The decline of the recliner

Oh, this is sad.

I am decluttering my house, partly in preparation for some long-awaited building work, partly because it needed to be done anyway. One of the casualties is Nan’s chair, which she had reupholstered for us as a wedding present. I have vivid memories of my disastrous attempts to feed my son in this chair and, latterly occupying a sunny place in the kitchen, where I used to sit relishing the exhausted silence after hours of Monday dog training classes. This chair was far too comfortable and once you occupied it, it was almost impossible to emerge from it.

More recently it was occupied by a nest of mice, who also found it very comfortable and who have chewed away the upholstery so that every time someone sat in it a cloud of foam granules rose a settled all over the floor. The upholstery is almost gone and it’s time to say goodbye to an old friend, which never really belonged in our house. How fitting that the recliner is now reclining in the skip.

Sometimes throwing things away, letting others upcycle and reuse if you can, is a way of restoring calm and maintaining control in a chaotic world. It was time.