I have a lot of furniture I don’t use, because the two of live in a 3500 square foot house. There are three bedrooms upstairs – a small one with a twin bed, a large one with two double beds, and another large one with a queen size. We sleep downstairs. There have been four times in the past seven years that the upstairs was filled with sleepers: our child’s wedding, a 20 year reunion of a small gap-year school, that I hosted, and when my family from California came to visit. Plus when some relatives came up from the South to help my husband rebuild the barn that burned down. They were here for six weeks. But usually it is empty.
The only time I’ve ever slept up there when when I had RSV so bad I coughed all night and my husband could not sleep. Still, it’s nice to have those nice furnished guest rooms.
The elliptical machine in my basement. I never took to it as I despise indoor exercising that simulates outdoor activities. Its too much effort to haul it out to the curb, so it serves as a cloths hanger.
There are some large items of furniture in the basement that are never used. Biggest are probably a sofa, a large double dresser, and a credenza. I suppose the credenza is useful as a surface to store things on.
I don’t think there’s anything in the main house that is never used. Tons of stuff in the garage, though.
Our piano. I don’t play, my wife doesn’t play, but one of our kids called dibs on it when her was 10 and he continues to say he’ll take it just as soon as he can figure out a safe, no-cost way to get it back to his home in Chicago. I expect it will be here until both my wife and I are dead.
My wife used to be a serious piano player, but hasn’t played in years (I don’t know why). Still she won’t hear of getting rid of the piano and it doesn’t really bother me. About 25 or 30 years ago, we bought a pair of beautiful couches, bound in buffalo hide. They are still beautiful, but are too low. I haven’t sat in either one for years because I would need a crane to get up from it. My wife doesn’t have as far to rise, but I can see the day when, even sitting on a cushion, she won’t be able to arise from one either.
My television. It’s an old, very large, very bulky CRT television that I haven’t watched anything on for well over a decade. I’d probably throw it out but it’s so large and heavy I’d need to get one of those hand-truck things just to move it, and so it just sits there.
What surprises me is that no one has an RV or boat that they no longer use.
Up until last year my answer would have been a treadmill. I had this brilliant idea that if I bought a treadmill then I would be able to exercise when it was too cold or rainy to take my usual exercise (a long walk). But it broke immediately after I bought it. And I never figured out how to fix it and it sat around for 10 plus years until last year when I finally got rid of it. Luckily I only had $25 invested in it–bought it at an auction.
Ten years ago I would’ve said the old part of the house that was an old log cabin itself. We built up and over.
It was haunted and drafty. And creaky.
Was useless as a room the family could take advantage of. It was the “trophy” room for husbands taxidermy. And overall hidey-hole.
I third the oven and stove top. When I moved out of my first apartment, I threw out all my pots, pans, cookie trays, muffin tins etc. I realized that I hadn’t used the oven or range in at least ten years. I never used the oven or range at my second apartment. The oven at my new place had a leak. The gas company came and shut off the gas to it and told me it had to be replaced. I notfiied management about this several times. They promised to install a new oven right away. That was the beginning of October. I don’t really care since, as I said, I would never use it anyway.
My electric piano stopped working about 3 years ago. Due to on-going medical problems I have had neither the time nor the money to fix it, which is a damn shame because it would give me much comfort in my life.
It’s not just money - it’s a big keyboard. I couldn’t lift it on my own even before I got sick, now not a chance in hell. Would take at least two people to get it out the door to the nearest qualified repair facility. I have lots of people saying they’d help me if I need anything but apparently “anything” doesn’t cover getting my piano fixed.
I still hope to get it fixed at some point in the future. The fact my late husband gave it too me makes the idea of simply giving up on it too painful.
A Ms. Pac Man cocktail table. It used to be in the garage with the pinball machines but got moved into the den to make room for one more pin. It hasn’t been switched on in, at least, a year.
I also have a generator that’s seldom used. It’s a whole house 12kw with an automatic transfer switch powered by NG. I installed it after a hurricane left us without power for 9 days but, even though it’s seldom used, I cannot imagine not having it for storm related emergencies.
Stairmaster. It’s a good one too, all kinds of settings. 25 years ago my wife and I managed to haul it into the house and up the stairs. We’ll never be able to get it out though.
It is not technically in my house, but in my mother’s garage ceiling - my most valueable possesion is a late 18th century Burmese Mahogany 18 seater dining table.
It is huge. It is expandable, from a large 4 seater to a decent size banquet table, by adding leaves. Even in its smallest configuration, it is bigger that a king-size double bed.
It is going to be a bastard to put back together - we forgot to take photos. I plan to give it to my sister, as she is rich and can afford a dining room. She is currently building a mansion, I can barely afford a room in a shared house.
But I am determined to keep that piece in my family. My son James will inherit it, if he wants it. Else family precedence via age goes though the cousins.
My parents had one, which originally belonged to my dad’s parents. When I was in elementary school, my parents took over the piano and my dad rebuilt the whole thing.
During COVID, they had some time on their hands, and the piano finally got disassembled and taken to the dump.
My household? 3 bicycles, which haven’t been ridden in 15 years, 3 old desktop computers (one of them is a VaxStation from 1991, approximately) and a china cabinet full of china and glassware that is seriously underutilized. One quarter of it is heavily used, as that’s where the non-scotch lives.
And we have a dining table which expands. We use the table quite often, but we’ve never used the expansion.
My wife has a dry sink that’s probably 75-100 years old. It’s not really “antique,” just ugly as sin, totally unused, and its only purpose is to collect dust.
It does chuckle at me every time we move house, though.