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Tiny Living
Nov. 21st, 2009 02:58 pmI really want to host an 80's party right now, but I don't feel we have enough space to entertain. This has me contemplating our future dreams and goals. Thankfully my contemplation has led me to a solution for us that really doesn't change our dreams and goals.
We are a family that believes in reducing our carbon footprint, living simply, and striving toward a sustainable lifestyle. We knew we were doing well, but when Kathy recently assessed our carbon footprint for a class assignment for conservation, we were extremely pleased to learn we have a far smaller carbon footprint than the average Americans. Even still, we dream about doing more, especially living in tiny homes.
Our aim is to live in no more than 1,000 square feet for the rest of our lives. In fact we're already living this way with the cottage we currently rent. While you can see above we have challenges with entertaining, overall we find that we have all the space we need, but limiting ourselves in this way has gone a long way toward curbing any consumerist leanings and also reduces our energy needs and forces us to consolidate our entertainment.
So back to the entertaining conundrum... The challenge, I realized, was not that tiny houses aren't party-friendly and that more space was the answer. What I realized was that organization and design of space was the key. Our friend Randy is living in an apartment not much larger than our cottage and he has succesfully hosted parties. What made the difference was that his livingroom and kitchen are open concept and allowed people to flow between the rooms freely and overflow from one room easily flowed into the next. As we plan for a future of living in tiny houses in less than 1,000 square feet as a family of three, we'll really need to embrace open concept design for our common spaces so we can have flexible use of minimal space.
We are a family that believes in reducing our carbon footprint, living simply, and striving toward a sustainable lifestyle. We knew we were doing well, but when Kathy recently assessed our carbon footprint for a class assignment for conservation, we were extremely pleased to learn we have a far smaller carbon footprint than the average Americans. Even still, we dream about doing more, especially living in tiny homes.
Our aim is to live in no more than 1,000 square feet for the rest of our lives. In fact we're already living this way with the cottage we currently rent. While you can see above we have challenges with entertaining, overall we find that we have all the space we need, but limiting ourselves in this way has gone a long way toward curbing any consumerist leanings and also reduces our energy needs and forces us to consolidate our entertainment.
So back to the entertaining conundrum... The challenge, I realized, was not that tiny houses aren't party-friendly and that more space was the answer. What I realized was that organization and design of space was the key. Our friend Randy is living in an apartment not much larger than our cottage and he has succesfully hosted parties. What made the difference was that his livingroom and kitchen are open concept and allowed people to flow between the rooms freely and overflow from one room easily flowed into the next. As we plan for a future of living in tiny houses in less than 1,000 square feet as a family of three, we'll really need to embrace open concept design for our common spaces so we can have flexible use of minimal space.
