In interiors and fashion, trends come and go. One season red’s hot, the next it’s blue. As experts in small space living and avid followers of trends, we relish new trends and they often help to shape our seasonal buys and collections. So we were very interested to hear about The Future Laboratory’s briefing on the Uncoupled Society. Written about by Fleur Britten in The Sunday Times Style, the briefing cites a prediction from Euromonitor that by 2030 single-person households will see faster growth than any other household type globally. What’s more, high profile advertising agency J Walter Thompson has recently released a trend report called Single Age. It says single people are steadily becoming not outliers but a new norm and they report in finding great satisfaction in their decision.
The Future Laboratory calls this the “uncoupling of society” – a very gradual shift away from the monogamous couple as the ideal moves towards more diverse options. What’s more, this shift is impacting how people relate to one another. For example, rather than settling with one person, single people tend to have emotionships – different people in their lives who meet different needs. According to research from the University of Illinois, people who diversify their emotional needs across multiple people have more overall life satisfaction. The research also finds that single people often do more to help, support and stay in touch with siblings, parents, friends and neighbours than those who are coupled up.
Futon Company says: Interesting! We love it when a stereotype gets smashed. Seriously, though, a lot of our customers live alone – whether they’re happily single or coupled up and living solo. And without the commitments that come with shared occupancy there are a lot of positives: more space for your clothes; the option to move regularly without having to worry about someone else; being able to move your belongings around regularly to revamp your space; TV dinners; going away at very short notice; having the whole sofa to yourself; having people to stay very often; less cleaning. Table for one? Bring it on….
Oak Leaning Ladder Mini Dressing Table
