What if small were fashionable?

[RedEarth]

Is it just me, or have we hit some sort of consumer zenith? Our meals, houses and automobiles are supersized, but the sheer number of things we own, or are told we must own, has also grown exponentially in the past few years. All this stuff cannot help but add to the high stress levels Americans report in our lives.

That may be why the snug little cottage profiled at right evokes a certain serenity. It was designed as a temporary home for Katrina victims, people who no longer have a lot of stuff. Along with the fact that it provides shelter and has a cute porch, the Katrina Cottage hasn't much space to put stuff. For me, that's part of its appeal.

What if small were to become fashionable? What if we were to decide, as a community, that quality mattered more than quantity? What if we had to move into spaces half the size we now occupy? Besides solving not a few local housing problems, how liberating would that be?

Admittedly, my daydream is to move out of my overstuffed house, taking only the best pieces of furniture, art and accessories and leaving the detritus of 20-plus years for new owners to sort out. But what really attracts is the idea that one could actually change the thrust of one's life -- from working to accumulate and support things to actually living. It is a concept not lost on many cultures, regardless of the neoconservative idea that those people who hate America are really just jealous of our way of life.

The American economy is growth-based: that is, it's not enough that we produce and consume the same amount we did last year. We must always produce and consume more. Buying stuff is the American way of life, but at the risk of appearing unpatriotic, I find the idea of slowing that process personally liberating. That it would also be a political statement is attested by a Bay Area group called the Compact, whose members have pledged not to purchase new non-essentials for a year. In a Feb. 13 profile, Chronicle staff writer Carolyn Jones quoted Compact member John Perry saying: "Consumer culture is destroying the world.''

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/03/04/HOG86HFNE11.DTL&type=printable

[ScreamingMeemie]

1. My 1119 sq. ft. house still takes me hours to clean properly.

I understand the thrust of the essay, and it's wonderful, but many of us are living small. :hi:

[Warpy]

3. I live in a post WWII crackerbox of a house

but 400 sq. feet of attached garage that was badly turned into indoor space puts me up at 1300. I can justify it by the two floor looms that live in there.

[kestrel91316]

10. NOW I get your name, lol!

Is there a Wefty, too?

[On the Road]

2. That is the Driving Force Behind the "Not-So-Big House" Movement

which I am more than a not-so-big fan of. I can't understand the obsession with size either.

Sarah Susanka's books talk a lot about using space so that it is a livable size which feels right. For some activities, small spaces are preferable, often in a form of a nook with lowered ceilings to feel cozy. Some of my daughter's friends live in these McMansions, and half the house is completely unlived in.


http://www.notsobighouse.com/

[trotsky]

4. Wow, some of those "not-so-big" houses are not so small!

Still, I like the design. I would never live in a McMansion if you gave it to me. They feel more like warehouses than homes.

[ScreamingMeemie]

8. The 2004 and 2005 showcases are both larger than my house.

I guess one person's small is another person's mansion. We have a skewed sense of what constitutes small.

[On the Road]

9. No, Those Houses are not Small

but consider that Susanka has clients who are rich enough to hire an architect and who would normally design a much larger house. Her books actually contain some extremely small living spaces, including cabins and an urban apartment which is less than 300 sq st.

One of the strangest things she talks about is variable ceiling height. But she seems to have a point. One of the reasons those McMansions feel like warehouses is those popular cathedral ceilings which suck all the intimacy out of a house.

[Sherman A1]

5. I stayed at my Brother in laws Mc Mansion this past weekend

courtesy of the ice/snow storm that pounded St. Louis and our inept electric company Ameren UE (Unreliable Electric). It's a beautiful home, but the beauty is only skin deep as you look at a front door put on with missing screws in the hinges, interior doors that let light shine around all the edges, a bedroom that required an additional space heater as the central heat couldn't get the air into that one room, and on and on.... A huge place for just 2 adults and one teen, just a waste, but at least they had light and heat which my small home did not for 4 days.

[Jim Warren]

6. Small is beautiful

Thank you E.F. Schumacher, a great concept and book by one of the modern era's
most overlooked economist.

Ever since I was very young, I thought the MAIN problem with the capitalist system was it's restlessness. Economic health depended largely on perpetual consumption. Even if a person had an idea of what enough for them meant, it would be meaningless in a business sense. There seemed never to be the idea of being satisfied.

[ms liberty]

7. "Big Time"...

by Peter Gabriel - it says it all!

Big Time

suc cess

I'm on my way, I'm making it
I've got to make it show, yeah
so much larger than life
I'm going to watch it growing

the place where I come from is a small town
they think so small
they use small words
-but not me
I'm smarter than that
I worked it out
I've been stretching my mouth
to let those big words come right out

I've had enough, I'm getting out
to the city, the big big city
I'll be a big noise with all the big boys
there's so much stuff I will own
and I will pray to a big god
as I kneel in the big church

big time
I'm on my way-I'm making it
big time big time
I've got to make it show yeah
big time big time
so much larger than life
big time
I'm going to watch it growing
big time

my parties all have the big names
and I greet them with the widest smile
tell them how my life is one big adventure
and always they're amazed
when I show them round my house, to my bed
I had it made like a mountain range
with a snow-white pillow for my big fat head
and my heaven will be a big heaven
and I will walk through the front door

big time
I'm on my way-I'm making it
big time big time
I've got to make it show-yeah
big time big time
so much larger than life
I'm going to watch it growing
big time big time
my car is getting bigger
big time
my house is getting bigger
big time
my eyes are getting bigger
big time
and my mouth
big time
my belly is getting bigger
big time
and my bank account
big time
look at my circumstance
big time
and the bulge in my big big big big big big big