This thread is probably not 100% consistent with the typical topics here in the Neanderthal cave. Nonetheless, if my fellow Creekers are willing to bear with me, I would very much appreciate advice and suggestions about how to best address what has become for me and existential woodworking question: What should I do now that our family has more furniture/woodworking projects than we need?

I hope that doesn’t sound like a “humble brag”, my question is certainly not intended as such. I’m legitimately looking for advice and suggestions from people with shared interests that I respect. As a brief explanation, I’ve been a hand tool woodworker for 30 years. In the early days with a young family, project priorities were clear: build the simple, functional stuff our family needed but couldn’t afford to buy. These were things mostly for the Boys, beds, desks, dressers, etc. In the early days, the furniture I built intended for the downstairs “public spaces” of our house, rarely made the cut to get admitted into the house with the LOML. Typical response was: “that’s lovely, I know some folks (young families with kids, from our church, etc.), that would love to have that furniture”. My wife is an interior designer with high standards and I clearly recognized her message; my feeble attempts at furniture weren’t going to pass muster.

Eventually over the years, I was able to build fairly nice furniture that occasionally made the cut, allowing it into the house. That brings us to my current challenge: I’ve built all the furniture our 2 boys need, and my wife and I are soon to be empty-nesters - looking to downsize into a smaller house. To facilitate the move, we need to get rid of lots of stuff (God forbid that includes any of my tools!).

The fundamental challenge is Sherrie, me and our Boys literally can’t accommodate any more furniture that I might build – bummer! I’ve given away lots of furniture to friends and family, which is always rewarding, however that’s a finite audience; the last thing I want is to try and "twist someone’s arm” to accept a piece I built for them. In my experience always a losing proposition!

Fundamental problem is; I really enjoy building furniture with hand tools. As my non- woodworking professional responsibilities wind down, I anticipate I will have more time for woodworking in future. I very much appreciate advice from my fellow Creekers about what I should do?

Options from my perspective seem to be limited to:


  1. Stop woodworking – no one wants the end result of my efforts.




  1. Build furniture I can give away to worthy causes.




  1. Build furniture that could potentially be sold to “interested customers”. This includes the much larger question about how to “market, sell” handmade furniture. I have zero interest in “marketing/selling” anything. I spent my professional career in sales/marketing. My primary interest in woodworking is the build process and final result. IMHO, life is a lot simpler when you build stuff you can put in your house. When that’s not an option, things seem to me to be a little more complicated.



I really appreciate any advice/suggestions.

All the best, Mike