Diet-on living space, possessions

[shootingstar]

Could you/have lived in small spaces where home was 500 sq. ft.?

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/repor...rticle1818919/

1. I can/am: I am living in slightly bigger space now (600+ sq. ft.), only because I consider it temporary. And 3/4's of my possessions are all still in another province..over 1,000 kms. away. So pretty bare where I am but need space because it's dearie's 2nd home to share too.

2. Before was in space, (still home), sharing 770 sq. ft. with dearie. I have half amount of space (and less possessions) compared to below.

3. Before #2, had my own home at 770 sq. ft. No one else kept/stored their stuff in my home.

So according to the article, the real estate crisis in the U.S., is causing some people to rethink their space needs and affordability.

Methinks when one becomes alot older, one's space needs and need to own alot of possessions/desires, shrinks. Am I right? It is true somewhat for me.


But I forgot, except bikes. Love and ownership of several bikes causes space needs.

[jessmarimba]

My house seems smaller than it is just because of the lack of storage space. I could probably make do with much smaller if I had a house new enough to have closets and with stairs large enough to get a dresser up them But...my house was definitely built in a time and place where the original owner likely had next to nothing. So I am very lucky.

(House is currently ~950 square feet...but was originally about 550 with one room up, one room down and no kitchen or bath)

[zoom-zoom]

My house seems smaller than it is just because of the lack of storage space. I could probably make do with much smaller if I had a house new enough to have closets and with stairs large enough to get a dresser up them But...my house was definitely built in a time and place where the original owner likely had next to nothing. So I am very lucky.

(House is currently ~950 square feet...but was originally about 550 with one room up, one room down and no kitchen or bath)

Sounds a lot like our house. I guess our house is "technically" 1500 sq. feet, but it has ONE closet (I mean one...not even a coat or linen closet). 4 bedroom, 1 bath, 1 closet. 2 of the bedrooms are smaller than a prison cell and under the eaves, so they are pretty much converted attic. Hardly room for a bed, much less dresser or wardrobe. So those tiny rooms are used as storage. We have a basement, but it's a 90 year old house and the basement is nasty, full of bugs, and where our well, furnace, and water heater are located. And it's not accessible from inside the house.

DS's room is, by far, the largest room in the house, but one can only stand upright in about 1/3 of the room. So if we talk actual useable floor space our house is probably closer to 1000 square feet, which isn't huge for a family of 3, especially with that lack of closet-space.

I would LOVE a similarly-sized home with ample storage and a better layout (our floorplan is such that there's wasted space with many small rooms instead of fewer, larger ones). I don't mind our somewhat small living space. It's cozy. I would like a larger living room, since that's where I do my weight workouts and where we keep our bikes on trainers in the Winter. Our living room is only about 10x15.

[GLC1968]

I would kill for a smaller space. They just don't exist...not with land. In fact, if we were to buy land and then build, we'd have to build a certain size house in order to get financing. It's insane.

Our home is 1700 sf (originally 1100 sf but the last owners added an addition). It's really a ton of space for us. It does have a lot of storage, a big garage, and an unfinished basement (that floods), so that really makes it feel much larger.

Our dream is to have the money (and permits!) to buy the exact plot of land that we'd like and then build a house on it that is designed to function exactly as we'd use it. 800 - 1000 sf tops. Dream on, I know!

[Chicken Little]

We are in 950 sq. ft and I wouldn't change it for a minute. We did take out a few walls, 2 bdr/1Ba, but it is excellent. Nice yard in the summer, but super cozy and affordable in winter. Small is the new black.

[Owlie]

My apartment (2br) is...I actually don't remember the square footage, but it's pretty big. My bedroom and the living room are HUGE, but the kitchen is tiny.

There's plenty of storage--it's just poorly designed, so a lot of it isn't usable. The bedroom closets are built into the wall space and are sort of L-shaped, so you can't use half the hanging space and a great majority of the shelf space unless you have freakishly long arms. Same goes for the linen closet--it's just wasted space. The dining room seems smaller than it really is because I have all the miscellaneous kitchen things that I don't use every day in there. (No shelves in the cabinets, and no counter space.)

I'd like a little less space (less to clean!), with a slightly bigger kitchen and better-designed storage. Oh, and somewhere to put a bookcase. There's nowhere to put a bookcase in here without blocking the traffic pattern!

[Kiwi Stoker]

I have gone from a 3 bedroom, 2 bath and double garage terraced townhouse to----

one room! AHHHHHH

DH and I are living in one bedroom of his grandmas apartment. Of course there's a seperate bathroom and our bikes are stored in another room. All my stuff is in another country but boy do I miss having my own kitchen, longue, people over for dinner, not being trapped in this room for quite a bit of the day. Grandma is the kind of person who is territorial, she doesn't go back into her room to rest during the day but moves from the dining room to the living room sleeping, watching TV etc all day and it is really her space. It's almost two years living like this for DH's career. I wanna go home so bad.

However it isn't as bad as the apartment I saw on a BBC doco about being poor in Japan. Imagine a small room, no windows except in the door, kitchen and washing machine at the entrance, small bathroom and a hanging rail for clothes over the double bed. The couple that lived there were so cramped, but there was no way they could afford to move.

[shootingstar]

I would kill for a smaller space. They just don't exist...not with land. In fact, if we were to buy land and then build, we'd have to build a certain size house in order to get financing. It's insane.

