Why We Move Things Around
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Have you ever thought about why we move things around?
My post title is actually a rhetorical statement. Because I truly don’t know why we have this tendency to move our furniture all over the house.
I’m happily divorced now. I think I’ve learned my lesson after failed marriage #3. Maybe I’m a slow learner when it comes to such matters. In hindsight, it sure looks that way.
So Many Perks To Living Alone:
There are perks to living alone. If I want to, I can move every single thing off the shelves and rearrange them. I can move the couch and every other stick of furniture, and there’s no one to moan and groan about it.
Heavens, I can even move the TV, and there’s no man around to grumble that his ball game is about to start. I especially like the fact that there are no ball games endlessly droning in the background every weekend.
I’m so glad to have found women like me. Online friends who “get me.”
Decorating Bloggers Perhaps Move Things The Most:
Decorating bloggers drag boxes of things out of wherever they’re stored to decorate for the seasons.
We buy different-colored slipcovers to change up a room’s look. And we purchase dishes we don’t need because the price was simply too good to pass up. Plus, they will look so pretty in a seasonal or holiday tablescape.
We constantly change up our mantels, and often every other surface in our homes.
We lie in bed, unable to sleep, and conjure up ideas about how we might try a little something different in the guest bedroom. Or the home office, or the living room, or wherever.
No nook or corner is left alone.
Upcycling Is A Trend:
We thrive on using things for different purposes. And we change out lamps and lampshades and move paintings around from wall to wall.
Then we have to deal with the nail holes left behind. Sometimes we fill them in; sometimes we just put something over them to hide it.
That is one of my maxims: If all else fails, cover it with something to hide what you don’t want to see. Out of sight; out of mind. I ascribe to that notion.
To lend a bit of reasoning to our pursuits, we usually dust while we’re at it. Which falls under the “it needed cleaning anyway” explanation.
I like to think it is just part of the nesting instinct. But then I doubt that mama birds move their nests all over the neighborhood while they have baby eggs in them.
We Simply Can’t Leave Well Enough Alone:
Or perhaps the answer is as simple as: We simply cannot leave well enough alone.
We are just creative souls who need more stimulation in our environment. Or we know we need the exercise.
And it’s somehow more fun to shove furniture around than endure an hour on the stationary bicycle.
I laughed my way through your entire post…this is SO me! Guess I should be glad that my husband doesn't mind at all when I rearrange things, including furniture. The only thing he doesn't like is when I want to move pictures, shelves, etc. that have had nail holes in the walls – and I don't blame him for that. It's a pain to patch up nail holes and repaint. I once got myself calmly through a MRI by rearranging and redecorating my entire house (money wasn't an object while daydreaming, lol) in my mind!
I did the very same thing once! You have to be so still in those coffin-like things. The only way to completely concentrate was to move furniture in my head!
Oh Brenda I loved this post. I see a little bit of myself on both sides. I have a huge TV cabinet that's been in the same place since we moved here 23 years ago. It's been moved away from the wall to paint many times, but the darn thing is so big and heavy, it won't fit anywhere else. Was just looking at it today and decided it needs to be replaced. Then, I have a bed with a lovely old head and foot board that's been in 3 different rooms in the last couple of months. Got to love those furniture moving disk thingies. I love re-arranging furniture in friend's homes…if only in my mind.
We should come up with more ingenius ways to make moving furniture easier somehow, and just think of all the women who would buy it! We'd make a mint!
I also have a huge tv stand I put coasters under it to move it
A friend of mine once asked why we are never satisfied with our homes and we're always changing something or other. I told her that it's our artistic nature to try to find a more pleasing way to arrange things in our homes and gardens. When my husband and I walk around our town, I usually have a running commentary going about how that house would look so much better if the shrubs were trimmed and the people over there should have chosen a different color for their shutters, etc. He always has the same comeback. "You must have been working when they called to ask your advice." hehe I can't help myself!
