Living Small

When we moved to our home here in the Ozarks, it was never our intention to live in this 480-square ft. cabin permanently.

Our first plan was to build an entirely new house and use this cabin for my office, as well as for family and friends to use.

After we decided we would rather have a little extra money each month, rather than putting it all into a mortgage payment, we thought we would build an addition.

However, our house can only be added onto in one direction and that also includes building a full basement, a more costly endeavor. As well, this will include taking out several more trees that I've become fond of. They're outside our current bedroom window. Their massive trunks, stable for maybe 100 years, were of great comfort to me during the days I didn't feel like getting out of bed when I was grieving for my mother.

Months have almost ran us into a full year here, and we've once again started discussing the possibility of building an additional cabin for my office and proceeding with our plans for another metal garage building. That leaves us living in the 480-square foot cabin.

How much room do people really need anyway? According to a man featured in American Profile, who lives in a 140-sqaure foot space, we can only occupy 12 square foot at a time. "The rest is just elbow room," he says.

I spent most of my childhood years in a house that wasn't 1,000 square feet - and most of the time, there were my parents, my adult brother and me all occupying this space and it didn't seem particularly small at the time. All of my adult life, after my mother sold the larger home we eventually moved into, has been spent in less than 1,100 square feet. Sure, my homes have been cluttered at times, but is the answer to the clutter really buying bigger and bigger?

Not according to people who believe in the "Living Small" movement - yes, there really are people not buying into the McMansion theory of living. There's even a club, The Small House Society.

People, for various reasons, are choosing to live in smaller digs. It could be they don't want a mortgage, or it could be for the fact that they don't want high utility bills - if any at all - or it could be a concern for the environment.

As my husband and I speed toward 50 with our IRAs taking a hit in the current economy and the desire to spend more time playing and less time working on a house, or working to pay for one, we are seriously considering this.

Of course, we would have to retrofit this cabin with some additional cabinet and built-ins, as this place was never intended to live in full-time and is, as of right now, a bit cluttered and cramped from doing so. However, I learned many space saving ideas from my mom who did just this in her first home. As well, once the new metal building is constructed, we'll have an additional 1,200 feet of storage space.

If we can do this, it will give us the extra money needed to buy that dreaded $4 a gallon fuel.

For more on living small, The Small House Society website: http://www.resourcesforlife.com/small-house-society

The American Profile story:

http://www.americanprofile.com/article/20947.html