Small Living Journal

When I was a single carnivore, my cooking style was very simple. Oatmeal and a smoothie for breakfast, maybe a turkey sandwich with provolone and tomato on rye for lunch, a chicken breast grilled on my indoor grill with steamed broccoli and a bagged salad or some fruit for dinner. Most of my meals could be completed in under 20 minutes and included very few ingredients for each meal component. That is how I prefer to cook. Since I became vegetarian 2 1/2 years ago (recently pescatarian), food and cooking has become immensely more complicated for me.  Fresh veggies take up a lot more fridge space and a lot more planning to make whole meals out of, especially if you decide to make something which requires a bit more effort. And I’m a baker not a cook. On the left you can see some seitan, chard, and potatoes Ty and I made with friends Briana and Chris. They are the people I cook with more than anyone else (usually in their kitchen) so I thought it’d be good to throw this one in there.

All of the kitchens in my Texas apartments had counter space, full-size fridges, large sinks, newer ovens, adequate pantries, dishwashers, and microwaves. In my Santa Cruz homes, they’ve all been lacking somewhere. The first place had fairly decent shelves for dishes and dry goods, and a not terribly small counter for food prep, though with a toaster oven, coffee maker, etc., counter space easily became scarce. The stove was a 50s-era gas apartment-size model and the fridge was a mini. The first thing I did when I got to Santa Cruz was scour craigslist for a couple of days until I found someone getting rid of a 9-cubic-feet fridge and headed over to pick it up. There was no way I was going to be able to live with a teeny fridge. I dread going to the grocery store like some people dread paying taxes. It isn’t something I want to do more than I absolutely have to. If you don’t have a garden, don’t like going grocery shopping every two days, or you don’t eat all your meals out, a mini fridge just doesn’t cut it. The one holiday party I tried to throw there had to move outside once more than three people had arrived and the house itself mostly served as the vessel holding the fridge holding the beer (see cramped vessel fridge over my right shoulder).

The next place I lived had plenty of pantry space in the form of built-in cabinets and built-in fridge space, long vacant; and the functioning fridge was the largest fridge I’d ever laid eyes on, though completely disproportionate to the size of the apartment. However, there was no counter (save the miniscule space next to the freestanding sink which I had to use for my dish-drying rack), so I got a kitchen table which doubled as prep space. Eating in this space was wonderful. There was a little nook where we had placed my old formica table, with a window looking out over the Boardwalk in the distance and the neighborhood crazies below; Ty and I would enjoy watching the ensuing craziness with an open window and an open bottle of wine. But the part leading up to that could be miserable. The stove was awkwardly placed, the ventilation less than ideal, and we had to clean up at least some before we could use the table for eating our meal.

I know I’ve talked about the nightmare that was cooking in the trailer where I lived with Ty last summer and fall, but allow me to reiterate. We had a mouse-infested pantry and shelves, a mini-fridge which liked to freeze anything pushed to the back, a hot plate that couldn’t boil water, and an extra-small sink that would quickly run out of hot water. We eventually learned to make do cooking there, thanks largely to a reliance on pasta and a microwave. Of course, during this time I gained 10 pounds and forgot what veggies tasted like.

My current home is an amalgam of all the others. The fridge is large and old. The sink is nestled in a corner with about 16 inches of counter space next to it (also mostly used to hold my drying rack). I have a few drawers under that counter space (that refuse to close all the way) and besides that, there is a very strange built-in open shelf area on the wall opposite the sink, which has some very short, deep cabinets beneath, which is the most frustrating space I’ve ever had for a pantry. Luckily, I’m a decent organizer and have amassed quite a bit of Container Store shelving thanks to living in so many apartments with different storage requirements. Nonetheless, preparing food in this space is a challenge and the ventilation leaves quite a bit to be desired.

A week ago, I had four friends over for dinner. My friend Briana and I shared cooking and baking duties, and maneuvering around each other to cook a four-dish meal was kind of a nightmare. We had three main course dishes, two sauces, and one dessert, and I didn’t have enough pots, pans, and bowls for everything. The gravy had to be put in a cup so we could use the same pan to sautee mushrooms. After we boiled potatoes, we had to transfer from and clean that pan in order to steam the chard. And when all was said and done, Briana had to run back home because I only have four dinner plates. By the time we finished, the kitchen was sweltering from the sun and the stove, and we all sweated around the table trying not to pass out while eating our hot meal.