You must have been busy rearranging the furniture when they called and didn't hear the phone, Vickie!
So glad I stumbled on your blog! Abi and Charlie are so sweet and YES, I move furniture all the time (and ex-RAF hubby will tell you, I have done so for the last 38 years – that's how long we have been married- and justify it by saying 'it needed cleaning at any rate).
I agree we use lots of muscles to accomplish our creativeness (love that! Must remember the next time Mum comes in and says: "Not again!) But not moving anything for years would drive me nuts!
As to why we do it? No reason comes to mind but it is so much fun!
All the best,
I'm so glad to have found my "ilk." I'm tired of people coming in and looking about like they're in the wrong house. And then saying: "Wasn't that chair somewhere else last time I was here?" Maybe they are in the wrong house.
Oh, yes, I definitely see those traits in myself! I think they are simply the characteristics of creative people who can visualize things in a variety of ways!
Well, after all your comments, I know I'm not alone. My three husbands thought I was off the wall.
I agree with you about moving around the little things and rotating in holiday decor but when I find a good place for my furniture I leave it there for.ev.er!! I do go into other people's houses and move things around in my mind. Which is a handy thing to be able to do when you're bored or not really enjoying the company…Mimi
Well, that's something to remember. Beat the boredom by moving their furniture around in my head! Great idea!
Kathy, you're in your element here with us. We all know about moving things around and about. I'll go check out what you moved!
Brenda
You just described me to a tee!! I moved a bunch of stuff today and blogged about it! I felt the same way when I started blogging. I couldn't believe there were so many other people who did the things I did! We are kindred spirits for sure. I enjoyed your post!!
I'm not a furniture mover. I'm a bit unsettled by constant rearrangements and redecoration. There's been one rearrangement in the 15 years we've been in this house. I like the way it feels and I'm the one wandering around the house at night and really like knowing that there'll be no surprises awaiting me. Accessories and such can certainly be changed, though.
Well, you're a might different. I can't imagine moving the arrangement one time in 15 years. I've never even LIVED in one spot 15 years. Or even 10 years. You just don't have that furniture moving itch some of us have.
I am, therefor I move.
Seriously though? I read your entire post and said out loud "Yep, uh-huh, right-o, she gets it, I am same way, yeppers, sheesh yep haha" over and over and over.
I am a perfectionist and have to have things that to me are spot on right.
A perfect example is a post I did of my autumn things on my hutch in the kitchen a few days ago.
It looks nothing like that now, haha – just needed it different.
As for why I move things often? I change with the seasons, so there's THAT – I don't tend to move furniture a whole lot of the time b/c it is usually well thought out and tested to be right, and there it stays – my thing is I get new furniture often and sell furniture often – mostly trading and almost always second hand – so it is all done frugally, but I don't want to get stale or dated.
Most people get and stay/keep as is – which is nice and cozy and homey, but I get easily bored with things as is and like to switch – I seldom lose money doing it, just exchange things a bit. : – )
I adore bloggers that are like-minded.
Hugs.
I'm not out much to buy or trade things. I did use to trade with my neighbor in Tyler, TX. She was a retired school teacher. She too said she had to bite her tongue when she visited someone. I'd say: I have such and such and no room for it. Do you have something you want to trade? And there we'd be, moving furniture down the alley, while the other neighbors stared at us.
Hi Brenda,
My husband always says, "never walk into Robin's house in the dark or you will kill yourself, as nothing is ever in the place where it was when I left in the morning!" lol Anyway, I just moved my Granny's hoosier cabinet today!
Bet that was heavy! Mine always said the same thing. I'd act surprised. Like when you're wearing something new and someone notices and you say: "Oh, this old thing?" I'd act like it had been moved weeks before. Don't know why I thought that made any difference…
I can't answer the question but I'm same – always moving furniture. Lately I've been moving rooms. I try to bite my tongue but when I go into someone else's house, I just want to move things around. I always think they could look better in a different place. j
I can't answer the question but I'm same – always moving furniture. Lately I've been moving rooms. I try to bite my tongue but when I go into someone else's house, I just want to move things around. I always think they could look better in a different place. j
It's like an itch I can't scratch: just dying to say why don't you move that over there?
