Living Small

After a decade of McMansions and endless suburban sprawl there seems to be a movement toward a more resourceful use of space, a recognition that with population counts soaring, it’s increasingly important to consider how we can tread a bit more lightly. In the past seven years I’ve lived in seven different apartments – (what? that number surprised me!) – and they were all very different. There were a couple that were quite spacious, having rooms neither Scotty nor I ever used. And there were poorly designed small spaces that created frustration and a continual feeling of chaos. And then there were the apartments that were small, even tiny, but logical and comfortable. Our current apartment is one of the latter. I will admit there are frustrations to living here. The first frustration is that when I misplace something it’s doubly annoying. A little voice in my head keeps harping “You really should not even be able to misplace something in a space this small. Seriously, Rebecca, how many places could it be?” The second frustration is linked to the first in that while everything has a certain place that it ought to be, you usually have to move something else in order to get to it. This means that things are continually being moved and not always put back. And, of course, I would love to have a bit more space in the kitchen and another couple of gas burners. But, it all works. I can basically cook anything I want to with my two burners. I have to grocery shop more often because the fridge is tiny, but that is an easy adaptation because I don’t really want to haul a week or twos worth of groceries several blocks home and then up six flights of stairs. Plus everything I cook ends up being nice and fresh.

Anyway, here’s a tour of our little apartment.

IKEA has gotten on board with the small living space theme. Nicole over at Little Brown Pen alerted me to the fact that IKEA was building an entire apartment inside a Paris metro station. Five people lived there for 6 days in a space of 54 square meters. All I have to say is that they had an entire meter more per person. Anyway, here’s a video about the project:

Scotty and I decided to check it since we’re all into this small spaces thing. The goal is obviously to show that if used logically, it’s entirely possible for people to live fully in small spaces. I don’t know how the people who actually spent the six days living here did it. I could not deal with being constantly on display. We visited on the fifth day and you could tell they were getting a bit weary of all the attention. Plus, they were trying to put together a party – which I’m sure was to celebrate their release the next day.

Shower and washing machine!

The apartment had everything – laundry, shower, lots of storage, entertainment center, etc. It even had a dishwasher. After not having one since I lived with my parents, that caused a bit of covetousness on my part. There was one thing missing though. One thing that I would think of as pretty essential. There was no toilet.