Do You Eat Your Meals At The Table?

[Inkfreak]

My wife & I have a rather small place. We have a kitchen/dinning room and we recently decided to take out the table in it. It was a big one that seemed to collect junk more than we ate at it. We both have odd hours, so meals are often at different times. We love the extra room along with our dogs. So the question came up when deciding to buy a small cafe type table.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. We have a dining room, and we do eat in it...

If you don't feel the lack of your dining table, then don't have one! But then what do you do if you have company?

[Inkfreak]

3. Yea, we don't really miss it.

We have thought about the idea of company, but we never have people over for dinner. We are more apt to go somewhere to socialize or if we do, it's for drinks or a game night on the porch. When I was a kid, my Mom made sure to have dinner at the table as a family whenever possible. No TV!! So there is some part of that thinks I should still abide by that, lol.

[In_The_Wind]

2. Some times we do, I prefer not to.

A small bistro table might be nice.

[Graybeard]

4. Drop Leaf Wall Table.

I've gained so much space in my kitchen by not having a conventional table.
Granted I'm a bachelor and live alone but this fold down wall mounted table is just perfect for me. I got mine at Ikea.

No legs. no clutter. it's big enough for two to sit at. And if needed it can fold down against the wall to open up even more space.
.
.

[Jenoch]

5. We have a dining room table that gets used for dinner about twice a year.

Our kitchen table is used every morning and every night. Every single family member is not always present, but we still try to eat together as a family.

[RebelOne]

6. Nope. Since I live alone, I eat all meals

on the couch on the coffee table in front of the TV. I have a dining room set which is only used when I have company.

[elleng]

30. Something like that here too.

Do live with a friend, tho, and moving part time into a cottage, will have table of some sort in kitchen which is large, so will be able to dine with guests there too.

[frogmarch]

7. On and off,

depending on what the table is doing at the time.

[Graybeard]

8. Looks like mostly on.

Do you ever take anything off?

Seems like you're doing half-dozen projects all

at once.

[frogmarch]

9. That was just one project,

but yes, it did get a little messy! It was my Red Riding Hood diorama.

[Graybeard]

11. WOW. It was worth the mess.

.
That's lovely.
.

[frogmarch]

13. Thanks! The trees

took the longest (wooden dowels & furnace filters), and the waterfall (bathroom caulking) the second longest.



I didn't miss eating off the table, but mr. froggy was unhappy that our dogs kept stealing food off his plate. lol

[Squinch]

18. Post more photos!!! Have you done other dioramas? This is amazing.

[frogmarch]

24. Thanks! I'll post some on another thread, so that

I don't hi-jack this thread any more.

[Inkfreak]

14. Wish my table clutter would turn into that

We woulda kept it. That looks very cool.

[frogmarch]

15. Thanks. :-) nt

[lunatica]

10. I got rid of my dining room table 20 years ago and turned the room into a study.

We eat at the coffee table which is actually round. We have an L shaped sofa and an armchair so everyone is sitting around the coffe table anyway.

We're happy with the arrangement and now our cat's tree is in the study so he's happy too. His cardboard shantytown is on the floor too and he loves that! It makes it hard to throw all those cardboard boxes out.

[LiberalElite]

19. cardboard shantytown -

I love it! I have cats too and I have to leave packing boxes lying around for them.

[jasond54231]

12. Sometimes, when other family members are present.

Normally, I just eat in front of my computer.

[RebelOne]

20. So did I until I spilled wine and ruined 2 keyboards.

Now I eat at the coffee table in front of the TV.

[BensMom]

16. Not any more

We did when the kids were at home. Now the table is a landing pad for most things that come into the house. Purses, groceries, sunglasses. Most things get unloaded on the table before they move on to their proper locations. Same thing with outgoing..

We eat in front of the tv, even if the tv is not turned on. If it's a meal that won't work on my lap, I have TV trays. The sturdier bigger ones from the 60s.

[cliffordu]

17. NOPE

[hrmjustin]

21. I eat at my desk.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

22. Sometimes. At holidays and when guests are over. Most days, no.

[surrealAmerican]

23. Always.

There isn't really any other good place to eat at our house. The kitchen doesn't have space for a table of any sort.

not that the dining room table doesn't get covered by reading matter, but that is a different issue ...