Brenda, I think I'm like the Momma bird you mentioned.. I've lived in my home for 46 years. I don't plan to move. So, I move things inside my home.. I've done it since my late husband, son and I moved here.
Yes, I do have lots of nail holes in the walls.. I bought a can of spackling just to have when I need to fill a hole.. I've heard that tooth paste is good for that too.
I've downsized a lot of my accumulation of things and want to do more.. I think I'm doing that so I can buy new things and have room for them.
I think we just get tired or bored with how furniture is arranged or think things would look better a different way.. There's no harm in that that I can see or think of..
I hope you're asthma has subsided and that your ankle is behaving.. Take care.
Charlotte in Virginia
Goodness, I can't even count how many times I've moved. Not that I really wanted to. There was always a husband getting another job or something.
Can't give the answer to Why, but have a suggestion for how? I have moved several really heavy things by myself by getting it onto a large old blanket or something similar and take hold of two corners and drag it across the floor. Sometimes even up the driveway from my car.
I've used that tactic too! But I'm usually so impatient I can't wait to get the blanket underneath it properly. Thus I scratch the floors.
When I was reading your post, I thought for sure you had a camera focused on me somewhere in my house..because you described me to a tee. I can not leave my furniture in same place for very long and I get such a rush from seeing things in different places. I, too, have had to devise different ways to move big furniture but always find a way and when it all comes together I can sit back and admire the new look….but I know that in a short while the feeling will come over me and fully occupy my brain with thoughts of……..wouldn't that look great over there!!!
Yes, it's a "feeling" that comes over you. And I think an adrenalin rush. Because after you exert all that energy, you've actually exercised. And doesn't that raise your seratonin levels in the brain?
Yes I am one that can not leave things along as well. I drive my hubby nuts and when he comes home from work the whole living room can be turned around….LOL Well then there are the time I change things and he just does not notice until a week later….LOL Love this post and I guess we ALL have it really bad. LOL
I loved it when they didn't notice for about a week. Then I'd say: Oh, that's been there forever! One day my last husband said to me: "Did you not notice anything different." I said no. He said: "I shaved my beard off three weeks ago." Oh, well, guess you know why we're divorced now…
Brenda, JUST HAD TO LAUGH at this entry about the beard! I've had that happen to me, about hubby shaving off his beard of mustache and I didn't notice! funny funny! our brains get so used to one thing that it becomes a habit and that's all we see….. I think maybe that's why women like to change things around so much… to keep our brains active!
I too moved things when I was very young and made wall art for myself from scraps my PawPaw put in the burn pile.. Kindred Spirits, Indeed:)
My husband used to say he wouldnt consider walking into the house without a light on because he's either run into something or try to sit down and hit the floor because I'd moved everything.
My mind tells me if I'll move things " Just one more time" it'll all be perfect.. it never is.
I have finally reached and age and physical condition that doesnt allow me to move the big pieces from room to room, but do you think that stops me? Nope- no way- I just looked on craigslist and for a couple mover guys and they come and do it for me.. where theres a will–and $30.00 an hour– theres a way..
Sonny
You've got the right idea, Sonny! I'll tell you something, now that I'm divorced and never planning to wed again. Now that I'm at a safe distance, I wish I had the memory of just ONE of my husbands actually sitting down and the chair wasn't there and they plopped down on the floor! I would have that memory to make me laugh. I would tell the story constantly to other women. I'm laughing now just thinking about it…
Brenda – I call myself a "chronic-re-arranger" but sometimes I just want people say it looks nice instead of "Oh, you changed things around AGAIN…" It's therapy for me to have control over my surroundings – especially when there is nothing else I have control of. Nice post!
