Small living

Now that we moved into a larger place, I've been thinking about how much space it takes to live comfortably. As anyone knows who has travelled outside the U.S., most of the world's population lives in considerably smaller dwellings than most Americans. A year or two ago I read an article similar to this one that talked about how smaller houses could be a growing housing trend.

The truth is that most people really don't need the size home they have. Most American homes are very inefficient in terms of using space. A European- or Japanese-style efficiency apartment can be 500 square feet or smaller, and yet fit a whole family reasonably well. I've even heard of old shipping containers being converted to stackable apartments, and apparently that trend is coming to the U.S. We were at an IKEA store last week, and they had several small model apartments furnished with their space-saving furniture that looked quite comfortable. We actually got a new kitchen table and chairs there that fold up and save a lot of space in our small kitchen.

I am actually quite used to smaller living spaces. I grew up in a large family, so I almost always shared a bedroom with one of my brothers. In college I lived in absurdly small and crowded dormitories and apartments. Even after Becca and I got married, our apartments were small, especially the tiny studio apartment that we rented off Pennsylvania Ave. in D.C. It had two rooms -- a main room and a kitchen -- with one closet, a mini-fridge, and a fold-down Murphy bed.

To be honest, I enjoyed the small places we lived. They were all efficiently organized of necessity, so we could pack a lot into the small space. Whether by habit or by nature, we still function in a relatively small space. We spend most of our days in the upstairs of our apartment, going downstairs only when we do laundry or watch a movie. My major problem with small living is all of my stuff -- I have quite a bit of camping and hiking gear, books, and clothes. I think I could live comfortably in a micro-home -- as long as that home had some macro-closet space.