On Foot or On Floor

Recently I announced that my family would be selling our couches and living on the floor, eastern-style.  You can read about our reasons here.  Now that we are settled in our new home, I thought I would fill you in on floor life for the Nelsons.

It's so easy!

I don't know why I thought it would be such a huge adjustment.  But it wasn't.  There hasn't been a day in the last month that I wished I had a couch.  As a now experienced floor-liver (liver?) I can testify to the following benefits:

• I get up and down off the floor probably thirty times on average during the day.  Maybe more.  I really should have counted before doing this post.  That alone makes me much more active throughout the day than I used to be.  Check out the 52 ways you can get up off the floor.
• I squat a ton more!  Including to set the table and, yes sweep the floor.  I got rid of our long-handled broom so I have to scuttle around the room in a squat to clean.  No video clips, sorry.
• Kids love it.  They spend most of their time on the floor anyway, and how great when mom and dad are down there with them!
• When sitting (or kneeling or squatting), I change positions so much more often than I would on a chair or a couch.  Again, more active.  My pelvis is also almost never tucked under.  Yay for neutral pelvises (pelvi?).
• SPACE!  I anticipated this might be a benefit, but wow it's so great not to have to navigate around couches.  And not to have to move them across the country.

 The Living Room

• We aren't completely done decorating yet.  But I've decided it's nice to fill the vertical space (normally covered by couches) with vertically-oriented things, like bookshelves, mirrors, long curtains, or a great big map (yet to be mounted on the wall).
• Probably more pillows to come, though our rug is cushy enough we don't really need them!  But they are always there for those who want more padding. 
• I definitely suggest a plush shag rug.  This one is 8x10 and a great Amazon find (much cheaper than anything we found locally of the same quality).
• That desk (currently functioning as a table) we inherited from Cameron's grandma.  Isn't it pretty?
• I think some tall houseplants would be nice in the corners.

Peter's Room

 

• I snuck this as he was *trying* to go down for a nap today.  Sad little bug.
• Ah, so we DO have a chair!  I've caught Cameron in it twice, after a long day at school.  But it really is never used.  We kept it so that Peter's grandmas would still want to visit us.  And because my parents gave it to us for my/Peter's birthday when he was born.
• Cam and I have always sat on the yoga ball to hush him or "rock" him to sleep.  Be careful though, it's easy to tuck the pelvis on a yoga ball under the weight of a toddler.  I keep myself moving in circles and watch that tuck.
• Smaller, beige version of the living room rug.  Also from Amazon.  Toy-time and book-time rug.

The Entry Way

• Confession time.  Upstairs we have a couch.  Cameron likes to lie on it sometimes when he reads, but otherwise it isn't used.  We actually tried to sell it right up to the day we moved, but had no buyers.  I figure again, guests might be glad.  (We do also have folding chairs in storage for when friends come over who want to sit).
• The bench is for putting on shoes, in absence of a clean rug.
• The pull-up bar in the distance is used by all three of us for hanging and for pull-ups. We want to build Peter another play structure, because even though I'm right beneath him when he's hanging, it makes me nervous how high it is.  (He LOVES this activity.)
• Exercise bonus from this house: our bedroom closet is only one foot wide.  Cam and I therefore keep all our clothes in the walk-in closet upstairs.  We have to go up and down the stairs a lot more than we otherwise would, just to retrieve and return our clothing.

The Dining Room

• We cut the legs off our kitchen table using a skill saw borrowed from our neighbor.  We gave our chairs away.
• Cheap rug from Costco.  Perfect for eating on, because it is easy to sweep/vacuum/scrub.
• "Outdoor" throw cushions that are easy to wipe down.
• Peter for now eats in his "high chair," set on the floor at our level.  This system is working great, except that I don't like how it forces him into a slumpy tucked-pelvis position.  I figure he's not in there long every day, and I have no idea how we would get him to stay at the table otherwise!
• There's a very cluttered desk in the corner you can't see.

That's it!  Lovin' life on the floor.


** Postscript: My 7 year old neighbor is over right now, reading on the living room carpet while his mom runs an errand.  I have observed him change position 40 times in the last 20 minutes.  What an active reader he is!**