Yes, why can't they say something nice if they're going to say anything at all. I really DON'T CARE if the couch looked perfectly fine where it was. It's MY couch!
O my goodness! You just put into words what I have been living with ALL my life.
I too, as a child would rearrange my bedroom over and over again…always under the guise that I was cleaning. Well, in my two homes I have done the same things. And…my hubby often grimaces at yet another way to *re-arrange" the room…but he does oblige me during the Holidays as HE loves the decor and will help me get it all arranged so HE can see the tree. I think I may have gotten him convinced that rooms get cleaned that way :-}…and I get a decorating/redo FIX with a newly spruced up room. Do you find after you have done this, that you stroll by and admire your handiwork? yep me too!
Lorena
Well, of course I do! At night I'll walk past the living room and pause to turn on a light to admire my latest handiwork!
Oh, forgot to add, I've been known to move fully decorated Christmas trees too. Hahahahah!
Your post and the comments have made me laugh out loud. So glad someone has finally pegged this urge we have to rearrange and make all things new and different. My husband has said that he is so glad I can't move the king size bed. Also I think this thing is genetic. My mother moved furniture with my sisters and I helping. I move furniture and taught my girls. When I didn't have plastic slide discs from the store I grabbed lid containers from my kitchen. They worked! The other day, I noticed that my granddaughter has …you guessed it…rearranged her bedroom.
My daughters don't seem to have this urge. I think they had kids too late and they're wearing them out. My youngest daughter is pregnant with my third grandchild, though I haven't said anything yet. As she had a miscarriage months back. I can't believe she's going to have her first child at 35. That puts her in the doctor's "have to watch this one cause it's a little riskier" category. Lord, she'll be worn out and in menopause before the child is a teen. Well, I sure got off-topic. I hope my granddaughter has this urge just to irritate her mother.
Congrats on the grandbaby to be! Hope all goes well for your daughter!
Hm, I just wrote a post and it disappeared. But I'm one of those aliens, Brenda. I don't move furniture around in the great room because of the window placements and sliding glass doors on either ends of the room. Same thing w/my small bedroom, I have a sliding glass door on one wall and the other wall has two doors on it, so the bed won't fit there either! I do change things for the seasons though. And it is fun to shop the house when you get the desire to change things out! I enjoy your house and what you do in it so much! Hope you're feeling better.
The very minute I'm feeling better, I'm up moving something. Yesterday I moved those wicker chairs (thank goodness they're light) all over the living room. Then finally put them back in the same spot, but angled them. And that seemed to satisfy me.
And then there are those other days….I blame them on hormones. This morning I got up and one of the first things I said was, I feel like all I do is move things around…rearrange my clutter. And I start setting things 'right'! heehee! I decide I'm going to put everything 'in it's place' and leave it there. Then when I get up tomorrow I can just enjoy my house! haha! wonder what mood I'll be in tomorrow? Happy Sunday afternoon my friend!
We women can be moody. But I think I've reached the other side of menopause, so can't blame it on that…
Kindred spirits, indeed! I do this all the time and the reason for me is that I get the same feeling after moving things around that I get when I buy new things. Something DIFFERENT to look at is the same as something NEW to look at.
It's actually kind of "a high", isn't it???
I'm afraid I'm one of those people you can't understand. I do change furniture some times, but it is always if something about how I have it hasn't turned out to be functional. I really don't like the domino effect it creates with everything else that has to be changed. I like changing mantles, shelf displays, etc., but not moving furniture. When I do move furniture, those little plastic discs (moving men) you can get at Walmart, make it all a piece of cake. I've even moved a heavy buffet with out removing the stuff in the drawers with those little disks and it's always by myself. Don't have anyone, ever, to help me with those kinds of activities.
Well, in this little community, Gina, that makes you odd instead of us! FINALLY!
I have been changing things around since I was a kid! Yes even as a child I would re-arrange my bedroom.Something my parents never did so I don't know where my decorating gene came from LOL!
xx
Anne
We only had one bedroom when I was a kid. And two grandmothers to share it with. Or I'd have been all over moving the furniture then too. Instead I burned off energy running around the yard with dogs chasing me barking. Now they'd put you on Ritalin or something.
