I was thinking about this today, because my mom told me she gave away the Hammond organ that’s taken up space in their living room for so long. It belonged to my grandma, who died last year, but even she hadn’t played it in quite a while.
Last night, my husband and I played a game of pool on our laundry table, I mean buffet table, I mean…well, I guess I forgot it actually was a pool table! It has a lid on it, and I can’t remember the last time we opened it up and played.
My radial arm saw.
I bought it 40 years ago, and it was 20 years old back then. It’s on a huge work table, with a belt grinder built in. I used the saw a lot when I got it, but as time when on, more and more of my cutting tasks when to my table saw or my chop saw. At this point, I probably haven’t cut anything on it in a decade.
My wife has a roll-top desk that she never uses. It has some random junk in it that probably hasn’t seen daylight in over a decade. I wish she’d get rid of it but its the first big purchase she made as a teenager so I doubt that will never happen.
We have a big fireplace that dominates the entire north wall of the living room and gets no use whatsoever. Does that count?
Until a couple of months ago we had a car that was essentially never driven. It ran well and we kept it insured and the fuel tank filled but it was our “backup” car and since we never needed a backup, it just sat. I drove it every 6 weeks or so just to keep the fluids moving and the battery charged but for all practical purposes it didn’t get used. We ended up giving it to a friend that needed reliable transportation.
I’ve only lived here a year, and substantially everything I own is that new or newer. So nothing has had the chance to gather dust for years or decades.
I have a big fancy TV. It’s probably been on about an hour total since I moved in. That’s the physically largest thing.
The range is similar; I’ve made a couple of things in the oven and used the stovetop for probably 8 potfuls of whatever. In a year. The microwave and the toaster oven do all my reheating duties and cover the teeny amount of start-from-raw cooking I do.
Everything else gets lots of use. I planned it that way, trying to avoid buying stuff I wouldn’t actually want to use.
Probably the circa 2000-or-so CRT television that came here for my mother to watch VCR movies on during the year or so that she stayed here near the end of her life. I think it and the VCR might still work but have no idea. It’s too heavy for me to move without massive difficulty (a problem which has only gotten worse over the years) and I don’t know a place that would take it anyway.
We’ve got a few things- a large china cabinet full of knick-knack glass things that doesn’t do much but gather dust, a workbench that’s kind of out of the way, and piled with tools and home improvement stuff that I really need to organize and cull.
I would say the generator that we’ve never really used, but it’s more for emergencies, so that’s a good thing. I should probably pull it into the backyard sometime soon and hook it up just to refamiliarize myself with it (it’s got a natural gas/gasoline hybrid kit on it), so that if the power does go out, I remember how to fire it up and all that.
A couch. A neighbor was moving and left it, someone came and asked if I wanted it.
I did as all I had was a matress, box spring, and 2 end tables.
I dont use it as I like higher up couches in vinyl and its not.
Yes, thats all thats in my apt.
A couple years ago I would have said the trash compactor. The house came with one, but I never used it, nor even know “how” to use it. I tossed it in the dump.
When I was a kid, I probably went through the Sears catalog and imagined my ideal kitchen would have one. Grown up, not so much.
My inlaws have both died within the last couple of years and we have an absolutely beautiful hammered dulcimer that my father-in-law made. He was an amazing craftsman in anything wood. It occupies maybe twice the floor space as an electronic keyboard. Neither of us can play, and it’s horribly out of tune, but it lives between a bookshelf and a rocking chair. I keep thinking I’ll try to tune it and learn to play… some day.
It may be well crafted from a woodwork perspective, but is it good as an actual musical instrument?
I’d have it inspected by an expert. If it’s really a good instrument, donate it to a person or school where it will be played by someone who appreciates it.
We have an antique sideboard and an arts and crafts rocker that are mostly unused. We plan to give them away . The rocker was made by some generic Michigan furniture company – it’s certainly not Stickley or Harvey Ellis although decent quality and condition, and the sideboard is only partially used. I’ve been downsizing my “junk” since I retired, and only one drawer in the sideboard is currently being used to hold tea towels. It takes up too much room for such a small amount of use.
A good chromatic tuner should do the job.
Of course you’ll probably have to replace all the strings.
How are your dulcimer playing chops, though?
I could probably get a decent tune out of one fairly quickly, I think, as a guitar and keyboard player. But it would take rather a lot of practise to become an expert…
Never played one, but I played accordion, guitar, piano, and recorder, mostly self-taught, so I expect I can figure it out - Mary Had a Little Lamb at least.
I’d say it’s the stool I made and the three chairs I refurbished. They are basically catchalls at this point. My wife won’t let me get rid of them because I made/fixed them. The biggest unused thing I own that is NOT in my house is my handmade workbench (with woodworking vise), which is sitting disassembled in my daughter’s garage, which is 30 miles from here. Over my objections, we shipped it out here with our household goods at very large expense.
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