I was reminded of Genevieve‘s description of her New Year’s Eve meal last year. If you were to cut Genevieve’s table right where the wine bottle is, that’s how big my dining table is. It was a tight squeeze getting five people in there and that was with the leaf put into the table. Cooking and eating in small spaces is certainly a challenge. But it is possible, if we are patient enough to make it work. When I visited with Mokihana and Pete in May, I was amazed at how tasty our meal was. It was very simple pasta with fresh greens, and a wonderful bread that Mokihana made in her toaster oven pan. I think the trick is lowering our expectations of what constitutes a suitable meal. When I eat alone, I’m fine munching on some carrots and edamame hummus with an apple and almond butter. When other people enter the equation we feel the need to make things more complex. And I’ll admit that even though I don’t love to cook, I do love to eat, and I love to eat with other people. There really is something about breaking bread with friends.

With that said, I’ll end with a few helpful hints that I’ve amassed from my years interacting with food and kitchens.

• Put what you use the most close to you. My spatulas, bottle opener, and whisk get prime real estate.

• Using wall- or ceiling-mounted pot racks are a must for small kitchen living. When you don’t have the luxury of cabinets, the wall is your friend.

• If you can’t compost and you have sufficient freezer space, freeze messy food scraps that would otherwise spend a week rotting in your trash. All my banana peels go straight into bags in my freezer door, which I throw into the garbage on Sunday nights when I take out my trash. The same goes for fridge food that molded before I could get to it. I keep it out of trash purgatory until the last minute to cut down on icky smells (which spread easily in little places).

• Try not to buy more than you can eat. You don’t have room for waste. And if it’s likely to go bad, put it in the open in your fridge so you can see it. Opaque tupperware is no good. How do I know what went into it or when? However, those green foodsaver bags are great if you use them right.

• Use small dishes. I have four full-size dinner plates which I seldom use. For my regular dining habits, I have salad plates and bowls, and I usually use two or three dishes for each meal. Some people would tell you that’s silly and wasteful, but for me, it makes the most sense. Large dishes take up more space. Small dishes can be stacked and nestled and take up less space in a drying rack. Also, I hate having sauces and juices running into the things they weren’t made for (few things bother me more than a soggy roll), so using a bowl for my salad and a little plate for my fish and asparagus is the perfect solution, if a little OCD.

For me, it’s all about knowing how I work. When I still used regular milk occasionally, I gave up buying it and switched to soy, because I knew I would never finish it before it went bad. The same went for cheese, yogurt, sour cream, etc. I also seldom finish a loaf of bread before it molds. Oatmeal, hummus, apples, Tofutti sour cream, frozen veggies, fruit, and fish, canned Amy’s refried beans, etc. are my friends. Having my staples and knowing what I will and won’t use (plus having a kitchen that I like walking into) is the best way for me to cook small.

Amanda is a documentary photographer who just earned her Master’s degree and currently lives in Santa Cruz, Ca. She completed her thesis on the Small Home Movement and hopes to have the project up by the end of the summer on either her long-neglected blog, http://greenaerie.blogspot.com, or her long-neglected photography site, www.aliasgrace.com.

Yes, it is illegal to live in a tiny house in much of the US. Does that surprise you?

According to designer and tiny house advocate Jay Shafer, “minimum size standards have been found to be unconstitutional in several US courts.” These standards reside in model building codes, adopted and customized at the local level for the stated purpose of protecting public health, safety and general welfare.

In his Small House Book (order it here), Shafer asserts that these standards (specific to the size of houses and the rooms within) were pushed through during the 1970s and 80s by the housing and banking industries in order to produce “more profit per structure.” The result? Ugly McMansions, sprawl, construction waste, higher co2 emissions, and, now, an unaffordable housing crisis.

To make things worse, some neighborhood groups “needlessly fearful for their property values and lifestyles” also prohibit small homes in their areas, writes Shafer.

However, there are ways to get around this.

