You're not alone. I have to be really in the mood to clean out. I have a room full of orphaned furniture that I haven't been able to part with yet. Why again did I have to have that petite Victorian chair, with the broke leg, that matches nothing in my house??? The pieces I've bought (end tables comes to mind) have started to grow roots. I have to be careful because if I go looking, there's always something I like. Replacing furniture could easily become a bad habit for me and that's not a good thing. I feel like it's wasteful at times. For me, it's sometimes easy to get wrapped up into materialist things. I don't NEED another end table. The ones I have function quite well, you know?

I've never sold anything on CL and probably never will bother. It usually makes me feel better about the stuff if I can give it to someone that can use it. I also find a lot of my stuff in general goes to family members and I enjoy being able to still look at it vs. stuffed in a box in the attic.

happyintexas - I can sooooo understand. Some stuff I'm okay with letting go, especially stuff I've had for a long time and that isn't a valuable antique (or what I think might or should be a valuable antique.) But other stuff I just get a mental block about. Like the freaking antique china cabinet in my library. I overpaid at $1800 for it (first antique bought) and I KNOW I won't get anything close to that for it. I'd love to get $1000 but in all likelihood, if I list it again, I'll be lucky to get $200. And while the wood is looks great in the library the entire piece isn't that functional. I could probably buy a nice chest for that space on CL for a few hundred dollars and just let the loss go. I've taken a loss on a lot of other stuff but this one just sticks in my craw, as my grandma used to say.

I have a problem letting go of furniture too. A lot of it is the "It cost me $X, I can only get $X/6 for it, and it would cost $X x 2 or more to replace it" thing. I'm cheap. I lived with some inherited furniture that my dad made for about 5 years before I said "I don't like it." and offered it to my brothers. One took it and is happy with it.

In your case of the too big recliner I could probably let it go though. You never wanted it for yourself - the reason you wanted it is gone. Offer it to your kids (let them decide if they have room for it) and if they don't want it then Craigslist it, donate it, whatever.

Did your Mom like the bench? Or do you think that after a while, whenever she looked at it she also said to herself "I need to get rid of that. It looks terrible there, it's rickety--I need something better"?

She probably did, and you don't like it anyway. And I'm betting that you have some other things of your mother's that TRULY make you happy looking at them and make you think of her.

You've heard lots of decluttering shows say "Your memories are not contingent on having that piece of furniture she had" -- I'm not always a believer in that, but I'm guessing that it does apply to this bench. The emotional tie seems tenuous--I'm sure there are other things that have a very strong emotional tie to her. (A very poor metaphor: What is the value difference between 100 acquaintances and 10 good friends?)

This is what I see in the future regarding that bench: You might happen to walk past a store while doing something else and pop in to see if they have anything to take the place. But it's not going to happen until that bench is gone. Get rid of the piece first, and your space and your mind will be completely open and eager to find a replacement. Right now, you really have no incentive to get rid of it.

Remember that you are not disappointing your mother by getting rid of something of hers.

(I know I'm putting out some very tough love words here. But I think you are really ready to lighten the emotional and physical load here.)

oh, yes, I DEFINTELY know what you mean...I have "inherited" a houseful of hand-me-downs. Particularly, an entire dining room suit (table with 4 leaves, 14 chairs, china, buffet and 4 other tables that are in my den but the same style, maker and walnut color). VERY good and heavy all inlaid wood stuff - made by Heckman Furniture Company. Bought by my parents in the 60's. Not my style, but cannot bear to get rid of - it was my mom's stuff and she died a looong time ago...It certainly suffices for all the family dinners we have and the numberous leaves and chairs sure come in handy!! I have thought of refinishing it to be a darker color, but get fearful and just live with it.

I have often looked at DR furniture thinking "if I could buy whatever I wanted, what would I get?" I can NEVER come up with anything better and besides FREE is good!!

