Living Simply With & Without Episode 16
Sofa
Though I enjoy reading blogs and watching videos about a minimalistic lifestyle I would not say I am a minimalist. To me, a minimalist means to minimize possessions for its own sake (if you are a minimalist and think this is a wrong interpretation please let me know!)
My preferences:
- ✓I don't accumulate material things for their own sake
- ✓Material possessions I do have are personally meaningful
- ✓What I possess tends to contribute to simplifying daily life
Based on these preferences, I think I prefer simplism over minimalism.
This blog contains my thoughts and experiences living according to a simplist philosophy. I call it Living Simply With & Without. While this is based on my experience, perhaps you can get some ideas that encourage you to develop a simplist lifestyle. Everybody is different. I suppose there is no such thing as all ideas fit everyone. Maybe you can find ideas for what you need and what you don’t need - FOR YOU. If my ideas inspire you then I am very happy.
Living Simply Without a Sofa
When I was a child I didn't have a desire for many things. As an adult that hasn't changed. To me, less possessions mean more freedom. For example, it is easier to move and clean. Personally, I prefer not having big pieces of furniture.
As big furniture tends to be heavy, it is harder to move and clean behind and under. Though this doesn't apply to Toronto, there are many earthquakes in Japan. Big furniture can be dangerous if it falls during an earthquake.
The storage space also has room to keep several zabuton when necessary. When people have more guests, they can simply put more zabuton around the table. Therefore they don't need to keep many chairs or big sofas.
Since leaving my parent's house, I haven't owned actual sofas, in Tokyo and Toronto. We kept a sofa bed for a long time and used it as a sofa. It was handy for having guests stay over.
At this moment, we use hammocks. Hammocks can be used for both sitting on and for lying in.
At this moment we use hammocks more like chairs or sofas to lie down and relax. We kept the sofa bed until several months ago. However, there were a lot of dust under the sofa bed, which was not easy to clean often. Finally, we decided to get rid of the sofa bed (actually the sofa bed frame), but kept futon.
Now we don’t have any sofas, however we don’t miss it so far.
Good points living without a sofa
- ✓Less spots which collect dust