<p>No pets anymore, but good advice in any case.</p>
<p>My dining room table has a nice bowl from pier 1 imports on a tablecloth (one of the microfiber ones that you can sponge up spills and they won’t stain.) We use the table every night for dinner.</p>
<p>However, before she went off to college my kitchen table was my daughter’s homework space and was filled with textbooks, notebooks, calculators, a cup filled with pencils, pens, and the like, a small whiteboard with markers to do math problems on, a stack of school notices, and her backpack next to her chair. SO, when we sent our daughter off to college we gained a kitchen table!!!</p>
<p>I have a long crystal bowl filled with wooden apples made by a nice man in Pennsylvania.</p>
<p>“Bus, tackle them one at a time, and break the one you’re working on into smaller chunks if necessary. Small steps is what will get you there.”</p>
<p>That is good advice. Just one pile at a time. I have managed to tackle the piles in many spots in my house. Every room had a pile, and it was stressful just walking into each room and seeing that pile. Of course, if you wait long enough, most of the pile will be either expired or irrelevant! I just need to make a plan, this day, this time, I will start with one little mess on the table.</p>
<p>“lots of others have clutter, but no one else had a deadish plant?”</p>
<p>Don’t be disappointed. I don’t have a deadish plant on the table, but the table is surrounded by a number of dying plants on the floor. It’s part of our lovely decor that contributes to the special ambiance in that room. I am a plant killer, and every time my husband leaves on a trip, I try to kill his plants by neglecting them, yet somehow they manage to hang on for years.</p>
<p>After living with my parent’s dining room set for twenty years, we finally bought a set that was perfect for us. We swore it would be perfect all the time - liars, it has the table pads, a large old desk top computer of my husband’s, the dog’s Christmas presents, D’s laundry, D’s homework & textbooks, winter hats and gloves - I am seeing a theme here.</p>
<p>Now that we are empty nesters, our home stays pretty immaculate. When we had our house on the market, it had to be “show ready” at all times, and since we sold, it has been pretty easy to just keep it that way. Of course, when D2 comes home, all bets are off. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>My table has a burgundy velvet runner, waterford crystal candlesticks, two antiques figurines and this large antique tub thing that I don’t even know what it is, but I thought it was very interesting looking.
We sit there around five times a year! sigh…</p>
<p>Today - a trivet with a plant on it that i constantly forget to water.</p>
<p>other then that, it’s currently clean and empty!</p>
<p>Yesterday - Four placemats, the above mentioned trivet and plant, and a bunch of junk!!</p>
<p>I even removed the placemats so that I can enjoy the fabulous wood grain of my table that is hidden beneath them. We’ll see how long this lasts. Probably till I put a scratch in my table!!</p>
<p>A runner that is too short with the leaves in (which they are becaue I am too lazy to remove them), an waterford bowl filled with wine corks that we’ve collected over the years, flanked by two candlesticks with candles in them. I’ve been told we shoudl burn the wick just a teeny bit to shorten it and get it closer to the candle. Is this necessary?</p>
<p>A large wooden bowl, on top of a tea towel-type thing given to us in December. That’ll go soon. Oh, and a decorative pie plate that I left out from Christmas because I don’t have the heart to tell dh that it’s not suitable for baking (microwave-safe is not the same thing).</p>
<p>A glass vase with tulips and a box of chocolate that my colleague gave me as a thank-you for helping her out.</p>
<p>usually a jigsaw puzzle. right now, not a thing. i can’t stand clutter. i don’t have anything besides a keurig on my kitchen counters. but i never want anyone to open a drawer or cabinet!</p>
<p>Mine was covered with all H’s stuff and laptop, but he cleaned it off for a dinner we had recently. Now it just has dust on it.</p>
<p>A well stained pottery barn tablecloth, 2 silver candlesticks still out from Christmas and starting to tarnish, a large Waterford cut glass bowl with a chip full of mail and tax stuff i need to file and today’s local thin newspaper which I always read the next day with coffee.</p>
<p>^^^Best use of Waterford bowl I have ever read! :)</p>
<p>So, has anyone cleaned up their dining room table as a result of this thread??? Raise your hand!!!</p>
<p>Artificial flowers, salt and pepper shakers, napkin holder and 2 hot pads. Looks clean, woody and pretty. The table we use is over 100 years old. Makes an excellent workspace when not eating.</p>
<p>I don’t have a dining room table, and don’t have a dining room (but I don’t feel deprived…)</p>
<p>A table runner and a Christmas baking pan that I have not gotten around to putting away.</p>
<p>My laptop and my procrastinated-on homework. :)</p>
<p>Nice use of a Waterford bowl. 
Once after I had filled mine with water and put some floating candles in it, my cat decided that it was the best and the only place for her to get a drink of water. Soooo… I tossed the candles, and it became the cat’s drinking bowl that she used until the day she died.</p>