Jessica Cumberbatch Anderson: Is DIY Dead?
From Fashion's Runways To Your Home
Helmer in her home office.
Small spaces appeal to me. I like the idea of downsizing my life to fit into 500 square feet - or less. My current home is almost double that size, which is still 50 percent smaller than the average American home. Even though I work at home and share the space with my partner, Jerry, and our three dogs, the house still feels too big.
Yes, I want less space.
My penchant for small spaces isn't new. I chided my sister for having a small bedroom in our childhood home, but I secretly coveted her cozy little room. While I was in college, I sought out a tiny study carrel in the back corner of the library as my classmates clamored for spaces at oversized tables. They'd spread books and papers across as much real estate as they could claim. Not me. As an adult, I have lived in everything from a 550-square-foot apartment to a 1,800-square-foot house. Ironically, or maybe not, the smaller places always felt more like home.
I'm not alone in the quest for a smaller space.
Though exact numbers of small space-seekers are hard to pin down, statistics show that our homes are getting smaller. The average square footage of a new home has dropped six percent in the past 12 months and further declines are expected, according to the National Association of Home Builders. NAHB reports show that 59 percent of builders plan to decrease the square footage of the new homes they build in 2010.
The Small House Society, an Iowa-based organization that promotes smaller living spaces, averages 1,000 hits to its website per day - up from just 100 hits per day when the organization was founded in 2002.
There's debate about what constitutes a "small home". Sarah Susanka, author of The Not So Big House: A Blueprint for the Way We Really Live, subscribes to the notion that a not-so-big house is less about square footage and more about overall space.
"It's a house that is one-third smaller than you thought you needed," she says.
For some, the quest for smaller space is pure economics: It costs less to purchase and maintain a smaller home. The small home movement is also popular among environmentalists who want to lower their carbon footprint. The bottom line: Smaller houses are a better fit for the way we live.
"It's about living in a house that fits like a well-tailored suit; a home where there are not entire rooms that go unused," says Susanka. "It's a collective shift in our way of thinking that comes with the realization that we can live comfortably in a lot less space than we think."
Photo: Jodi Helmer
A few months ago, while wandering the aisles in search of a mirror, we stumbled upon two mini apartments set up in the middle of the store. We both fell in love with the design and layout of a space that topped out at 375-square-feet.
"It has to be bigger than that," Jerry declared after checking out the living room, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom in the compact space.
"It's not," I countered. "Look, it's written right here on the wall - 375-square-feet."
"I could live here," he said.
Who knew that all it would take for Jerry to realize that a small, well-designed space could easily contain all of our creature comforts was a trip to a 365,000-square-foot superstore?
Determined to offer more proof that small spaces could be livable, I started talking about the trend. I shared stories from a writer who blogs about living in a 480-square-foot cabin and showed him articles about couples who were making it work, including a couple in New York who call a 175-square foot apartment home. I pointed out small homes on television makeover shows and in magazines. To my surprise, he was intrigued by the idea of living in less space and had some great ideas about how to make small spaces more livable.
I also told him about my favorite hotel room game.
We had the chance to play together when we spent a weekend at the Hotel deLuxe in Portland, Oregon, in October. After we settled in, I started the game.
"So, could you live here?" I asked.
He took a few minutes to look around before answering.
"Maybe in two adjoining rooms..." was his response.
It looks like my love of small spaces might be catching on. Who knows? By the time we're ready to celebrate the holidays in 2010, we just might be exchanging gifts in a 500-square-foot cottage in the woods (with an extra large bathtub to accommodate visits from my niece).
Jodi Helmer is the author of The Green Year: 365 Small Things You Can Do to Make a Big Difference.
Reader comments (Page 1 of 3)
I just recently purchased a very quaint Victorian home in Hannibal. Mo. Pricewise it was a bargain in today's economy. Moving from the hi-desert of California was expensive, but certainly worth the time. As each new day passes, it appears to have been the best decision ever made. Maintenance and costs of living, along with overall prices of everything, have.been cut by more than half. At my age, happiness is hard to come by these days, but at least there is satisfaction of being able to survive well in a depressed world.
ReplyI live in the High Desert (Victorville). Just wanted to say Hi and congrats on the move. This desert town is just not the same as the good old 70's and 80s when it was a small bedroom community. I too am looking to downsize to a smaller town and a smaller house in the future. I hope I am as lucky as you were. Have a great Christmas in your new home.
I totally, positively AGREE. The smaller, the better. I've got a house in mind for retirement that is a big kitchen, nice sized family room, a small master BR with a nice bath and a big walk in closet...and that is IT. LOL, I know I'll need one more bedroom and a guest bath, but if I could have it with just the three rooms, I'd be in heaven. I live in a 3400sf home now, and it is a pain in the rear to maintain and clean. Give me LITTLE!
ReplyI am sick and tired of the idiots that comment on everything BUT the article!! I don't care if you don't care to hear about your internet scams, your nude photos of Angelina Jolie or that you are some lonely horney guy looking to get laid. Find another forum to go to.