1. Move out of the city. Many rural areas are unregulated in this way.
2. Negotiate. Talk with your local building officials or neighborhood associations. They might be convinced that a small house is non-threatening.
3. Accessorize. Small dwellings are sometimes allowed to be built adjacent to a house, such as a “granny flat.”
4. Don’t hook up. If a structure is not permanently attached and not hooked up to public utilities, it may not be considered relevant to housing codes.
5. Apply pressure. Point out the immense housing problem and give an out for your local politicians to save the day.

Of course I’m speaking in generalities here. You must check your local building codes as they vary greatly.

Alternately, you can do what was done here — turn the chicken coop into a tiny house and make it a tourist attraction. Here is a recent photo Michael took of the smallest house in Santa Clara County. It is 514 square feet on a 956-square-foot lot. The house must have been “grandfathered in” and thus, slips under the minumum size code regulations.

Hillary lives in a 677 sq. ft. historic home with her partner while renovating a 50 sq. ft. tiny trailer. Her blog is located at thistinyhouse.com where this article was first published.

Designing small spaces for multiple people is a design challenge I’ve not focused on in great detail on Tiny House Design. It has however been the focus of my own future home plans and the core requirement of a design concept I hope to turn into a book called The Tiny Simple House.

In this article I’ll describe some ways of thinking about people living in small spaces that should help you more effectively approach the design of an existing or new small space.

Getting Everyone On The Same Page

Many of the smallest houses you see are built for one person and after a careful inspection it’s pretty easy to imagine how one person could live in less than 100 square feet. But as you can imagine choosing to live more simply and owning fewer possessions is required for this kind of extreme downsizing.

The first challenge of creating a tiny living space for multiple people is to get buy-in from everyone on choosing to live a frugal lifestyle. Compared to overcoming the actual design challenges this initial human challenge is by far the most difficult.

I suspect it’s our consumer culture that has conditioned us to think of a certain set of things as normal so unlearning what we’ve learned is the hardest part. For example, choosing to eliminate most of our possessions and keeping only the things we use regularly is a very hard step for most people to take. Even for those of us who have made the commitment find it difficult to make the time to finally get rid of all the extra stuff. Getting an entire family to rally around this and choose to downsize and simplify is rare.

My best suggestion in this area is to remember that all people change slowly and that the ultimate goal for downsizing usually includes creating more time to spend with your family and friends. Be patient and move forward and don’t leave anyone behind.

Take A User-Centered Design Approach

When you begin noodling over making a small space more efficient for multiple people it’s fairly common to assume one of the following two ideas:

• If one person can live in 100 square feet then four people can live in 400 square feet.
• Four people can live in less than 400 square feet because some efficiencies are found like shared bathrooms and kitchens.

I’m going to suggest coming at this design challenge from a different direction. You see you can’t simply make assumptions like these because different people have different needs and use their homes in different ways. For example a couple with jobs outside the home will have different needs than a couple that lives and works at home. Assuming that the same amount of space will serve these different needs equally would be a mistake.

Instead focus on the specific needs of the individual people today and projected into the future. Then while determining the spaces needed to meet these requirements and keep in mind that the real goal is to end up with a space that meets everyone’s needs while not overtaxing any one person. In other words strike a balance between too much and too little space so that the home truly provides value instead of costing too much time, money or energy.

Here are a few things that people often do together. These activities can often be served by shared spaces:

• Gathering
• Cooking
• Eating
• Entertaining

Here are a few things that people sometimes do as a group, but usually require private or dedicated space.

• Sleeping
• Bathing
• Study Time
• Work Time
• Private Time

Considering the needs of the occupants first will always give you a firm foundation to build solutions. Most of us like to think about the solutions first because it’s more fun but doing so will often distract us from the real end goal. When you start with actual user needs you end up building only the things the users need.

You might even want to use the Pareto principal, also known as the 80-20 rule, to help guide your decisions. This simple rule says that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. So instead of building 100% of a house to fulfill 100% of the functionality, build 20% of the house and get 80% of the functionality. This is a pretty smart approach because we usually only use a small portion of a large home’s functionality but it will always costs at least 100% or our time, money, and energy. So some functions might need to be left out of the design because their value doesn’t offset their cost.

Tips for Small Space Design

Once you have your priorities and people in mind applying some of these common small space design techniques will help you achieve more from less.

1. Think like a boat builder not a home builder

When we think of our living spaces in the context of a traditional home it’s easy to jump to common solutions like 10′ by 12′ bedrooms with walk-in closets. Instead think like a boat builder who must pack a lot of function into every tiny space.