[TorchTheWitch]

25. Never

Not even once. I live alone and have for a very long time. Though I have a dining room table it's more to hold stuff and give the appearance of normalcy. I also have a lot of other pieces of furniture that don't do anything but sit there looking attractive. One thing I love about it though is that it can be adjusted to be just the size of a nice looking sideboard (which is how my grandparents always had it unless it was needed for dining guests) or at half size, which is about the size of the average 4-seater dining room table, and with both leaves open it seats about a dozen.

Sometimes I think of shutting it up to be sideboard sized like my grandparents normally had it, but I like it at the 4-seater size since it gives a place for the chairs (I only have four of the original set of chairs and other siblings have the rest), and I have some nice knick-knacks on it that are convenient to hold those bits of things like store coupons, receipts I may want to keep in case I decide to return something, interesting bits of junk mail like the card announcing the new second-hand book shop that opened nearby, watermelon dumdum lollipops I snatch from the bank and hoard whenever I can find a watermelon one before other people swiped them, dog's most recent rabies tag that I keep forgetting to put on his collar, and scads of other bits of important flotsam that I'd never see again if I threw it in a drawer.

Without the table I don't know where I'd put the sewing machine to use it, or organize stuff. Can't do that on the floor or every dog hair the vacuum cleaner missed will migrate to whatever I'm organizing, and though the dog thinks he's helping with the organizing he really isn't at all... he has very different ideas of what belongs in which pile, whether or not there just should be one great pile to leap on top of and belly smash and roll around on, what stuff should be chewed on until it disintegrates, and all of it should be mangled because he prefers to make a great game out of every little thing I do. It's the best place to pile the grocery bags after bringing them in as well to get everything sorted and put away... and in such a way so that the dog doesn't get to stick his head into every bag and drool over or swipe whatever he finds most interesting in those glorious mysterious grocery bags.

I finally figured out that I find the 4-seater sized table a lot more useful that some extra floor space.

[rrneck]

26. Rarely.

But I've got company coming in September, so I'll have to get domestic.

[a la izquierda]

27. Usually, yes nt

[Generic Brad]

28. Yep. I have a circular glass table for four

The center pedestal is a lazy susan. It's pretty cool looking.

[mrmpa]

29. Yep, my 83 year old mother..............

makes dinner 90% of the time & we eat at the dining room table. Breakfast for me, 60% of the time at the table, if not at my desk in front of the computer.

The table sits 6 comfortably & at holiday, 2 folding chairs are added and people sit & eat there. We're in a condo, so the kitchen is small & has no table.

[ConcernedCanuk]

31. Mostly on the couch in front of my laptop

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.
.

It's summer now, and I have a new home with a picnic table on the back porch,

so that's where I eat when I have company -

looking at the the bush is nicer than looking at the walls.

I have a small dining room table that seats 4,

so that will come into use when it's cold outside.

Otherwise, I'm chowing down 2 feet from my computer screen!



CC

[Still Blue in PDX]

32. Not usually.

My kids' friends tend to eat at the table, and I sometimes do if I am reading a book.

The table isn't large enough for the whole family. My dream is to get a table big enough for everyone, but my hubby would still end up in front of the teevee.

[Earth_First]

33. Not generally...

We generally do the coffee table thing in the family room, its much more comfortable...

[Graybeard]

34. Table-Mate. Great invention.

With so many bringing their meals to the TV, sales of the Table-Mate have soared. This is not your Granny's TV tray. It can be used at the couch or your recliner. Sturdy with adjustable height and angle of the table. Good for reading, meals or lap-top computers.

I love mine. Use it every day.
.

[MadrasT]

35. About half the time.

I have a big kitchen with a dining table in it.

The other half of the time I eat in the library at the coffee table watching DVDs. There are big windows that look out onto nature and it is very pleasant.

I have never used my dining room for a dining room though. It used to have a baby grand piano in it, and now it is a library. I don't really ever have more than 2 people here -- four, max -- and the kitchen table is plenty big.

I've had several homes with dining rooms and dining room tables that were rarely used -- seems like the tables just collected stuff and took up a lot of space.

[olddots]

36. We eat like normal people

watching reruns of reality TV on our dog fur covered couch . the 24 hour news cycle destroyed our civility .