ReplyAs far as the article goes. I don't know if I could live in 500sq. feet with another person. By myself is one thing, maybe, but certainly not w/ my spouse and pets.
I totally agree with you! I downsized and could not be happier!
I have been reporting this free loaders to the host. Hopefully that will stop the annoying practice of placing Angelina Jolie ads instead of commenting on the article.
Just ignore the bozos - i never read past the first few idiotic words. For twenty years my husband i lived in 550 sf. with 4 cats and a large dog and my addiction to cooking stuff. My dog would spend her days in the back yard and in the evening lay under the kitchen /crafts/office table where i would do work and listen to my husband snore in the bedroom with the cats. We moved to a larger house and in the evening when i make a martini and go into the office I miss listening to my husband snoring.
It strikes me that if you are a person whose main activities lie outside the home or you can think only of yourself and another adult, a small house can be a fine choice.
ReplyHowever, I think of my mother-in-law, whose magnetic personality drew back her 6 children and made her house the favorite destination of her grandchildren. For holidays there could easily be a dozen people sleeping at the house in beds and more in local hotels. Yes, we could have come together if Mom had lived in a place just big enough for her, but it was wonderful to have the time together for every meal and from early morning to late at night.
And I think of a friend whose quilting frame occupies their livingroom. And my husband whose model train set had room to expand in the basement.
Sometimes smaller means we lose something. Just-big-enough can mean large.
I don't think that the "small homes movement" includes the elderly/older people. Like you said, smaller homes are better suited for people that do the majority of their living outside the home. The elderly would no doubt go stir-crazy and get cabin fever from being in such a confined space for an extended period of time. Even when I think of my great uncle, who is very mobile and physical for his age... His home is about 1,300 square feet and he doesn't like staying inside for too long.
Years ago I was a builder in central New Jersey and proposed to build smaller Victorian style homes rather than the McMansions filling the disappearing corn fields there. The problem wasn't the buyers, it was the banks who refused to lend construction financing for anything outside the current market. I chose instead to restore historic homes. Smaller rooms, smaller homes...now on popular house tours.
ReplyI thought I was the only person who tried to imagine how I could live in a hotel room. I've also considered how to convert quaint storage sheds into viable living spaces. My husband and I share our 775 square-foot house with our two large dogs. It's easy to maintain in the tidy, well-ordered fashion we prefer, and has everything we need. Another aspect of my interest in furnishing spaces is going to other people's homes and remodeling them in my head.
ReplyThat's right, America - settle in for "loving" to live in tiny spaces, because that's all you can afford these days with the ridiculous taxes you are paying and getting NOTHING for that money. Well, aside from funding oil companies to kill innocent people in your name. Like the Bank of America commercials tell you, "Frugal is the new cool." - yeah, and a couple of years from now they'll be telling you, "Living in a cardboard box is the new cool" and you'll probably believe that, too. Your government is your REAL enemy. Face the facts. Or don't - it is your problem, either way.
ReplyI love how this is just now becoming a movement. But then I guess it makes sense. People are afraid of/cannot afford to purchase a large home on the chance that it will never be worth what they were five years ago.
ReplyWhile I can't say I've ever imagined living in a hotel, being in love with the idea of a loft and small homes/apartments from a very young age, I feel a bit better being way ahead of the curve.
Thank God this is a movement and I hope permanant trend. I live in a 1200 sq ft house with my husband and two children on a 40,000 sq ft lot. Our land is filled with trees, flowers, bees, butterflies and a vegatable garden in the heart of Los Angeles, Recently, this charming neighborhood has been exploited by developers cutting down 75 ft cedars that provided beauty, shade and privacy to all for 12,000 sq ft stucco boxes built for single families????? It ruins the entire character of the area for everyone. Now the 12,000 sq ft homes stand empty and unfinished, a magnet for teenage partiers. So glad the decade of excess is over and we can return to modesty and humility. A wallet belongs on the inside of our pockets.
Replyi lived in a 800sq.ft. home with my 3 pups. i love it. i just moved in with my daughter and it's bigger,don't like the feel. to open.
Replymovement? i dont think this is a movement at all.to me a movment is maid up of a group of people that are feeling need for chainge in there soul and do every thing they can to make that chainge happen.maybe for this one laidy and afew others it is heart felt for god knows what reson? the only reson nobody is buying or building large homes is because no body can afford it,building cost,maint,heat,and so on.so lets not let one littil story about living in a closet and how its the new cool fool any one . i live in a nice 1000 sq ft home with my wife and three boys , " it sucks" 2800 sq ft would be nice, so laidy i will traid you even up sence monie is no object and small and crampt is your idea of home.then we will both have what we want and need, and you can stop redickulis stors like this.
