craving simplicity vs. normative living
I’ve been thinking about efficient room usage and apartment design recently. I have a stereotypical European interior design and a lot of it is white. It’s unfortunately true, I have a bland dentist looking home on purpose. Well, it does look lived in with plants and some of my art around, pinned things, bags, crystals on a shelf and a self made wreath from a wreath making class, but it does give off a more sterile vibe anyway. That’s how I prefer it.
I keep little and lock it away in closed drawers because I don’t like visual clutter and everything is supposed to have its place. It’s easier to clean this way, especially with low energy due to being ill. I would like to go simpler, though.
When I look at the room design and furniture I was raised with, it seems more like each room’s furniture is enhancing and changing the shape of the room semi-permanently. Offering hills and valleys and crevices, little paths to walk in, basically. We aren’t carving holes into the walls to put books in (we do like to be more mobile and what would the landlords say?), instead we the put up shelves, but the concept is similar to me visually. The bed could be an elevated floor portion in the room we just put a mattress on. American closets are actually following this concept closely, with actually being integrated, not freely standing as a separate piece of furniture.
The result is dedicated rooms for dedicated activities, the furniture enhancing the room also serving as conveying some aesthetic. We work around the furniture. If nothing fits inside the room anymore, we get a bigger home.
But what I am interested in is making the same space multi-functional. Most of the day, I don’t use my bed (if I feel well), but it’s still this static structure in my bed room I cannot move to the side. If I had a simple futon on the floor, I can move it to make space for other things. At night, it could be my sleeping spot, but during the day, it could be great for yoga and pilates. I feel similarly about other furniture of mine - it often seems to be there because I already had it (I have furniture in my home that we had when I was 9 years old) and/or because it is expected to be there. Even when it is half-empty.
I really don’t mind putting more things on the floor. Putting my brick castle on the floor means it could sprawl freely without me having to worry about space. I wonder if being so bothered by the floor is a western thing. Other cultures frequently sit or sleep on the floor and keep items on the floor, but we need to prop everything up on extra structures because we perceive the floor as dirty, no matter how much we clean.
There’s definitely a fear of having a home that is too empty, unwelcoming, hollow and echoing… seeming cold to guests or a partner, or causing worry in others that I’m struggling financially or making preparations for dying. I already shaved my head and made a blog post about what to do when I die; if I now also begin selling most of my furniture, I think everyone would be rightfully concerned considering the context of this year.
I think this is better and more sustainable than always going for the bigger home, more so for the generations that can likely never afford one, maybe even when inherited. Sometimes, we have to make do with the space we have, especially when rents are rising. I prefer having more space for exercise, fitness equipment, moving around, cleaning, making art and playing board or card games than filler furniture and semi-permanent fixtures I have to move around. I also love to be a lightweight mover, keeping moving costs low, and having less furniture helps a lot.
I really do want to revamp my home a bit. Sell my bed and get a futon, sell the shelf next to it and instead modify my wardrobe so the items fit there instead. Sell my shoe rack and exclusively use the one I have in my wardrobe. Sell my TV stand and TV some time when I have figured out my beamer situation; I need a place for it and the consoles. I would love to do something else with my desks, especially a height adjustable standing desk one day. But ugh, selling things is exhausting; once you have things, it can be really hard to justify both keeping them and selling them.
Making big decisions about your home feels risky. Leaving everything as is is comfortable, and socially approved. There’s a fear of sticking out too much, being too weird. I used to watch Youheum, the person that used to post about extreme minimalism and living without furniture, (which has been defunct and most of it deleted for years now, just some reuploads and reaction videos remaining) and most people seem to think it’s weird. Granted, I would still own much more than her and still have tables and chairs, but still.
Published 29 Dec, 2024