From Mother Earth News:


Making the Most of a Small Home




How do you make the most of your small home?

I get all giddy that my mortgage is 1/3 or less than that of others/coworkers/etc, and so we can actually DO THINGS we love to do. It's also alot less house to clean/take care of! And in all honesty, I wouldn't mind it being even smaller (though getting rid of stuff would be hard--I get attached....). We stayed in a small cabin for vacation--LR, dining area, kitchen were all one room, 1.5 baths downstairs, 2 large bedrooms up, great big GIANT porch. I told hubby I wouldn't mind living in something that small. Yes, we'd have to get rid of a bunch of stuff, but man, it would make life easier. I'd need a pantry somewhere, though....and a place for a washer/dryer--but the size was nice.

Oh boy, our house is teeny, LOL!! We have 2 closets, one tiny one in the bedroom (that is stuffed, but we are going to tackle that soon), and one sort of small pantry-type closet. For that one, we got a metal shelf (rack, whatever) that's 6 ft tall and maybe 3 ft long and put castors on the bottom. There is room for that one and another one (nope, don't have that yet either, LOL) and it stores everything from towels to TP to computers right now...I have to be very organized, and this is for sure a work in progress...

Actually we had a 2400 sq ft home five years ago, we went down to an 1100 sq ft. - i thought it would be hard- but honestly- the only thing i miss is that we can't have people over/entertain on a large scale! but we have such good outside space that we always do birthdays outside, etc.... the upside, our house is paid for - easy to clean, and we have made the most of the space efficiently! we are trying to save now to build in front of our property and let this be our guest house.... so i just keep that goal in mind and i don't mind living smaller at all!

Though our home is no way near as small as that one in the link--it's a good sized 1500sf. But, we hear about it regularly from others with much larger homes. I'm not so sure why our smaller sf bothers others so much???

From the street our house looks small.
But 25 years ago *gasp* my parents added a large rec room, Bedroom, and full bath which extended the house and then they closed in a porch for another bedroom....

with 5 kids, I guess we could have lived here with 3 bedrooms but 5 bedrooms make it easier.. what's funny is from the street it still looks like the orginal 1950's house all brick...
Friends are shocked when they come in...

I tell them it's like that magic tent from Harry Potter...

anyways it is smaller than our previous house, and our next house will be smaller still....

still alot to clean

The opinions listed above are mine. I have a brain, sometimes I forget to use it. Please forgive me if I have stepped, stomped or crushed your toes. I mean well, but they don't let me outta the yard much so sometimes my social skills suck....