Yeah, around here, the trash-scavengers will quickly snatch up anything that’s unlabeled, but something with a price tag will sit for quite a while.
Just don’t try to do it if you have a mangled right arm. That’ll only lead to trouble, in the long term.
If you have a storage unit, put it in there. At least thats what I would do considering its actual oak and glass. That stuff is hard to find at reasonable prices these days. (I have a post about this kinda thing in MPSIMS) Somebody you know could eventually use it. You could also re-purpose something like that. Make some modifications and reinforcements on it and it could be used for anything. The final option and best one is to keep it and put your flatscreen on a tilting/swivel wall mount. Just ideas.
If you have a storage unit so that you can save stuff you might use in the future, you’re already in the hole. Don’t throw good money after bad.
The local Goodwill store has these all the time, usually for $20 or less. They seem to move them though.
Ours is in its original location, in a family room that we don’t use much anymore. The TV space is used to store blankets and pillows and such. Yes, it was really expensive.
Do you also have ideas for the big old computer desks? We have a roll-type desk that fits a 14" monitor, with a slide-out keyboard drawer and a tall printer drawer set up for fan-fold paper. It’s that old! But based on what we paid for it (and the entertainment center), we hate to just get rid of it.
We donated our old one to the Vietnam Vets charity when we went to wide screen ~2006. It was indeed a nice piece of furniture that was useless in a widescreen world. Previously I had one made of particle board/ply wood (the nice wood one replaced it). I put it out on the curb and someone hauled it away with my compliments within 2 hours.
We had a very nice solid cherry entertainment center that was not needed in our new house. I removed the doors and internal hardwear, carefully removed the molding from below the top and cut the sides and back down by about 20 inches. Once cut free, it was easy to carefully remove the partial sides and back from the top, and put the top back onto the shortened base. The trim was replaced, making a perfectly good low stand for a wide-screen TV. The truncated space where the TV used to sit was left just tall enough to hold the DVR, DVD player, etc.
It took about an hour to do, and was only worth it because the piece was well constructed of good materials in the first place, and had the correct design for the effort to make sense. The cherry doors and side pieces were used as raw materials for other projects.
This is totally another fantastic idea. I’d reused a bookshelf before, using parts of it to make shelving, and it turns out great. I’m by no means a pack rat but I always look twice before I throw something away, it could have other uses. A large entertainment center will have many.
Mrs. Guest and I took in her mom’s old entertainment center when she remodeled and replaced her old furniture. It sits in our garage and is perfect for storing food stuff and the plethora of countertop appliances that we don’t have enough counter top to keep out when not in use, and other assorted cookware. The vhs cassette cabinet is perfect for packages of ramen noodle bricks that the guestling decided was the only food for him for a while.
My dad extended the shelf that the old TV sat on by about 4" inches further out and was able to put his LCD TV on it because it was no longer constrained by the dimensions of the opening for the old TV. So now the TV is a few inches closer than the old one was because the shelf now protrudes out of the front of the cabinet. It doesn’t look great, but he was able to continue using the old cabinet. The VCR and other junk that’s in the cabinet were enough to counterbalance the weight of the TV hanging off the front.
A friend that is very good with wood (he made a fabulous grandfather clock for his daughter’s wedding gift from black walnut) was over this past weekend and he said he would do just this for the outrageous price of a 12 pack of Budweiser.