Partner moves furniture and doesn't put it back

@boilinthebag not 'narrow minded old henpecker', no...but maybe 'dyed in the wool creature of habit'?

The one thing you haven't explained at any point is WHY right up to the windowsill is the only 'correct' place for the table. What does being 1 foot back from the sill prevent? Why can't you sit with your snack with a gap between the table & the window?

When it comes to being unreasonable, I naturally gravitate towards team DP because you've not established why your preferred position of the table has any natural advantage over his preferred position.

As others have said, getting a track with a pull-to-close string system on one side of the bay only is clearly the best solution. If it's not worth this much money to you, suck it up!

It sounds like you have different ideas about the right place for the table. In your opinion, you think he's moved it to the wrong place but he probably thinks the same, when he goes to shut the curtains and thinks why has she pushed the table in the way again. You said it's light and easy to move so it's not really worth the drama fussing over it surely.

Get electric curtains 😂

God this is how we grew up when younger and my mother in laws house is the same furniture placed in the way. if you need to access an area there shouldn't be stuff in the way. drove me round the bend. and always ended up either back in the wrong place or knocking stuff down
it's a faff to have to keep moving stuff out of the way the whole time - just move the table permanently or fix curtains ti close and open without having to move it
nothing is in the way closing the curtains in my house and also take husbands consideration when placing furniture.

Whilst constructing this, I'd recommend simultaneous construction of a bed which rotated to approximately 80 degrees of vertical, slid you out smoothly and deposited you into your clothes for the day. Would you consider eating wensleydale with your breakfast perchance?

With a clever arrangement of stout hinges, springs and levers it should be possible to arrange for the table to pivot out of the way of the curtains and then automatically return to its god-given position afterwards.

Or have you considered a small building project to make your bay window larger on the offending side, so the table can fit where you need it to with impeding curtain access. This has the advantage of adding value to your home

Could you get a circular saw and cut a foot off around the perimeter of the window-side half of the table top? You may also need to relocate two of the legs further in if it has the classic four-equidistantly-spaced-legs-at-the-edge-of-the-circumference design rather than the central broad pedestal support that is commonly seen with round tables.

That way it wouldn't impede access to get at the curtains at any time, but it also would never intrude any further into the room than it previously did. Win-win!

So you have to move the table every time you want to open and close the curtains? That sounds seriously annoying … find another solution.

That’s the whole problem, you and the OP are acting like the table and the space is hers and she’s the only one who gets a say in it.

This is insane. From the partner's perspective, the OP is the one who keeps on moving the furniture and never putting it back to where she found it. Perhaps he should start hiding her belongings?

Come on OP, what type of responses did you expect to get? This is Mumsnet - so 50% of the posters will contort themselves every which way to tell you you’re wrong in expecting your partner to do something as basic as move furniture back where he found it. The other 50% will tell you you’re in an abusive relationship and to LTB.

Personally, I believe that those who cannot hear must be made to feel. Every time he fails to move the table back, move something of his - eg his keys, coat, wallet, remote control. Someone will be along to say that’s petty and they couldn’t abide a tit for tat relationship, but sadly/happily, it works. You can stop talking to a brick wall and he can feel what he cannot hear.

I’m way too invested in this now.

I can see both your issues and think neither of you are wrong.

If the curtains were on a track with a string pulley closure it would solve the problem. You could close both curtains at the same time from the end of the bay. Invest in this for the sake of your relationship!

Yes we have a sofa in our bay window.

Hence the curtains are never closed

I put fixed see through blinds on the bottom half of the window. They are never moved either as I cant reach them.

It's an issue with bay windows that if you put furniture in the space then you often need to move it to pull the (presumably full length) curtains shut. I can see your annoyance with your partner, he's doing half a job and I'd be annoyed at DH if he did that.

Practical solutions:

1. electric curtains (very expensive for a bay, tell your partner if he doesn't move the table back where it belong you'll need a new curtain track that will cost ££££.
2. blinds for each side of the bay. We have cheap roller blinds in our playroom, they are rubbish and I don't recommend them (nice romans with interlining would be much better but we'll probably get curtains when the kids leave home)
3. Shutters? If you have original ones get them restored. Don't get the naff plantation shutters.
4. Short curtains? Bit easier to close.
5. Shut the curtains yourself
6. table with casters so easier to move

Why don't you do your tricky table curtain and he does the other easy to access curtain? Division of curtain labour is the secret to a happy marriage

I have exactly the same problem with my DH and I feel your pain. I don’t have a solution, sorry but I sympathise

Well its in a bay window so one assumes its the size of the bay window, you wouldnt be able to reach across that very easily.

How big is the table that he can’t reach over it to draw the curtains?

I would hate to walk round the table and would hate to have to keep moving it

If its only a foot or so that he drags it out, why cant you just keep it there?

What does he say for his reason for not putting it back, does he disagree that it should be in the window?

I found a spoon in the wrong section of the cutlery tray. I KNOW that I didn't put it there.

It's not the first time it has happen either...

Your house layout is badly designed. There shouldn't be this battle of wills every night and morning.

The main issue is that you and he disagree, not his refusal to take on board your request. Not sure why that is what you have got from the responses.

If this is the only source of friction in the relationship, then I would learn to shrug or have a conversation about how you solve the problem together, rather than having this passive-aggressive battle over a table position.

If on the other hand your annoyance at this is a symptom of a bigger incompatibility and simply serves to illustrate his inability to take your wishes and comfort into account more generally, then you have a bigger problem than the table and should be thinking about whether you would be happier long term enjoying your own company and keeping the table and everything else where it brings you joy.

I’d superglue it into place when he was out