Saturday, June 11, 2016

Why a couch? Really.

I grew up with a couch in our living room. My grandma had a couch. All of my aunt's had couches. All of my friend's homes had couches. I myself had some form of a couch in every home I've ever had. Until yesterday!

My thought on this. Minimalism is something unique to the each individual person. There are no rules. When you create a minimal home you utilize everything in said home or cherish it because it brings you happiness.

That said. When we moved to Florida I sold our old sofa before we left. One less thing to move and I needed a visual change anyhow. Win win. Once we got to moved and settled it was my assumption that we would have all kinds of visitors and I have always loved the idea of being a good host, therefore we would need somewhere for our guests to sleep. So, we bought a gently loved red leather sofa sleeper that stowed a queen size bed for our loved ones to rest their heads on.

For the past year I have stared at this huge, heavy as hell piece of furniture that while it served its purpose for a place to plant our asses at the end of a busy day, it didn't do much else than sit there. We have had a handful of friends and family come to stay with us over the past 2 years and only 1 has actually pulled the damn thing out and slept on it more than one night. Kudos to my little sister! I tried to sleep on it once myself, it was horrible! Which at that point didn't do the poor thing any favors in my eyes.

As I have rebooted my drive to further declutter and minimize the items in our living space, I kept coming back to the sofa. We have had a recliner that my husband got for Christmas the year we got here. Everyone in the house takes turns jockeying for this chair. Again making the couch look unfavorable for keeping.

So, I had to ask myself, Why am I so resistant to get rid of this couch? After a lot of soul searching the only thing I could come up with is " Everyone has one". It's been ingrained on my brain for my entire 40 years. WTH? I have never been one to conform to a societal mold, why start now? If I remove the couch, what are we going to sit on? What are my guests going to sleep on? How do explain to visitors that look at my living room and wonder "Where the hell is her sofa?"

The answer was simple. We all get a recliner. His/her own to lounge and snuggle with the pups in. Done. Like I said before, Husband all ready had one. Fortunately, so did offspring (in his room acting like a coat rack) and me....Thrifty project time! I scored an older, smaller, fits-my-short-self-just-right recliner from a local thrift shop that just happen to be giving excess furniture away. Score! Then I cut up an old quilt, made a slip cover and BOOM! I have my own recliner also. Problem solved. Step 2...After removing the sofa, we can easily scoot the chairs to one side of the room and utilize the air mattresses we already have in our camping stash for out of town guests. Yes! Step 3....I have 2 people that visit us regularly and both know me well enough to know I'm not going to make them sit on the floor. Extra dining chairs can be brought in for short visits and reclining beach/camping chairs can be brought in if needed. Done. As for what other think of the my living room sans sofa....Honestly, I don't give a damn. Moving on!

The lesson is, if a couch doesn't work for your family's lifestyle....let it go! Break free from the assumption that your room will look incomplete with out one and don't judge someone that might not have one.
As for the red leather couch...it left yesterday to go live with a family that has 2 young son's that are going to camp out on it in there game room. I couldn't be more please!

Have you ever struggled with not wanting to let go of something as trivial as a piece of furniture that is a staple in most households these days? Have any comments, questions, stories you would like to share please leave them in the comments below.

Thanks for stoppin' in!

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