ReplyHey Rob,
ReplyAre you sure the reason you live in a 1000sq. ft. house is because you are so illiterate you can't earn enough to maintain a larger house???? Now back to the content of this story...I am hoping that the era of useless and overwhelmingly destructive "McMansions" is over, but I suspect that once our society recovers from this "great recession", they will slowly creep back into the realm of reality. Let's face it: we are addicted with "bigger is better" and it is one of the MANY reasons we are the bane of the world. We don't get that quality is NOT equated with quantity. But I still hold hope that the next generation will turn against the trend that the current greedy and bloated generation had created and realize that they can have wonderful homes with what they DO inside of them and not what they PUT inside of them...
When my husband and I vacationed in Cape May with three of our nine children, we stayed in a small apartment. I LOVED it. I, too, played the game of "could I live here", and the answer was YES! Very happily! Of course, then we went home to reality--and three more children (three are grown).
ReplyNo way could eight people live in a tiny apartment. We actually just moved from an almost 3000 square foot, 7 bedroom home, to a 4000 square foot seven bedroom home. Go smaller? No way! We did actually "downsize"--the cost of living in our new area is MUCH less, and our yard is much tinier--but we live on a cul-de-sac in a private development, and having a huge yard isn't as important.
Tiny homes are nice for those who don't want children or grandchildren in their lives. But family oriented people need room to entertain, or provide for family should they ever want to visit, or even move in together during a crisis or emergency, or for financial reasons. Not everyone can live in 500 square feet, and not everyone should.
HAVING RECENTLY MOVED FROM A LARGE 4 BEDROOM HOUSE WITH AN ATTIC, FULL BASEMENT, LARGE YARD TO A SMALL 1 BEDROOM W/ SMALL LIVING ROOM, KITCHENETTE & NORMAL (SMALL BATH) WITH 3 PEOPLE AND A DOG AND 2 CATS-DO I THINK SMALLER IS BETTER? YES!!! SURE WE'RE A LITTLE CRAMPED AND I DO MISS MY YARD (THO APT HAS COUNTRY SETTING AND I SEE TREES OUT OF THE BEDROOM WINDOW:) MY SITUATION IS A BIT DIFFERENT IN THAT MY HOME OF 23 YEARS (THAT WAS PROMISED TO ME AND YES I DID PAY OFF THE MORTGAGE AND IMPROVE THE HOUSE AND PAID FOR IT ALL!) GOT SOLD OUT FROM UNDER ME BY A FAMILY MEMBER AND THE REST OF THE FAMILY IS ENJOYING THE $! (I GOT TOSSED ENOUGH TO FIND ANOTHER PLACE TO LIVE AND ENDED UP HAVING TO GET RID OF 80% OF WHAT I OWNED!) SO IRONICALLY WHILE I AGREE WITH ORIGINAL COMMENT-I PROVIDED SHELTER TO NUMEROUS PEOPLE WHO NEEDED IT-I HAD THE ROOM AND WAS GLAD TO HELP OUT-OBVIOUSLY I CAN'T NOW AND MANY OF THE PEOPLE I HELPED EITHER DISAPPEARED OR BENEFITED FROM MY MISFORTUNE-SO MY PERSPECTIVE HAS CHANGED! SMALL IS GOOD! THIS IS JUST A PIT STOP-NEXT YEAR I WILL HAVE TO MOVE AGAIN (THIS IS A LEASE DEAL) AND I WILL MOST DEFINITELY BE LOOKING FOR A SMALL PLACE! I'D LOVE A LITTLE HOUSE WITH A LITTLE YARD FOR MY PETS! (AND BEING MY HUSBAND AND MYSELF ARE BOTH DISABLED AND ON A FIXED INCOME IT WILL BE DIFFICULT TO FIND-HOWEVER I WILL TRY! SO YES I LIKE SMALL AND IF ANYONE NEEDS A PLACE TO STAY I CAN NO LONGER PROVIDE IT-THEY DIDN'T WORRY ABOUT ME-I'M MOST CERTAINLY NOT GONG TO WORRY ABOUT THEM! (BE CAREFUL ABOUT BEING SO KIND-HEARTED--MOST PEOPLE UNFORTUNATELY AS I FOUND OUT THE HARD WAY AREN'T!!!
Honestly, this makes sense. See I grew up in big huge homes with a fairly big family by todays standards. Mother, Father, sister, brother and myself. We never used our living room, we never used our guest room.... and we only used the dining room on holidays. As an adult I live in fairly tiny apartments. I had one that was roughly 500 sq feet, I didn't know what to do with myself. One room went completely unused (didn't even have furniture in it). Now, I have an apartment that is about 350 sq feet I still don't use my tiny living room, my couches and TV are in there, I don't want TV, I'd get rid of it but my boyfriend likes to watch movies. (And yes I've shared these spaces with people) I know for myself, I just need a bedroom, a kitchen, and a bathroom. Soo when I have kids tack on a living room (to be lived in) a bigger kitchen and a few bedrooms, I'm sure it would top out at about 800 sq feet tops. I think we might have gotten too caught up in size . But this isn't right for everyone, some people use all of their whopping 4k sq ft. but I don't think I'd be one of them, I like tiny homes.
Reply