I have too many "can't let it go" pieces stashed in the attic. A beautiful carved Victorian chair that's seat needs reupholstery(visions of using for a vanity in DD's room since she was about 5 - DD is now 20), a very nice antique table that has been stripped of many coats of paint by predecessors in ownership, etc. In fact, the other day I saw a footstool at someone's curb and thought, "have to have it for my LR, and I can reupholster myself". Proceed to throw it into the back of my car, much to my DM's chagrin, probably because we were not far from my parents' home.

So, I would not be the best barometer of not letting furniture go, heck, I'm picking up someone's throw away footstool!

Don't really want to get rid of anything I have though. When I am over a piece, I just call the local furniture re-sale/consignment-type place and they come in and tell me what they will give me for it. I am not interested in bothering with CL as I don't need a bunch of nuts trying to bargain me down for a piece that I have already pretty much priced at the absolute minimum that I would take before I give the piece to GW.

Strange, the relationships we have with stuff, and letting it go, or not. I know my relationship personally is purely emotional. I have never been hung up on getting rid of something because the piece costs me $$$. If I don't love a piece of furniture, I first try to find a family member or friend who can use it, or sell to the guy who has always come out when I've changed things out furniture-wise.

I do love it when I can find someone I know who can use the furniture that I no longer have a spot for or for whatever reason am not using a piece. I had a beautiful old library table that was given to me 25 yrs ago when the office I was working in at the time did some remodeling. The library tables have deep, deep drawers that are great for linens, phone books, etc. Solid cherry workhorses. Unfortuantely, when DH & bought our home, I had no place to use it. So, the library table made a brief stop at my parents who then changed to a smaller table in the kitchen since all the kids are gone. The table then went to DB, who knows my love affair with said table, and has now informed me that the library table will be banished to his basement when his kitchen reno is complete. So sad, the table is an antique library table which functions so well as a kitchen table. If I had an eat-in kitchen I would do my room around the freakin table. LOL DSIL not in love with it and wants a new set.

The thought of that beautiful library table covered in dust, tools and assorted crap that hits a basement sitting on it is driving me crazy at the moment.

I am probably the poster child for this particular thread.

Baby steps. We moved from a 2,600 square foot 1920s Spanish bungalow to a 2,000 square foot MCM glass box. Virtually NONE of our furniture would work in the new place. A few things we gave away/donated. The bulk of the nicer things we put in an antique booth that we kept for six months. The leftovers came home and got stacked in the barn.

About 6 weeks ago I had a yard sale and hoped to dump a lot of the rest of it (a few A&C desks, mirrors, chairs, rugs, lamps, small items like candlesticks, pitchers, pots). Hardly anybody came, and those who did come made off with the sticky deep fryer and the used vacuum -- not the hammered copper candlesticks or the stained glass. We took one SUV load and donated it and put the rest of it back in the barn.

So last week my stepson and his wife came over and loaded a truck FULL of a desk, 4 chairs, 4 or 5 rugs, some lamps, mirrors a Christmas tree and an art print. They are renting a scruffy little house that seemed pretty hopeless. But it actually looks kind of cute now. We probably had $1,300 in all that stuff. I didn't want the hassle of a consignment store. And the stuff was too nice to just donate and let some dealer snatch it up and make a fortune on it. So off to the kids it went. They are happy and I am cleansed -- CLEANSED -- of those items that used to sit in the barn and foster mildew.

There are a few boxes of small items left, and I may try to ebay those. Or I may get DH to carry them up to the attic where they can surprise a new owner whenever we are carried off from this place.

The next hurdle will be mom's china and grandma's china and crystal. I never use it, and the house is not set up for it to be displayed. So it sits boxed up in the closet where it was stacked the day we moved in in 2007. I am going to contact some cousins on grandma's side and see if they are interested. If someone will love it and use it, more power to them. Otherwise, I will probably eventually break down and sell it, and then put the money in bulk into something else. That's what I did with grandma's costume jewelry several years ago -- I turned it into an Arts & Crafts grandfather clock.