Our home is 1700 sf (originally 1100 sf but the last owners added an addition). It's really a ton of space for us. It does have a lot of storage, a big garage, and an unfinished basement (that floods), so that really makes it feel much larger.

For 2 people, it costs money to power up big space in a home. The only good thing is that Portland doesn't get as cold as other parts of North America.

lph: That sounds like parts of Asia for 550 sq ft. for 3 people.

I grew up in Ontario in an apartment that was around 600 sq. ft. ..for up to 2 adults and 5 children (we were under the ages of 10 since I am the eldest). Then parents bought a 2-bedroom house (about 1,000 sq. ft. still lacked enough bedrooms. So we turned a den and family room into 2 bedrooms.), moved and then child 6 was born. Did we break the fire code, maybe? But back then it was the 1960's. In the apartment, Kids except for baby slept in the living room on the floor. I remember being scolded by my mother for telling one of their friends we kids, slept on the floor. I dunno why I was reprimanded since it was pretty obvious, space was lacking for us kids.

I should emphasize I am born in Ontario and lived my whole life in Canada. Never lived in any other country.

I don't know how my mother did it since she was a full-time housewife.

The only thing that perhaps I fall down when living in smaller space is that I'm not naturally neat. Whereas dearie is.

[malkin]

If we had more space, we'd have a bigger piano.

[Roadtrip]

DH and I lived in a two bedroom apartment, 750 sq ft, for about 6 years and I had become the master of finding places to store items. Kitchens SMALL. No real storage to speak of. Bedrooms SMALL, plus our first apartment actually had the AC/Furnace in the utility closet off the main living area. When the heat came on and you wanted to talk to someone in the next room, you had to yell, it was pretty bad.

Took a new job and moved to a 850 sq ft apartment with more storage and bigger bedrooms, but the bonus was two balconies, plus a nice view of the local park where I could see deer and the like from my window.

We bought our own house and moved to a 1300 sq ft three bedroom house. It has an ACTUAL dining room with built in storage hutches, functional kitchen, finished basement, small garage, additional outside storage, and a BIG closet (OK, it's more like a hole with a door) for Christmas decorations and the like.

Even with that I find myself keeping too much and I seriously need to go through the Christmas stuff and part ways with some of it. We don't use the basement really, it's extra storage and I'm really contemplating bringing the bikes (two his/two of mine) in from the garage and keeping them inside for the winter.

All this space and I still can't get him to keep the garbage cans in the garage out of sight. LOL

Oh, we just added a 170 sq ft deck for "outdoor" living space which totally rocks-- plus I built it myself (with loads of help from DH and family/friends with know-how) which makes it even that much better.

I think this space is just about "right", but do need to keep clutter and pack-rat-itus at bay.

Shannon

[GLC1968]

For 2 people, it costs money to power up big space in a home. The only good thing is that Portland doesn't get as cold as other parts of North America.

Are you suggesting that 1700 sf is BIG? Because if so, then yes, you need to experience a bit more of rural/suburban America before drawing that conclusion. Compared to most of the people I know in real life, 1700 sf is quite small (for a house - not an apartment).

Apartments and townhomes are different - living small is much easier to do when you are willing to live in an urban environment. Unfortunately, that means letting someone else provide all your food, provide all your water and remove all your waste. When you consider all those factors, the cost of heating our 1700 sf has less of an impact on the environment than the cost to heat 500 sf and provide all the other services that we can secure for ourselves.

[shootingstar]

Given the slow response here so far ...either it's a boring topic or most people here just aren't in small space and haven't been for a long time.

[bmccasland]

In an 832 sq foot house, 100 sq feet smaller than the last one - but with a much bigger garage which is where a lot of my "stuff" is. The house seems the right size without my: 8 bookcases (3 or 4 shelf) loaded with books, a furnished guest bedroom (twin bed, etc), AND my sewing room stuff (including books.. ). I figured I'd be moving again in less than a year, so I didn't unpack everything.

And today at lunch a gal in my office is heading to New Orleans for a meeting in January - to give her my tour guides to N.O., I would have to go digging through boxes. But if they were unpacked, they'd be by the door and ready to go by now.

I miss my books. And soon, I'm going to miss my sewing room. I could live without the furnished guest bedroom considering how seldom I have overnight guests.

[TxDoc]

Could you/have lived in small spaces where home was 500 sq. ft.?

This is an interesting question. I must confess to being one of those people that always needed large (and empty) spaces. Maybe because it's what I got used to for a long time. Grew up in Europe, in a 3 story 6000+sft home, and until I was 30+ years old, the smallest house I lived in was at least 4000.
Then a few years back I had to move to a smaller place, which was actually 'half' of a house. The usable indoor space was quite small, 900sft or so - but there was a nice patio and a big shared backyard, and I was in school at the time, so a small space turned out to be a good idea.
My current house is still on the small side, about 1500 or so of indoor space. That plus the outdoor space - backyard, front yard, garage etc - it's enough work to keep up with. I guess I'm still 'downsized' sort of, at least compared to my earlier years, but living alone and with not much in terms of of housekeeping help, I'm not sure I would want to take care of a 4000+ right now.
Maybe I am getting older and my job does not really leave me that much free time - so I'm happy as it is.