I live in a 900-square-foot, two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. Each bedroom has a full bathroom, a closet, and area for a desk. The kitchen is relatively large with a dishwasher, stove and oven, large sink, washer and dryer, and full refrigerator. A living room hosts a couch, chair, table, and television. The ceilings are expansive and tall; not palatial, but more than necessary. Maybe it’s just my “phase of life,” but this space feels like more than enough. What more could I need?
At 27 years old, I make enough to live. My salary is just over $20,000 each year. I can’t really save much considering the costs of my education and ancillary costs, but I’m happy with what I have. There’s room for improvement, but as I look at my apartment and stuff, I can’t help but feel embarrassed by the relative opulence. Most of the world doesn’t have it this good. I have everything I need right now.
If I were married, the apartment would actually feel even larger, too. Currently, my roommate’s stuff occupies a solid half of the apartment. If it was just my partner and I, we would share the same space, and only need one bedroom. The other room could become an office, dayroom — whatever! Heck, it could be a walk-in closet for all I care!
Over 900 square feet, I would begin to feel the creep of growth — the push to fill space whenever emptiness is present. Whether it’s my philosophical values of frugality or minimalism or a desire to minimize my carbon impact, I’d hesitate to grow beyond these walls. They wouldn’t be necessary.
However, it’s important to consider whether my tendency toward extremism is getting the best of me. Could there be a time in life when 900 square feet might not be enough? Potentially. If I had a larger family or needed to make room for my parents or some other unique situation arose, I could see the need. But it would be temporary to expand to the need of others, not constant space for the rest of my life. I’d want to downsize again.
Last week, I was reading an article in The New York Times about couples who had moved decades ago into the suburbs surrounding New York City. Some had moved into large bungalows and McMansions to raise families, enjoy the slower life, and have more room to grow.
One family raised three children in a 2,400-square-foot home. For those struggling with math like me, that’d be 5 people — 3 more than my roommate and I. With about 500 square feet per resident, the house could probably be quite a comfortable location. When accounting for the size of the home, it doesn’t include off-site storage, yards, and/or storage sheds that can be added later.
Now, later in life and three adult children, this family is looking to downsize and move back to the city, culture, and bustle of Manhattan. Who can blame them, too? New York City is fun — there’s always something to do, eat, and see. But as that couple looked for locations, they came up empty. They said all they could find were “depressing,” “very small” places at 900 square feet.
My jaw dropped at the statement. I was shocked! Here I’ve been living in apartments of 900 or less square feet for about 4 years; yet, this couple was struggling to move into such a space. What was I missing?!
Here’s what I suspect:
- People develop and find a comfort in abundance. To downsize may be a reflection of lost class and status.
- There’s a fear of giving up and away. Some material goods might not keep us alive, but are still hard to part with.
- Despite a “couple’s” desire to downsize, there might be discrepancies. Making a move up, down, or laterally isn’t always mutually agreed upon in the relationship. Those contrasting aspects can prevent people from committing to a serious downsize.
- We reach an adaptational level, which sets a new normal. Anything less just doesn’t feel “right.”
- Surrounded by a culture of mass and materialism, it’s hard to buck that trend and go small.
The reality is smaller spaces are freeing for people young and old. Not having lots of material goods and space means you can vacation when you want, dig into more expensive cultures, and enjoy a break from endless chores. And more importantly, plenty of normal, average, everyday people live in small spaces with great efficiency (Just look at this couple who lives in a beautiful, 420-square-foot apartment).
For years, magazines, newspapers, and all other forms of media have stressed how wealthy people buy opulent homes. Tens of millions of dollars are spent to afford these palaces. From Bill Gates to Ellen DeGeneres, these homes capture our attention. Don’t we want to be successful just like them?
Rather than duplicate this display of status, we can choose another path. What if we looked for the smallest apartments or homes? What if we looked for less? What if we looked for tiny, modular apartments that move and shift to our needs? What if we gave up our cultural addiction to more stuff in favor the culture out there?
The addiction can be broken.
I was just in a conversation the other day with some other RV-based families and the topic was wanting to downsize further.
We bought our 34′ RV when we had two kids with us, now we have one. She was gone for a week and the rig was HUGE for just my wife and I.
Others start big because even a big honkin’ RV looked small compared to their McMansion. Once out of the suburbs, though, they see opportunities that are only available to smaller rigs (more remote spots, boondocking on government land, more urban travel etc).
It’s been an iterative process to find those new realities of how small you can go.
But at times it can almost become the suburban rat race in reverse…almost getting to the point bragging rights for being the smallest.
But I’ll take it.
About a year ago, we left our almost 2300 square foot house for a 1250 square foot townhouse. We were (and are) down to one kid left at home, so there are only three of us (plus pets).
Although we’d initially been expecting to move into something more in the 1500 square foot range, we fell in love with this place, and turns out, my husband and I have said many times we could easily live in a smaller space.
