How often do you actually use your dining room table for meals?

[luvflorida]

I was just thinking about this as I took off the regular placemats that I leave on the table and put on my fall placemats. It struck me that we hardly ever sit down and eat at the dining room table.

In fact, I had to remove two schoolbooks, a camera, several magazines, a half empty bag of pretzels, and one sweatshirt in order to change the placemats.

We have a center island in our kitchen that has the stove built into it and four stools around the counter. That is where everyone ends up eating and snacking. There could be 8 or more peole in the house, but somehow that is where everyone ends up! If not there, we're hauling food into the living room or den.

How much use does your dining room table get?

 

[Bob Slydell]

A couple times a year, maybe.

 

[NMAmy]

Pretty much every day when dd is home. When she's not, sometimes DH and I will eat in the living room but we still use the table several times a week.

 

[DoeWDW]

DH works with large sets of blueprints on a regular basis so he has taken over the dining room table for his workspace. If I'm lucky, I get him to surrender it 3 - 4 times a year.

 

[phorsenuf]

Every night. Sitting down and eating together as a family is something I stress around here. Its how I grew up and its how I want my kids to grow up.
We have a breakfast bar/island in the kitchen where they eat breakfast in the morning and sometimes lunch.

 

[swilphil]

I don't have a dining room table because I knew I'd never use it. When we had our house built I didn't put a hanging light fixture in the dining room for that reason. Someday I'd like the dining room to be a study, but right now it's mainly used as a computer room and play room. Luckily, we have a kitchen with enough room for a table that can hold two leaves and seat 12 people.

 

[christinadei]

We sit down and eat dinner as a family everynight at the dining room table. Every once in a while, DH is outside working and me and DS eat without him, but we always eat dinner there, and usually lunch on the weekend as well.

 

[DisneyArk]

We eat our meals at the kitchen table. We only use our dining room table about 8 times a year. I guess I tend to reserve it for guests - why I'm not sure??

 

[aprincessmom]

Every night...and we also use the "good" dishes, glasses and silver at least 3-4 times a week.

 

[Laura]

I think we've used it once so far, but I could be wrong. We moved in last January. We might be having Thanksgiving dinner at our house this year, so we'd use it then. Our kitchen table gets used every day.

 

[cec311]

We make it a point to eat only at the kitchen table regardless if everyone is home or not.

 

[Pooh_Friend#1]

Out of the 6 months we have lived there, we have sat at the dinner table about 4 times!!!!

 

[CEDmom]

We rarely use it now because we have a large kitchen with it's own big table. I think we'll end up using to more though when we move to our new house. The kitchen is designed differently and we'll just have an extended counter with room for 3 stools. If it's more than just the 3 of us we'll be eating in the dining room. I'm actually glad because we have a nice dining set and it sits idle most of the time.

 

[disykat]

We eat together at a table every night, but it's in the area off the kitchen and family room. We have a formal dining room connected to the living room, but it's set up as the den.

 

[septbride2002]

We didn't buy a home with a dining room because I figured we wouldn't use it that much. I do think we are going to need a bigger kitchen table soon. Right now you can fit 6 people around ours rather easily but it gets a bit tight when you start talking 8 and 10.

~Amanda

 

[Sparx]

wait a minute...you mean we are supposed to EAT at this thing? I suppose next your going to say that the car is actually supposed to go IN the garage!

 

[PoohBearLovinMama]

Every day for just about all of our meals. Especially since we just had the living room carpet cleaned. Our kitchen is too small to eat in, so we always eat at our dining room table.

eta:

I suppose next your going to say that the car is actually supposed to go IN the garage!

I can definitely relate to this! We have a two car garage which can actually hold no cars.

 

[2bemarried]

DH and I were just discussing this topic Sunday evening. I think we've used our table a total of 6 times since we bought it (2003). However, we're going to try to change that. We'll have at least one "date" night a month where the two of us eat in the dining room and use the "good" plates.

 

[Chris2597]

We use the kitchen dining room table every day for all meals....We have lived in the house a little over a year and never once used the formal dining room table....The kitchen and kitchen dining area are big and adjacent to each other, which makes it easy....
I dont think we will have a formal living / dining in any future homes that we build....We just dont use the space but could easily use more space in the kitchen/eating area and family room.

 

[Tea Please]

Thanksgiving only