My Furniture Free Minimalist Living Room

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Welcome to my furniture free minimalist living room!

I mentioned that I was decluttering and creating a minimalist living room in a previous video. I thought it was time to give you a tour.

Although…there’s really not much to tour. Because there’s nothing here.

But you’re probably wondering why I decided to go furniture free, in my living room at least, and whether you should consider doing it too?

I’ll share all the benefits of a furniture free minimalist lifestyle in this video. Plus, I’ll also dish about what caused me to make this radical decision.

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Going Furniture Free Minimalist

So first, the why.

I noticed over time that I had accumulated a lot of mismatched furniture. Nothing really went together. It didn’t fit the space and I was tired of tripping over random objects that I felt like I should have a use for…but really didn’t.

The first step in creating what you want is to clear out everything that you DON’T want.

Second, I noticed that I’d gotten into a habit of relaxing with a Netflix show or two at the end of the day. I told myself it was a harmless habit. We all need ways to decompress.

But I also constantly talked about all the things I wanted to do, like stretching more, learning about polyvagal theory or, you know, making videos, like these…but I never had any time.

So I made the decision to get rid of my tv. And if I was going to ditch the tv, I didn’t need the tv stand, either. And it just sort of cascaded from there. I realized, why am I hanging on to any of this stuff? I feel so confined in this room and I just want space to spread out.

And third, furniture is part of our social conditioning. Everyone in the western world pretty much has a sofa and some arm chairs. It’s assumed that that’s a comfortable way to live. 

But actually there are tons of benefits to sitting on the floor, or at least changing up the way you sit. From a strength and mobility standpoint, the more varied positions you can use throughout your day, the more flexible you will be. And getting up and down from the floor builds strength, too.

Movement Is Good For Your Body AND Your Brain

Research shows that more diverse and complex movement patterns improve thinking, creativity and problem solving skills.

Babies who miss movement milestones show delays in cognitive development as well. Dancing has been shown to protect against dementia in senior citizens.

Personally, I find that I get my best creative ideas when I’m moving. Going furniture free in my living room naturally means I move more.

I find that having this wide open space naturally prompts me to stretch and move around, plus I have this big basket of movement tools handy so I can just grab a yoga wheel (Amazon) or a ball (Amazon) and play around whenever I want, I don’t have to mess around with moving a bunch of furniture or bumping into things.

Movement Improves Self Awareness

And this helps me to start listening to my body more, too, which is something most of us are terrible at. Most of us learned early on in life not to pay attention to our most basic biological urges. We had to go to school and sit still and not fidget. We had to ask permission to go to the bathroom even.

So that can really stifle your creativity, and your thinking. Companies like Google and Amazon know that your environment is crucial to your thinking. Your environment literally shapes your neural processes.

The more diverse your movements, the more neural connections you are building in your brain.

Should You Go Completely Furniture Free Minimalist Or Keep Some Furniture?

So, there are people who have gone completely furniture free in their homes. You can find furniture free home tours all over YouTube. Of course, I still do have some furniture in my house.

I still have a regular bed, and I have a daybed that I use as a sofa and a bed for guests when they come to stay. But I’ve pushed it aside so that I have this open space to move around in.

Now, I did used to sleep on a shikibuton instead of a mattress, which is basically like a very slim Japanese style futon. A lot of furniture free minimalists sleep on these. And I did for years.

It was fine for a long time. But what I ultimately found was that my hip bones would sort of dig into the futon and cause a crater in the middle just because that’s where there was the most pressure.

Eventually I just decided that I wanted something with a bit more stability to it to prevent that hole from forming. So now I actually sleep on an Avocado mattress which is a mix of inner spring, natural latex and wool, and I love it. 

The Bottom Line

So there you have it, my furniture free minimalist living room and why I got all crazy and gave everything away so that I could sit on the floor.

I’m curious if you’re going to go furniture free too, or if you’re just going to dedicate one minimalist room to creative movement, so leave me a comment and let me know what you think about all this.

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