I don’t have a TV in my bedroom ‣ Diverse Daily

Growing up, I was never allowed to have a TV in my bedroom. At 13 years old, which is about the age when teen angst starts permeating all interactions you have with your parents, I was completely jealous of all my friends — they had TVs in their rooms, so why couldn’t I?

So, I was forced to hang out in the kitchen with my parents or learn how to share the family room’s remote and screen time. In college, I didn’t have time to watch TV, even if the tiny living spaces I was in would’ve allowed it. But when I moved into my first real adult house, where all my roommates had their own TVs in their bedrooms, I finally bought myself a TV to put in mine. And ever since then, I’ve thanked my parents for having that simple rule growing up a million times over.

Separate TVs were nice, but I quickly realized that my housemates and I would retreat into our rooms by default so we could watch whatever we wanted. It wasn’t great for camaraderie. But when I was moving into my very own apartment for the first time, I decided that I’d go back to my parents’ rule from my childhood and declare my bedroom a TV-free zone. I don’t regret my decision, but I have a trick up my sleeve that lets me bring a big screen in without any hassle at all.

Why I keep my bedroom TV-free

Sacred spaces

I don’t keep my bedroom TV-free for lack of space — in fact, I have more than enough room to mount a 55-inch screen on the wall. I don’t have one in there for two main reasons: to reduce screen time — and to keep each room’s activities separate.

From 9am to 5pm every day (and sometimes later), I stare at my MacBook Pro screen and two monitors on either side of it for work. Before and after that, my eyeballs are glued to my iPhone screen in some capacity. When it finally comes to downtime, I’ll plop down on the couch, sigh, and turn on my Kindle if I don’t sit in front of the living room TV to watch old NCIS episodes.

Screens dominate our lives, and much of my apartment is the space where that happens. I wanted my bedroom to be a sanctuary away from those screens, which leads me to my next point: keeping spaces and their purposes separate.

Bedrooms are supposed to be a place to unwind, relax, or get sleepy. It shouldn’t also be an entertainment space, in my opinion. If I was relaxing in bed, it’d likely be with a book in hand or something a little more mindful. But if I really wanted to watch a movie or TV show, I would have to make the conscious decision to get up, move into the living room, and turn on the TV from there. Believe it or not, removing easy access to a TV from the comfort of my covers reduced my screen time in the wildest way — I only turn it on once or twice a week now, and only when I want to watch something specific.

Limiting “TV time” to the living room ended up making me a conscious participant in the pastimes I chose, instead of just getting sucked into a day where I didn’t leave my bed at all.

I have something better than a TV

Bigger screen, only one string attached

I do understand that there’s nothing better than lying in bed and watching a movie under the covers. It is a double-edged sword if abused, yes, but there’s something really special about curling up in your pajamas with a bowl of popcorn and watching a terrible rom-com. I refused to put up a screen in my room, but that doesn’t mean that movies don’t play on my wall sometimes.

There’s a projector on my shelf for impromptu movie nights when the urge hits me. I draw the blackout curtains, set the projector up on my headboard, and boom — I have 100 inches of screen filling an entire wall of my bedroom. I don’t use a screen, sheet, or any backdrop to improve the picture quality; I simply throw the image up and enjoy a whimsical movie night.

That’s the other thing. My projector isn’t necessarily cinema-grade — it’s a $200 Dangbei model that truly gets the job done for a bargain. I wouldn’t even try to use it during the day, though, so I only really use it at night. I’d argue that habit only makes watching TV in my room even more special.

When I’m done watching, all I have to do is unplug the projector and put it nicely back on the shelf. It’s a great gimmick for a special occasion, as long as you aren’t worried about seeing absolutely every pixel in picture perfect clarity like you would on a nice TV.