Real estate expert explains furniture free living

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If you follow the lifestyle experts, the latest trend is “furniture free” living. AKA: living in a home virtually free of furniture.

However, real estate expert John Adams says this is all a bad joke... We’ll let him explain!

Question: Is it true that there are some people who advocate living in a “furniture free” environment?

Adams: Self-appointed “lifestyle experts” are now proclaiming the many virtues of what they call “furniture free” living. But I have my doubts.

Q:  Well, let’s break this down.  What exactly is the definition of furniture free, and how is this supposed to work when you want to sit down or relax?

 A: As I understand it, the proponents of this lifestyle claim that most of us are captives to our furniture, and that it owns us rather than us owning it. As a result, they say, the more of our traditional furniture we can remove from the house, the more liberated we will feel.

 

Q: But, do they really mean a house free of all furniture?

A: Technically, no. For the most part, they want you to do away with all sofas and chairs, and possibly even beds, and replace them with yoga mats and cushioned floor coverings.

The supposed result is a movement-oriented home, where you stand instead of sit, and move around instead of becoming a couch potato.

As I understand it, if you just keep moving, you will find yourself freed from the slavery of possessions, and instead, find that you are now motivated to a new level of consciousness.

 

Q: Why cover the floors with yoga mats?

A:  I think the assumption here is that you and your friends will gather as usual.  But upon finding there are no chairs or sofas upon which you might sit, you spontaneously break out into extended yoga sessions.  After that, a general feeling of euphoria breaks out in your group.

 

Q:  Are you making this up?

A:  Absolutely not. I dare you to google “furniture free living”.

This also feeds right into the small house movement where you and your spouse move into an oversized dollhouse and try to make a go of it.

 

Q:  John, let’s be honest, have you tried furniture free living, at all?

A:  Well, we have taken steps in that direction. For example, last week, Marjie finally threw away a sofa that we bought 30 years ago after the dog ate a hole in the back of it.  She pulled it to the street, but before the junk man could get it, a guy in a pick-up snagged it and took it home to his family I am assuming.

 

Q: Is there a historical basis for the furniture free movement?

A:  When Sir Winston Churchill was asked, “Sir, to what do you attribute your success in life?” and he said without hesitating: “Economy of effort. Never stand up when you can sit down, and never sit down when you can lie down.“

 

Q:  John, you are a highly respected expert columnist for a great metropolitan newspaper, and you bring over 40 years of real estate experience to this commentary.  Can you give us a prediction as the lasting importance of the “furniture free” movement?

A:  Yes.  I personally believe that the furniture free movement has little room for impact, especially here in the South.  

BOTTOM LINE:  The furniture free movement is a bad dream that will pass from the American scene as soon as the furniture manufacturers wake up and recognize the threat to the American way of sitting down.