In Secrets of Small-House Living, I share information about how to furnish a small house. Among other ideas, you should have furniture that is scaled for small rooms.

Since we lived in very large houses for many years, all of our furniture was appropriately sized (i.e. large) for those houses. When we got here, we had to give up a lot of furniture, but kept our very favorite pieces, which were still too large for our new, small home.

Being sentimental, and not being made of money, we chose to keep what we had instead of buying new, smaller furniture. For eight years, we’ve been living with our old furniture. But I’m getting tired of feeling cramped, and we need more seating for visitors, like our rapidly growing grandchildren. So I’m starting to look at new furniture.

We still love what we have. I’m thinking maybe we could make a rec room area in our basement and use it there. My husband isn’t so sure. I’m not even sure. The only thing I’ve learned so far is that modern furniture is more streamlined than what we have, and it’s become a lot easier to find sofas that are less than 75” wide, which is good for a small living room.

With the holidays looming, I probably won’t do any more furniture shopping until January. Stay tuned!