Diet-on living space, possessions

[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.

[lph]

We live quite comfortably in an apartment (house? row of small houses attached by the side walls) of about 550 sq ft, two adults and our 13 yr. old, and if we didn't have kids or if I were single it would be no problem to live in a smaller space. But, and that's a big but! we have a small garden front and back, a veranda that opens directly from our living room, and a terrace that opens from the kitchen, that give extra living space in summer and storage space for our two kayaks. Plus an outdoor shed with room for bikes and skis, and a crawl attic for all the rest of our stuff.

I don't mind living compactly, but as long as we have such gear-craving hobbies we use all the storage space we can get.

[tulip]

I live and work in my 892 Sf house. I knocked out one wall andput in a new kitchen with more cabinet space than I can fill. It's a small kitchen, but plenty of storage. One bedroom is my office. I work there, live in the open kitchen-living area, an sleep in the other bedroom. I don't have alot of stuff. That makes all the difference.

[Becky]

DH and I live in a ~1200 square foot house, and it's just about perfect for our needs. We're fortunate to have a usable basement and a garage, so bike/ski/tool storage is manageable. We'd be in trouble otherwise

I wouldn't mind a slightly bigger kitchen and a second bathroom, but these are wants, not needs. (I dream of redoing the kitchen so that I can fit a dishwasher in, though!)

[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.

[azfiddle]

We have about 1500 sq feet- with 2 "grown" kids still sharing the space. We have way too much unneccessary stuff that we have a hard time getting rid of- and not enough storage space. We could use a smaller living space if we had less stuff and better storage. And we're working on de-bulking the stuff, but it takes time ....

[redrhodie]

I've lived in under 500 sq ft with my bf and 2 cats. At the time, I used to have recurring dreams of finding hidden doors which opened onto huge rooms which I didn't know were there. That could be Freudian for something else but I really think it was just me wanting more space.

[GLC1968]

I just wanted to come back and mention that I finally had the chance to watch the video in the article that shootingstar originally posted.

Our goal is the same as the goal of the guys in the video. We want to downsize and cut back on all but the essentials. BUT, at the same time, my home is also my escape and when the only rural small sf options are 30 year old trailers or uninsulated shacks with sagging roofs, you have to draw the line somewhere.

Like I originally said, while our house is 1700 sf, I WANT to live in a much smaller space. We have now 'downsized' 3 times (each time we've moved as a couple) and expect to continue to do so. I will mention that while not having lots of extra 'stuff' is good...not having any space in which to store food is bad - particularly if you live in the country. My pantry is probably half the size of that guys whole house!

[shootingstar]

Crankin:

It's true, 2 people don't need a house this big. But, since we have remodeled the place from top to bottom, including replacing every system and window, roof, etc. to make it energy efficient, I feel we actually live more economically than we did in the last place. I also live closer to shopping and do many more errands by bike. It's closer to the city by 10 miles, which has made a huge difference in time/gas when I go to my classes and we have 2 commuter rail stations, as well as being closer to the end point of the regular train line.

Being closer to everything makes a big difference to me personally. If you can believe this, I signed an apartment lease without having seen it in person in advance. I had little choice with several major things, happening at the same time in life.

But luckily it turned out I'm a short stroll from a long walk-in indoor elevated walkway ..that is a big help when it's very cold in winter to get to work. I plan to bike in warmer seasons which will be nice to ...stretch out the distance deliberately just so I can get abit of a fitness ride.

In this city, the idea of living in smaller homes or many condos, is slolwy coming. Probably being in the prairies here, give this illusion of endless space and development opportunities..which is wrong thinking for urban planning for a whole city. Whereas in Vancouver, BC, the natural nearby mountain barriers and ocean, people are more willing to consider the idea of residential densification.

[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