Coffee table time is a big part of what I preach, a foundation of my home operating system. Ours was a big reclaimed wood thing that I got from the Buy Nothing group during the pandemic. We’d endured the end of 2nd grade online, and it had only made our mental health worse. We decided to homeschool during the following pandemic school year, and I thought we needed a big coffee table for that. For years it housed our board games, art supplies and paper. It held our bill basket and the books and magazines we meant to read.
As our child grew older, our living room experience shifted away from drawing and doing crafts or homework together. The coffee table was always dusty. I began to dream of doing a yoga video on the living room floor. My son grew taller than me, and it became rare to find a spot on the couch. We’d opted for a record player and piano instead of a La-z-boy or loveseat, which only left the piano bench to sit on.
I began to envision a moveable living room. One where we could sprawl out when the couch was taken, and things could be pushed aside to accommodate a yoga mat. Despite protests, I decided to go for what would make me healthier in the long run.
Clearing out the coffee table
Most of the board games were for little kids. I tried to sell these, but no one would buy them. So they went on Buy Nothing. The other games went to the top of my son’s closet. He has no closet door, so these are in view and accessible here.
I removed the paper, art supplies and remote control basket to a rolling cart. I like that we can roll it all over the house, wherever we might want to use markers or crayons. The cart also solved the problem of there being no place to add a piece of furniture to store these things.
The only constant that remains from the old coffee table is the bill basket. It sits on a lightweight end table.
I re-listed the coffee table on Buy Nothing. The person who gifted me the table 6 years ago liked the post. The day the coffee table was picked up, another buy nothing-er delivered a yoga mat to my door. That evening, I pushed aside the end table and the pouf and stacked the floor futon into its tidy square. As my husband cooked dinner I completed a yoga video. The dog growled at the yoga class on the screen, and sniffed my head and toes during corpse pose. My son blew on my face or tickled my feet from the couch while I tried to imitate what they did on screen.
Bringing it home
I don’t think homes need to be updated much. Matching or newness isn’t something I value, but, I do think our rooms need to adapt along with us. Initially, the other members of the household resisted change. They were used to the coffee table. I suspected it was the thought of going through everything that bothered them more than an attachment to the table. Respectfully, I put it on the back porch so we could change our mind. The moment the table left, we began to fill the new open space. We actually played a board game. A day later I asked, should we bring the coffee table back? No one missed it.
The rolly cart, the old end table, the pouf and the floor futon all came from the garage. Each has a history. The end table belonged to my husband’s father. I sewed the pouf by hand a few years ago, and stuffed it with a comforter. The floor futon was for young grandchildren to sleep over on at my grandparent’s house. Moving these things into the house also breathed new life into the garage, which is also my studio space.
Do you have a space in your home that feel stagnant and dusty? What else could it be? What could you bring into your space or move out that would change how you use this room and live your life?