Survey #253—Full Response from Em
| Which of the following statements describe your living situation with respect to a dining room and dining-room furniture? |
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| Please complete the following statement: “Members of my household and I eat most of our meals _____.” | I eat in the dining room, unless I have already eaten the food while standing in the kitchen. When I am ill, I eat sitting in bed. The majority of my meals are at the dining room table, with a laptop computer as my companion. |
| Please complete the following statement: “When I want to entertain guests for a meal, we usually eat _____.” | When I entertain guests for a meal, we eat in the dining room. If I invited a guest for tea, we have it in the living room. |
| What feelings or memories—positive, negative, or in-between—does the phrase “dining room” evoke for you? How have your attitudes, beliefs, or practices around dining and entertaining changed over time? What impact, if any, do dining and entertaining have on the clutter in your space? | The dining room table was where the family met for supper every day. We said a prayer together in thanks of the food, then shared our day's adventures, and learned table manners. We were to eat everything on our plates. If we refused to eat, we had to stay at the table until the food was eaten or until bedtime. By 7 years old, each of us could set the table by ourselves, with china, silverware, glasses, and napkins in the correct spots; and carry the plates of hot food from Mother's post at the stove to each person's place. Afterwards, we would clear the table and do the dishes, then homework. That same dining room table was used for card and board games, coloring, as the buffet for family reunions, and for laying and cutting out the patterns for our clothing. Dad’s chess club met around it, and it was an extension for the desk in the corner for complicated paperwork. We used it for so many projects, that Mother would announce, "Clear the deck!" when it was time to set the table for dinner. That meant that everything had to be put away, not just shoved aside. The dining room table was a place to enjoy family, beautiful tableware, meals cooked from scratch, birthdays, games, and creative projects. It was the center of our home. I am alone now, and the dining room table is where I spend most of my time. I always eat at it, but any social life around it has withered as the use of it for projects has dominated. It doubles as a computer desk because the writing desk of my former life is too small for computers and all the devices used with them. Although it frequently attracts too much paper, it is usually fairly uncluttered, probably because of the overflowing desk on the opposite wall. However, even when it is at its best, the computers, monitor, cables, external drives, and accessories are unsightly. I open the drop leaf for eating, but guests must tolerate the heavy computers across from us, sitting there as if part of the family (which, I guess, they are). Thinking of the dining rooms of my past compared to the dining room I have today makes me long for the people oriented, more genteel life rather than the never ending paperwork, junk phone calls, unrelenting marketing made to look like urgent business, and instant news updates that flood it today. Technology replaced people, yet the same technology has become the lifeline to human contact. Maybe that is why it seemed okay to put computers on the dining room table. If the computers were elsewhere, I would not have to use a folded tablecloth under the china to set half the table, the keyboards and mice shoved to the other side. Rather than sitting across from computers at my dining room table, maybe I could move the it and computers to the craft area of my bedroom, and get stricter about what goes on the desk so that it doesn’t look so frenzied. I could put my small antique table in half of the dining room to create a little retreat for peaceful meals for myself and maybe attract a friend or two for meals together. |
| Here’s your chance to ask Gayle and Ed any question you’re curious about. It need not be related to this survey’s topic(s). If we think that your question—and our answer—might be useful or instructive to The Clutter Fairy Weekly audience, we’ll share them in an upcoming episode. | Do you eat from paper plates? |
| Future topics | When I analyzed my dining room, I realized that its biggest problem is that it doubles as an office. People need a place to manage the never ending flow of paperwork, but small apartments and most homes do not have offices. Where and how can one create an office in a home that does not have a space for one, not even a spare bedroom? What are some ways to create an efficient office area that can work without ruining the atmosphere of the room it is in? |
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