Have you heard about the Furniture-Free movement? It caught our attention, so Sherry (somewhat reluctantly) and I decided to give a week-long test run. What exactly does it involve, and how might it change our daily life and our home? Will it boost our mood or just make us irritated? We also had a tense brush with Hurricane Florence — fortunate to escape major damage — but the storm sent us through waves of panic and relief that left a lasting impression and a powerful reminder. Along the way we dealt with a strange issue: oddly placed holes in the duplex doors. Oh, and Sherry is planning a small tattoo. Below you’ll find a summary of the episode, show notes, and the items we referenced.
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WHAT’S NEW
- If you want to help people affected by Hurricane Florence, there are many reputable organizations collecting donations; we supported the Foundation for the Carolinas relief fund.
- We’ve written before about a major storm that hit Richmond in 2011 — Hurricane Irene — which knocked out power for days and damaged nearby houses; it’s worth revisiting that experience if you want more context about how storms affect daily life.
- The photo above was taken last Saturday in Cape Charles. Conditions were overcast but calm: a little higher water and evidence that waves had washed over part of the beach, but otherwise no visible hurricane damage at that location.
- We watched the storm’s track and noticed it essentially looped around our area, narrowly missing us — though we did record reports of tornadoes in a few nearby locations as the system moved out.
- On a lighter note: there’s a growing trend of “house tattoos” and small, meaningful home-themed tattoos. We shared some examples on the show and highlighted a few tattoo styles Sherry has been pinning for inspiration.
Furniture Free Living
The idea of furniture-free living entered our orbit after reading a trend piece on Apartment Therapy titled “I Tried Furniture-Free Living for a Week to See if I Felt Healthier.” The author’s account was eye-opening and prompted a lot of questions about how furniture influences posture, movement, and mental well-being. Other write-ups, including one from Scary Mommy and an earlier profile in Good Housekeeping, show that this concept isn’t entirely new — families and individuals have experimented with reduced furniture for years.
For our trial, we planned a lighter, more realistic version of the lifestyle for seven days. Our rules:
- Work standing up—no desk chairs during the challenge.
- Avoid sitting on living room furniture while the kids are awake. We reserved the couch for decompressing at the end of the day, but during waking hours we aimed to stand, squat, kneel, or sit on the floor instead of lounging on the sofa.
- Try to take meals standing when it makes sense (not while dining out). This was the least popular rule—Sherry especially dislikes it.
- Children were allowed to use furniture as normal.
We’ll share the results next week, including any changes in mood, energy, and family dynamics.
We’re Digging
- That picture shows the puzzling pattern of multiple holes in the duplex front doors. We still don’t know why previous hardware left such inconsistent placements — it’s baffling.
- To fix the appearance and cover the old holes, we ordered a matching handleset in a dark bronze finish that aligns the new hardware and creates a clean, even look across both doors. The new handleset covers the older hole locations and updates the entry’s appearance.
- We didn’t get a photo of the installed hardware in time for this post, so we included a reference image of the same style in the show notes.
- On the podcast we also mentioned the Slow Burn podcast as a great series for deep-dive history: Season 1 covered Nixon’s resignation and Season 2 covered the Clinton impeachment; they’re well worth listening to for historical context and storytelling.
If you’re trying to find a recommendation we mentioned in earlier episodes, we keep a master list of all the topics and “We’re Digging” picks from previous shows, as well as a Book Club page listing every book we’ve recommended.
Thank you to Annie Selke for sponsoring this episode. They ran a seasonal sale in late August through early September and shared their new fall collection; we appreciate sponsors who support the podcast and help keep these conversations possible.
Thanks for listening, everyone — we appreciate your support and will report back after the Furniture-Free week with what we learned.
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