Why We Keep Our Rooms Unfurnished

• Published on March 14, 2016
• estimated reading time: ~6 minute(s)

Okay, the title of this essay may be a little bit bold, since we certainly do own some furniture, but the point is that every single piece is carefully selected and intentionally chosen to take up space in the place we call home. Everything we own serves a need and not a desire.

When we moved to our new apartment, we decided to not crowd our rooms with much furniture, especially not with single purpose models. We rather wanted few but multifunctional furnishing with more than one purpose. Having no dedicated single purpose items is surely less convenient, since the desired furniture is not immediately available and has to first be created when needed. So it is essentially an intentional deprivation of convenience. But on the other hand we can create exactly what we need at any time. Our intention drives us to arrange the space to fit our needs, rather than the space dictates our actions.

Here’s an example of what I mean. Seeing a couch standing in the corner triggers the thought of sitting and consequently in many cases we would sit down, just because we saw the couch. Without that visual impulse, we might have not thought about sitting at all. Hence the couch is able to dictate our actions, unconsciously. Simply by not owning a couch we can instead create a sitting area whenever we feel like sitting.

The same applies to many other objects in the room. Think about how much less television you would watch, if you first had to set up the screen and projector, then arrange a sitting space. This process takes a while, and so you would only do it, if you truly wanted to watch a movie in that moment, intentionally. A stationary TV on the other hand is very prominent and convenient, it can be switched on with a single press of a button. It has a very strong attraction and pull towards itself. The desire for watching is immediately triggered just by seeing the screen. We observed this behavior very obviously in our children. Their screen time massively decreased simply be removing the device out of their sight and making it uneasily accessible. Later we completely got rid of it.

So we are keeping our rooms flexible and adaptable to our needs, rather than the other way around. Thereby we gain flexibility with our furnishing, achieve less distraction and less temptation, plus we have more space and time to do what we love.

Things We Own And Not Own

Here are some of the few things that we own at home, and how we can use them. You can find some impressions here.

• Four wooden cubesThose boxes are very dynamic, we use them as chairs for eating, or pile three of them up to create a standing working station. All In a row and topped with some pillows they became a cozy lounge. They also make for a comfortable reading area. Our boys love them for playing, jumping and building maces. In idle mode we use them as a shelf to present some temporary art or plants. Those boxes allow for quite some creativity.
• Two japanese futonsWe use them for sleeping during the night, every morning we roll them away. Rolled up they make for a good back or neck support for reading or writing. Trifolded they transform to a comfortable couch chair. They are also fairly portable to take on a camping trip or another person’s home for a sleepover.
• Lots of pillowsWe use pillows for sleeping, sitting, relaxing, laying and playing. Pillows are awesome. We keep them all stored in a cupboard if we don’t use them.
• A coffee tableWe use if for eating, working and crafting. It’s the only table we own inside our home.

In contrast, here are some furniture or items that we do not keep inside our home that most people do.

• A couch Sitting is known to be unhealthy and a couch is a major sitting attraction. It also made us lazy. Getting rid of the sofa brought us so much more time for meaningful things.
• Chairs Another sitting opportunity that we got rid off. Chairs quickly replaced the couch and we realized that only by completely ridding easy sitting opportunities we would be able to overcome the habit of sitting. If we sit, we sit on the floor. Also, it is supposedly healthier.
• A traditional dining table Without chairs, a full-sized dining table is not very useful. We prefer eating on a coffee table. We like the closeness of sitting together and the children love it too.
• A television A major distraction and time-consumer for us. Occasionally we still like to watch movies, in the cinema or on our laptop.
• A bed frame We didn’t see any benefit or sleeping on an elevated bed frame rather than directly on the floor, so we got rid of it. Without the bed frame, we can easily roll away our mattresses in the morning and use the space for other things.
• An electric coffee machine We lost gratitude in the the habitual morning coffee. Switching to a manual coffee maker was a great way to create a coffee ritual and produce less waste. Plus the coffee tastes much better.
• A clothing cupboard We don’t own a lot of clothes; they easily fit in a medium-sized dresser. The old clothing cupboard was simply too large and bulky to keep.

Owning less furniture also brings along much other advantages. Here are some of things that we saved or gained by having few furniture.

• We gained lots of space in our home that we can now use to be creative.
• We’re saving lots of time and effort with the cleaning.
• We spent less money on purchasing and transportation.
• We saved resources, production effort and trash.
• We spent less time on buying and assembling.
• Moving to a new home becomes a breeze without much furnishing.
• We gained more discipline, because less furniture means less storage room, which means there is less space to hide unneeded stuff. It enforces reconsidering every item that could potentially and unnecessarily crown the only cupboard in the room.
• We learned more appreciation and gratitude in the few items we own.

Ultimately, having less furniture and empty spaces gives us more freedom and room to grow.