taking sides: better furniture vs your own shit

What exactly brought this up?

ron lauder. now answer the question!

I've recently had to face letting go of my own shit (thanks to my foray into the wild world of Shacking Up), and I have to say I'm a lot happier with the better furniture.

Beverley Nichols tells a great (read : "not entirely true, but told in such a charming way that you'll gladly suspend belief") tale about how he was once given a set of Chippendale chairs.

Now a Chippendale chair is not something most people acquire so easily. In fact, it's a bit of a cliche antiques-wise -- something that is an automatic symbol of wealth and taste (kinda like that other antique cliche found so often in mystery novels : the Ming Vase).

Anyways, Nichol's new chairs were, to him, so lovely and so well-proportioned that he was afraid to sit on them, or even to touch them, lest he smudge the finish or dent the wood.

He was also unsure as to which room to keep the chairs. This was because even his most elegant room -- the one with the highlights of his collection -- looked unexpectedly shabby (or worse : "showy" )in comparison to the new inhabitants' subdued grace.

Soon, poor Nichols himself began to feel a bit shabby. Would his new Chippendale chairs object if he forgot to dust them? Were they secretly offended whenever he walked past them in his old bathrobe?

Clearly, if he wanted to keep these chairs, he'd have to (a) become a better person and (b) upgrade the majority of his furnishings.

So what do you think he did?

Would you do that too?

Good lord, what a cliffhanger. What did he do? I must know. Did he let the chairs intimidate him? I want to say he kept them, but I think I actually suspect he 'sent them home'.

rent...

boy.

I have a strange tendency to sell or donate all my things...so none of my stuff stays around..I think it's a compulsive disorder. I will say though, that I have had moments where I really regretted letting some things go...but then I also feel really excited when new stuff arrives. I am a little strange I guess...

My furniture = one broken chest of drawers and a shelf that leans at a RIDDIKULUS! angle (okay 1 = my wall / = the SHELF 1/-/ = pictoral description of it's TILT) so I would EASILY say BETTER BLADDY FURNITURE!

Good, I'm glad someone has taken thee less obvious answer.

Funny re those chairs: Ron Lauder's people want us to find every Chippendale that we've got of his in our warehouse and take pictures of them. The problem is that he's got about 1000 pieces here and about 900 of them are totally wrapped up. So. We feel. We feel through the wrapping to see if it's made out of wood. If it is, we see if it's maybe got the requisite styling. If we think it does we unwrap a corner to see. I hardly need to say that after three days of this we find no Chippendales. Maybe Beverley Nichols has got them!

and by "your own shit" i basically meant a career that is fulfilling, yet unconducive to better furniture. i don't think this is a false dichotomy except for an extremely lucky (or dedicated) few.

hmmm... i still say Better Furniture in the light of the above clarification

This thread makes me sad because it reminds me of 2nd Hand furniture by The Go-Betweens. Although I would like to say that I wouldn't give up my brown chair for anything.

TH: and by "your own shit" i basically meant a career that is fulfilling, yet unconducive to better furniture. i don't think this is a false dichotomy except for an extremely lucky (or dedicated)

*True, but with so many discount outlets around, you can still afford the job you love, AND snag decent furniture. Or so I hear....*

I'm not sure you understand the budget "my own shit" (i.e. posting to ILE; complaining) affords me.