To live without a dining table??

[inmyshoos]

Can't fit in a dining table in our new house. We have a massive corner sofa and it barely fits in itself. Aibu to just sit there and eat? I really love a table, feels weird not having one. Have even considered weird coffee tables that convert to dining tables but they look weird as heck.

Will I desperately miss a table? Aibu to think we can live without one?

Our dining table is old and cost 50 quid second hand, our sofa was 3k.

[JellyStrudel]

@yelyah22

Obviously OP is making a choice about table/no table but I love the aghast horror at how terrible not having a dining table would be in this thread. I grew up in a home far too small for a table in either kitchen or living room. I did my homework on a desk in my bedroom and at Christmas we either - gasp - ate off our knees or brought the garden table in and pushed the sofas up together to make space.

We don't have a dining table in our current house, either. No room. Both kitchen and living room are far too small. Spare us your snobbish horror...

I grew up in a house where there was nowhere to do homework and it was rubbish

[Mynotsoperfectlittlefamily]

Another here with a galley kitchen and no space in the lounge for a table, as the staircase to downstairs would get blocked off and be a hazard.

[Peanutbutterblood]

I'd rather have no sofa. Our dining table is the hub of our home

[Angel2702]

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland

No room. Both kitchen and living room are far too small. Spare us your snobbish horror...

I would choose a table and chairs instead of a sofa in your situation. A gate leg table costs barely anything from ikea and folds flat to the wall.

It's not snobbishness its personal preference. Young children have a habit of spilling bits of food around their plates and its much easier to wipe a table than be constantly cleaning dropped curry sauce etc off a sofa.

Not having any comfortable seating to relax wouldn’t be suitable either though. Sitting down to relax on a hard dining chair every night? Family film night sat around a table?

[PegasusReturns]

I love dinner on the sofa (takeaway Chinese, a bowl of pasta) but surely most meals need to be eaten at a table

I’d absolutely get rid of the huge sofa to ensure that there’s somewhere to eat meals: Do you never have family or friends over for a meal?

A table also serves as a spot to do homework, crafts etc. so I’d prioritise

[ColdTattyWaitingForSummer]

I have a table.. there’s just enough room in my living room for a small sofa and a small table.. but now it’s just me and dc2 at home we rarely eat dinner at the table. I know it’s frowned upon on mumsnet but we really like sitting on the couch together in the evening with an episode of a show or a movie on while we have our tea. He’s 14 and has perfectly decent table manners when he needs them 🤷‍♀️ The table usually ends up with projects or puzzles on.

[Salty2020]

@Pumkinseed

I never get people who will have a massive sofa but no dining table. Eating on the sofa? yuk. I'd rather swap the sofa for something smaller but eat in a civilised way. But that's me.

I assume you mean you don't have a kitchen table either (we eat in the kitchen, no dining table in the lounge).

Same. Imagine Christmas dinner on your lap?!?!

[Sonofapizzaman]

@Salty2020 I’d definitely buy/borrow a table of some sort if we ate Christmas dinner at home but we don’t.

[mistermagpie]

I can't imagine not having a table. Even when I lived alone I had a table. We don't have a dining room but all eat at the kitchen table. Occasionally DH and I have a takeaway on the sofa but I wouldn't want that the be the only option for eating, it's weird.

[Salty2020]

[quote Sonofapizzaman]@Salty2020 I’d definitely buy/borrow a table of some sort if we ate Christmas dinner at home but we don’t.[/quote]
I guess because we have family over very often (not so much in 2020 obviously) that I can’t imagine not serving and all eating round a table together.

[riotlady]

God the judgement on this thread If you like sitting at a table enjoy yourself but all this stuff about eating on the sofa being “grim” and “disgusting” is ridiculous.

We often eat our meals on the sofa and I love it, feels so cosy and chilled out. DD has a little chair she pulls up to the coffee table sometimes and eats fine at her nursery table, don’t think we’ve stunted her development.

[DDiva]

I wouldnt buys house where I couldnt have either a kitchen or dining table.

I hate eating on the sofa, I love all sitting together for dinner. We also use the table for work, playing games, kids painting and crafts.

[DDiva]

Also wrapping presents and writing cards are much easier at a table.

[Sonofapizzaman]

It’s just different lifestyles. Some people really struggle to imagine a life unlike their own.

[TheSockMonster]

I would really struggle without a table, but then ours is, literally and figuratively, at the heart of our home. Maybe it’s our children’s ages or the layout of our house but it’s used for everything.

If you don’t find you use yours then feel free to do away with it though. It’s your house!

I do think previous suggestions of having a fold away table or a garden table that can be carried in for formal meals/crafts/etc is a good idea. I appreciate that both of these require some element of space that you may not have.

[Proudboomer]

This takes up very little space
www.argos.co.uk/product/6215136

Could you not squeeze it or something similar against a wall somewhere?

[Mouldiwarp1]

I was about to say I couldn’t possibly imagine not having a kitchen/dining table, but then I remembered when I was young and flatsharing and didn’t have one for years! Coped perfectly well.

That said, I think you will miss it if you’ve had one in the past. You don’t say if you have children, but obviously it’s useful for crafts/homework. It also depends if you ever have people around for a meal, or if you normally go out to socialise. So if it’s just the two of you and you don’t entertain at home, it’ll be fine. Otherwise, you’re likely to find it a pain.

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

Family film night sat around a table?

Can have family film night snuggled up on mum & dads bed.

Kids often lounge around on the floor to watch TV and you can get things like bean bags to stack in a corner.

[LastChristmas20]

Our dining table has been moved out of the main room now to fit the rather large Christmas tree.

So most dinners are sofa ones.

But DD7 sits at the coffee table with a little chair.

Roast tomorrow so we'll bring the table back in for that. (It's a folding one)

[Rewis]

If only adults in teh household then there is no need for a table. The flat I am in now is the first one that I have a dining table and I cannot even remember the last time we used it for eating. We always eat on the sofa.

[Lovemusic33]

We don’t have one, got rid of it a year ago to make room for a pet. I don’t really miss it, we have a large coffee table which the kids (teens) eat off. The only time I miss it is Christmas.

[Serin]

I think massive sofas are a newish phenomenon really. My Grannie had only hard wooden fireside chairs in her little Irish cottage and I'm sure they were better for their posture than the floppy things we lol around on now. She lived to 107 and was independently mobile all her life.
I personally would prefer a table to your sofa but you have to do what's right for you. IKEA have great ideas for small spaces, also caravan design might provide some inspiration.

[Pikachubaby]

I thought most people ate on the sofa

Whenever you see people at home, on TV, they usually eat on the sofa

[NoIDontWatchLoveIsland]

Theres obviously a real divide. I've never not had a table. Even my tiny mouse infested student flat shithole had a tiny gate leg & 2 folding chairs. It was on the kitchen wall and you couldnt open the fridge with it down but it did the job. When I lived in a tiny flat in my 20s we had a tiny kitchen and no living room, so I had a table in my bedroom!

[chillimartini]

A bench table? Check out futon company