Have you ever lived in a ‘Tiny Home’, or wondered what it would be like to live in a tiny home or small house? I was looking though some archives from my old blog, and came across images of our tiny 170sqft apartment when we lived in Manhattan. Looking back, that was one of the most freeing experiences for me, mostly because it forced us to have less stuff. If you’re thinking of downsizing, read on and I’ll explain some benefits to living small.
Currently, we live in the largest house out of the 3 homes we’ve owned, which is about 1400sqft + a four car garage. Now, by typical American standards, I’d say this is still pretty small, but it feels large for us. Since moving here, we’ve accumulated quite a bit of stuff…and that may be an understatement.
But we’ve also rediscovered our desire to live more minimally, which is a big reason I started my youtube channel, “Messy Minimalist“. (in the first episode, you can catch a glimpse at just how scary our garage is..!)
In our journey to minimize, we find ourselves thinking often of that tiny 170sqft manhattan apartment we once called home. To give an idea of how big that is, it’s basically a 10ft x 17ft room – the size of many people’s bedrooms! …Only this was our entire house. While it was tough at times, we really came to love it.
So if you’re thinking of downsizing to a tiny home, or even just minimizing to a smaller home, here are 5 Benefits to living in a small space.
1. You learn the real difference between ‘want’ and ‘need’
It used to be that I’d buy something if I “fancied” it. But now, I think to myself, “do I want this or do I need this?” Generally, the answer is just that I want it. Now, it takes a lot of willpower to just walk away from an item simply because I realized I don’t need it. (at least for me it is). So I take it a step further — If I don’t really need it, then I ask myself a few more questions: 1) “Where will it go?” 2) “Does it match my other stuff” and more importantly, 3) “Do I REALLY love it?”
That’s right, I always end it with the KonMari Method in mind. If I don’t LOVE something when I purchase it, then how can I expect to LOVE it in my home?
2. Lower energy bills (AND lower carbon footprint)
Lower electric bill, lower heat bill. ’nuff said!
3. It’s efficient in other ways too!
The time it takes to walk from the living space to the kitchen to the bed is cut WAY down. I realize that sounds silly, but you really start to notice it! Especially if you’ve previously lived in a two-story house. Since living in a tiny space, I can’t imagine walking up another flight of stairs just to go to bed or change an outfit. Life is already too short, why waste it walking from room to room?
4. You rediscover your walls
If you can’t build out, build up. 🙂 I love the look of a full wall! Now I realize this could perhaps be considered anti-minimalist. But the truth is, I’m not good at following rules. If full walls are your thing too, then go for it!
5. You spend less time cleaning
When there’s no room to make a mess, cleaning up is a piece of cake! Vacuuming one rug? No problem! And the less items you have in your possession means less items to get displaced.
So even if you’re not moving into a 170sqft studio apartment in manhattan, there are still plenty of benefits to living simpler, smaller, and more minimally. 🙂
1 comment
Yes, all of those things are wonderful. At 50, I’ve been through the big house – 5 bedrooms, lots of bathrooms and lots of kids and as they disappeared into their own lives we couldn’t justify the energy bills or the time it took to upkeep it so that they could be comfortable in their old rooms the few times a year they stayed over. We downsized and we love it. We threw out so much stuff, kept what we loved and it takes me 5 minutes to clean every day.