Brenda, I'm sad to say that you have a severe case of Cant-Leave-It-Alone-itis
I think you're right. I can think I have it in a perfect spot. FINALLY. But soon I won't think that anymore…
Love this post! I remember too exactly what I was doing when I heard John Lennon was dead. I was putting up and decorating a Christmas tree in my college boyfriend's apartment. Against his wishes. He saw no reason to have a tree but I'd begged him to buy one on the corner and I was decorating it with an old string of lights I'd found and a little of this and that and I thought it was wonderful. Then the news came over the radio and spoiled the whole thing.
I think it's a creative thing. I'm not so into moving furniture around as to making stuff in the middle of the night and especially pulling out the decorations in the middle of the night. I too have had many an argument that started with me pulling out boxes at midnight to start some project.
I too redecorate my friend's houses in my head. I know exactly how they SHOULD have them decorated…I pretend they look find and compliment them but I'm really thinking…"this is all wrong". This kind of house should never be decorated in this manner. These colors are all wrong.
Before I had my own house…I would lie in bed at night and plan out what I'd do if I owned my best friend's house. They had no idea what to do with it and didn't like it and I could see all the potential. They didn't want to stay in it…so they did no improvements. It just needed paint!
I started blogging because I knew here were people that got it. People I could share my passion with. People who didn't think I was crazy.
Love the photos in this post!
Well, I don't pull things out in the middle of the night to do because I'm too zonked out on medication that makes sleep. And helps with a few other "oddities" I have. If they ever make a pill to reduce our moving about the furniture, I'm refusing to take it.
HI Brenda!!! I just have to laugh at out loud at this post!! I move stuff all the time!!! I can have something in a place and all of a sudden it hits me and I wonder why I placed something there that clearly does not look right! And I wish someone WOULD have pointed it out!!
I found a house on the internet that is for sale. It is my exact floor plan. Its so strange to look how they placed furniture and accessories compared to mine.
One room I don't move furniture in is my bedroom! Holy cow!! My bed is 4 poster king so it stays put. But I do change what is displayed on my night stands tables!
I change my mantel and kitchen dishes according to the seasons! Yep! I have 4 sets of dishes! It would drive me nuts to eat off my summer dishes in the fall! My summer dishes are the ones you have! The flowered and plaid ones! They are put away until next spring.
Why do some women do this? I believe we are more visual. I know I am a visual learner. I could never read directions on how to learn to knit in a weekend… but if I sat with someone and watched I could learn.
I am getting ready to sell and down size into a 1450 sq foot villa from approx. 2300 sq ft. This should be fun! I am slowly going thru stuff and getting rid of stuff. My storage tubs are clear. Again… I have to SEE stuff so I know what I have. Every tub has a detailed list of what it is in.
I agree with you about going to homes and nothing changes. Its very boring to me. I believe we add and move stuff to FLUFF our surrounding's. We are nurturing something … not sure what it is tho! LOL!
I love the pics of your home… and I can tell right away when you change something! So funny to me!! Your house is very cute. It feeds my soul.
Have a great Sunday!! I just made a pot of chili. Cool and raining here in Indiana. Apple crisp for dessert!
Mary jane
Maybe that's it. We just get bored looking at it in the same place.
I'm sure there is a name for that malady, but I don't know what it is! LOL
Judy
Do you think the psychiatrists have a diagnosis for it? If they do, I don't want to hear it. Would probably fall under "obsessive-compulsive" disorder.
My husband says it is a form of OCD! For I am the exact same way. I could help but laugh while reading your post because it describes me perfectly. And after over 23 years together he's such a good man he just goes along with me. Even today, during our teams football game I decided that I wanted the TV in the living room mounted back on the wall. Which entailed moving all kinds of things – and he helped me with every bit of it!