Minimalist living...sort of

**Laney** · 11-07-2011, 12:16 PM

I've read lots of threads where people have too much stuff....including myself. what would be the bare minimum amount of furniture, decor, etc you would want in your home?

living room/family room/den
dining room
bedroom

I have been trying to get rid of our excess junk for several reasons. yesterday we sold all of our living room furniture because it was too big for our odd shaped living room. I told dh all I really want is a simple, well-made sofa and a chair. and of course my family pictures hung up on the walls. but no end tables, no coffee table, no lamps, etc. he thinks I have lost my mind. just because other people have a home filled with knick knacks and a table and lamp or chair in every corner doesn't mean I want to live that way. please tell me other people long for simplicity in their homes and I'm not crazy

**erinalexmom** · 11-07-2011, 12:23 PM

I dont have tons of shelves or nick nacs in my home eigther. I am just much happier that way. Now my walls are decorated and everything and I hang lots of family photos but not so much for the "stuff" sitting around.....so Im with you. Now I cannot attest to the fact if you are crazy or not.

**frugal me** · 11-07-2011, 12:34 PM

We don't have any end tables, lamps or coffee table in our living room. Doesn't bother me at all. I have the couch, recliner, tv stand and 1 bookcase with pictures on it (and been thinking of getting rid of it, less to dust)!

**Laney** · 11-07-2011, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by frugal me

We don't have any end tables, lamps or coffee table in our living room. Doesn't bother me at all. I have the couch, recliner, tv stand and 1 bookcase with pictures on it (and been thinking of getting rid of it, less to dust)!

this is my line of thinking. the more you have the more that you have to dust, wash, and keep clean. plus it frees up more space to play with the kids, especially since winter is almost here.

less cleaning, more playing

**krbshappy71** · 11-07-2011, 01:18 PM

I like an end-table at both ends of the sofa to put my drink onto.

**frugal me** · 11-07-2011, 02:12 PM

Originally Posted by Laney

this is my line of thinking. the more you have the more that you have to dust, wash, and keep clean. plus it frees up more space to play with the kids, especially since winter is almost here.

less cleaning, more playing

Very well said!

**Uniwolf** · 11-07-2011, 02:20 PM

I am with krbshappy71 I have an end table at each end of the sofa for drinks and what ever project I am looking at on my end and drink and what ever hubbs is looking at and a box of tissue on his end. But other than that not so much (oh and both of my tables double as lamp stands as we do not have overhead lighting in our living room.)

**Nana2two** · 11-07-2011, 03:20 PM

My living room contains. Couch~ end tables~victorian piano~ 2 grandfather clocks and 150 year old dresser that i have old quilts in.I have a big house and my living room is 24x24.My walls are decorated and i do have lamps on both end tables. Along with 15 antique clocks that sit on top of the piano and old dresser.

**krbshappy71** · 11-07-2011, 04:10 PM

I do daydream about minimalist living. I do go through phases of "everything OUTTA here!" Lately I have been getting rid of stuff because I am moving and have been asking myself, "the house looks so much bigger without all those stupid stands, filing cabinets, stuff laying around, why do I keep filling it up?" But I have serious doubts that my next house will be any more minimalist than this one.

Living room currently: 1 sofa, 1 end table, 1 computer desk w/chair, 1 dining table, 1 tv stand with tv.

Bedroom: 1 bed, 1 dresser, and an entertainment center for a headboard. (has lots of shelves) Sure enough, the entertainment center got filled with STUFF. stuff stuff stuff.

Which is it, do we collect filing cabinets and stands and tables to HOLD the stuff, or do we have those things and therefore COLLECT stuff to put on and in them?

Or is that a "which came first, chicken or the egg" question?

**dancemommy** · 11-07-2011, 04:32 PM

In our family room we have a chair, coach, end table, lamp (with a basket under it to hold bills and papers) a tv stand and a tv. Furniture isn't an issue to me- I don't feel like we need less at all. We don't, however, have a lot of "stuff". On my fireplace mantel I have a picture of my kids, a clock and a candle with a mirror hanging behind it. We don't have knick knacks anywhere else (except my kids rooms and it is THEIR stuff). I think simple is good, BUT I also think you have to have a little something to personalize.

