherited" since it was mine anyway.

 

[Colonel Green]

All I currently have is a couple bookcases, lamps and an entertainment centre. My mother-in-law about to send us a dining room table and chairs that used to belong to her mother. My wife is very excited at the prospect of having matching chairs to replace our current motley assortment.

 

[An Officer]

I got a few pieces I didn't ask for, for example, garden furniture - I don't have a garden, and an Ikea rug - I prefer bare floors, some cushions - never been a cushion fan. So it was all rather superfluous, but I kept them for several months, for politeness's sake, then I moved them onto the local charity shop.

I come from a family of nomads, so they're not much for heavy-duty furniture, heirlooms, or such stationary things... so I've had to go it alone. I did actually sleep on a futon on the floor in a completely empty room to begin with - good for the back! Not bad at all- more comfortable than most beds.

Going it alone is character building, none of that sissy family support business.