Cognitive dissonance! For us laypeople, it’s defined as “the mental stress or discomfort experienced by an individual who holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values at the same time, performs an action that is contradictory to one or more beliefs, ideas or values, or is confronted by new information that conflicts with existing beliefs, ideas, or values.”
I think this describes the NY couple who wanted to trade their 2400 sq foot home in the suburbs for an apt in the city. When they realized that a 900 sq ft apt would cost MORE than the mortgage on their 2400 sq foot house, cognitive dissonance set in!
One reason to downsize is financial. If it’s not in your financial best interest to do so…more cognitive dissonance!
Another reason to move to a smaller place — less maintenance and more enjoyment. Perhaps the tiny apts in NYC were rundown, depressing, dirty, had views of the next apt, and even unsafe. Contrast that with the “family home” they wanted to leave —
So, maybe it’s not the size, it’s the other amenities you mentioned — including a yard, green space, and an open feeling.
As for me, I own a 2400 sq foot home and currently live in a 750 sq foot apt. I prefer the latter, as it is plenty big for one, has gorgeous urban views, and is in a neighborhood where I can walk to everything I need. No car required, a real plus.
Yes! We downsized from a 1500 sq. foot to an 800 sq, ft home and people always say “I don’t know how you live in something so small.” It annoys me because our needs are completely met, there is way less to maintain and clean, and it was cheap enough that I could quit my job and go back to school!
People used to raise families of 10 in a one or two bedroom shack, we’ve just gotten really spoiled in our society,
I totally agree! We have four people and four pets in 1600 square feet and LOVE it. We do get comments about our “small” house and I don’t get it. We have all the space we need. And when our two teenage leave the nest, we don’t feel a need to move because our house is so big.
Oh gosh, I can definitely relate to the pain of downsizing. I live alone and over the course of about ten years I went from an 1800 sq house to a 440 sq ft apartment. The process of adapting from a psychological standpoint was very difficult for me for all the reasons that were mentioned. I can say definitively, however, that I am so much happier and the mental anguish was well worth the end result of greater simplicity and harmony in my life.
We deliberately bought a small home – there are two of us (and the pets) and we’re not having children. Nine hundred square feet doesn’t sound small to me, BUT I don’t have kids I want to come home for the holidays or hopes for grandchildren to come with them.
It’s sad, though, that my parents hold onto their 4-bedroom house “because of the grandchildren” (my sister has a bunch of kids). My parents are heavy smokers and neither my sister, our spouses, or her kids have entered their house in years because of the toxic cigarette smoke that has permeated EVERYTHING.
Great post! My wife and I purchased a 780ft house, mostly because that’s all we could afford, but looking back I’m really happy about the size. We’ve barely had to buy anything just to fill up empty space. If the house was any bigger we would just be wasting money on filling it with crap. All the money we’re saving we’re using to do other things that we love like traveling.
When my husband and I got married, we lived in a 2-bedroom, 1-bath apartment that was 850 or so square feet. It was perfect for us as a young married couple. Because we got married right as the housing market in our area was rebounding, we saved up for a house and moved into a 1750-square-foot, 3-bedroom, 2.5-bath townhouse when it was still just the two of us. It felt HUGE. One of the bedrooms was my office, the other was empty. Three years and two kids later, and I feel like we have enough square feet, but not in the right areas. Our living room is too small to be the office/living room/playroom that it is, and our master bedroom is ridiculously huge.
One day we’ll move into something that suits our needs, but as a family of introverts, we need our own space… but not a 15×19 master bedroom or a 20×20 living room. We’re hoping we can design a house that has the right number of rooms without getting ridiculously big in terms of square feet.
We are a family of four. When our oldest child was ten we moved from our 14 x 70 trailer into a 1600 square foot home. All of us are introverts to a greater or lesser degree so I totally understand that need for personal space you refer to. On top of the need for personal space, we needed space to accommodate everyone’s interests, hobbies and artistic pursuits. Pianos, guitars, mandolins, baseball, golf, tennis, judo, skateboarding, rock climbing, canoeing, camping, RC plane building, quilting, sewing ,crochet, knitting, painting and woodworking. Yep. We needed some space.
The children are 30 and 33 now. We have no intention of downsizing. Our home is still the hub for so many of the family’s activities. Our home is paid for and we are comfortable in it. We are lucky in that when we designed our home, I put the majority of the square footage in the public areas of the house and not in the bedrooms. Like you, I never saw the point in having a ridiculously large master bedroom!
Hey, thanks for putting your opinion out there. I just returned to Newfoundland after 13 months backpacking through Asia and find myself with new perspective on the amount of space and stuff I need. I feel like the bigger the space you have, the more inclined you are to fill it. Thus, living in a smaller space will actually help keep a figurative lid on accumulating stuff and as you say, keep you free from chores and let you roam the earth a bit more! Great post, great philosphy! Cheers.