**peanut** · 11-07-2011, 09:42 PM

We are SO not minimalist! I do find just the one coffee table in front of the couch useful. We use an old camping trunk covered with a hooked rug on top. In the trunk are toys for when kids come visit. We set out drinks etc. on the coffee table, and, alas, I have to admit, some people have been known to put their feet up there because the couch is too big for them to sit on and that results in backaches unless there's some support for the feet and the back. BUT not everyone lives with a one foot difference in height between their DH and them either.

One thing I would change if it were just me here, is I'd ditch the couch and opt for a love seat. But DH wants something he can stretch his 6'2" frame on and snooze. So we keep the couch.

I think crafting and minimalism are oxymorons. I just have too much crafting stuff to be a minimalist. Plus I love books.

**Starlight9803** · 11-08-2011, 08:49 AM

I'm sort of in the middle. I have a pretty good amount of furniture in my house, but it all gets used in some way - end tables have cabinet type storage underneath, bookcases for all our books (we homeschool), computer desk with built in file cabinets, etc. BUT - I have very little in the way of "decor" or knick knacks. If something doesn't serve a useful purpose (or several purposes lol), and I don't absolutely love it enough to want to dust it all the time, then I don't have it.

**greekislandgirl** · 11-08-2011, 10:26 AM

We are minimalists. We just moved in here with no furniture in July and furnished it on a tight budget, so yes PART of why we have less stuff is $$$, but I don't miss anything except one thing (below) - in general this is just our style.

Living Room: two loveseats facing each other, and two arm chairs. A very simple low shelf thingy that holds the TV and the DVD player. A small round table with a tray on it for drinks. Two bookcases completely full of books.

Dining Room: a dining table, 4 chairs. Two simple waist-high bookcases that hold my ceramic collection.

Bedroom: a queen-size bed.
(Yes, honestly that's it. The bed has a headboard with a shelf where we have two little lamps. There is a closet with built in shelves/drawers that is part of the architecture of the room.)

Music Room: piano, piano bench, office chair, small (waist-high and narrow) bookcase that has my sewing machine on top, craft supplies on the shelves. We need a desk in here. It's the only piece of furniture missing from our home. We just want a plain glass table to enable this to serve as an office as well as a music room.

That's it. Our kitchen doesn't have any "furniture" at all beyond what is built in (cabinets, counters).

**227melissa** · 11-08-2011, 10:51 AM

it's all about what makes you happy, my house full of junk I love and yes I hate to dust, when I get mad enough to Goodwill it goes.

**OOwl** · 11-08-2011, 11:30 AM

We just moved and we got rid of EVERYTHING we didn't genuinely need, use, or LOVE. I can honestly say that I am MUCH happier living without all the accumulated items we did not use and were just storing or being slave to. It sort of made me ill when I was packing the old house, looking at all the wasted "good deals," that went bad or just sat unused because we had no REAL use for them. That's just not frugality. Now,we have absolutely ONLY those things that are essential for life, cooking, and happiness. Gone are stockpiles of kitchen gadgets and devices I never used but once, gone are nick-knacks and gifts I thought I had to keep out of respect to the giver, gone are the reams of papers I thought I needed to keep for "what if" scenarios, gone are the mountains of linens and towels I thought we needed for "guests," gone (most difficult of all) are all the books I thought I couldn't live without, keeping only a select few, too precious to part with in this lifetime, gone are all but the actual clothes and shoes I wear on a daily basis. I can walk through my house, clean, open, uncluttered and smile now. It's a simple peace to not have so much stuff. In fact, I get anxious in homes with lots and lots of STUFF because I have flashbacks of what it was like to dust and care for all those things. I realize the minimalist lifestyle isn't for everyone. Some people, for whatever reason, feel comforted by having tangible items around them. Sometimes it's because they grew up seriously deprived. For me, it has been so liberating. I can go shopping with friends and family and not even feel tempted to bring something home. Less makes me happier.