2. Design bathrooms for multi-person use by dividing functional areas

Instead of designing bathrooms to contain everything consider breaking it into functional areas like a separate sink area, sink & toilet, and shower/tub. These individual spaces may take up a little more space than a single bathroom but they allow more people to use the individual spaces simultaneously.

3. Create built-in multi-functional furniture

Keep spaces open and clear by using built-in furniture and storage. This is an especially useful technique for bedrooms, hallways, and kitchens. Some common solutions are beds that can be hidden away, desks and tables that fold-out, cabinets that conceal possessions, and even cabinets that pivot and divide spaces. You could carry this to an extreme too by creating a single open space and then dividing it with floor to ceiling built-in cabinets.

4. Use your vertical space

Every cubic inch of a home must be heated and cooled so why not use it all when it makes sense. Beds with lofts above them can make fun rooms for kids and floor to ceiling built-in cabinets can provide enormous functionality.

5. Reduce transition spaces like hallways

This seems obvious and isn’t really easy to do. The best place to start is to build off a single open area and have rooms open directly to the larger space. You can also get more use out of hallways by lining walls with functional built-ins, concealed appliances, bathroom sinks, and so on.

6. Open up spaces and use subtle transitions

Subtle transitions help define the division between spaces but is more about fooling the eye than aesthetics. Spaces can be made to look longer, wider, and taller by creating visual progressions through any space. But when you close those spaces forming separate rooms you loose the optical illusion so its best to keep spaces open. Also use continuous flooring treatments.

7. Use high ceilings and draw the eye up.

It’s amazing what an extra foot of ceiling height can do to make a space feel larger. If you’re stuck with the ceiling height you have try raising your window coverings up to the ceiling and avoid cutting your walls visually in half with things like wainscoting. You might even try painting your walls one color 3/4 of the way up and then painting the top 1/4 and the ceiling a brighter color. Also be sure to point light fixtures up.

8. Use light solid colors and let the sun shine in

Light always makes small spaces feel bigger. Lighter colored your walls mean you’ll need fewer windows and artificial lighting. Busy patterns will make a space appear cluttered.

9. Include outdoor space in your design

The exterior of a home is often forgotten while you’re focused on making the inside feel bigger. The final product will be much more successful if you consider all your spaces inside and out. Think of the space outside as another room and open the house up to them visually. You’ll be able to achieve the same effects as you can with visual progressions inside the house.

10. Use simple window treatments

Your exterior windows and doors can help you make your space feel bigger. Avoid heavy, thick, and dark window coverings.

11. Reduce clutter, collections, and possessions

This is actually the first step that all of us can do right now to make out homes feel more spacious. I left it for last so that it would be left in your mind most vividly. Eliminating clutter and organizing what we already have will make any space feel bigger and help the occupants feel better.

For more articles on tiny spaces for families see these articles:

• Tiny Paris Apartment for 4 + Dog
• Is Living in Small Spaces Cruel To Children?
• Tiny House with Moving Walls – part 1, part2, part3, part4

I invite you to follow me on Twitter, and visit my design blog, Tiny House Design.

Living with my partner and 2 cats in 400 square feet has been a learning experience. Moving to a smaller space has actually improved my marriage, health and overall quality of life. I’ve learned a lot by downscaling and wanted to share 7 essential rules for happy small space living.

1. Listen and communicate.

Living in a big or a small house requires communicating and listening to your partner and family. Don’t make assumptions. If problems arise ask open and non-accusatory questions. I’ve found this approach to be very helpful, especially when it comes to discussing finances and cleaning.

2. Make your home a clutter free zone.

One of my favorite bloggers, Leo Babauta from Zen Habits, recently wrote a great post on clutter-free counter space. I think the tips Leo offered in this article can be applied to all areas of the home. For instance, Leo talks about finding “a home” for each object in your house.

If you want to declutter and aren’t sure where to begin read: Zen Mind – How to Declutter. Some tips offered in this article include, decluttering in small chunks, setting aside the time to get it done, tackling one drawer at a time, being merciless, and creating a “maybe” box.

For more information on Decluttering, check out these posts:

• How to Eliminate Clutter, from Basic Instructions
• FlyLady: How to Declutter
• FlyLady: Declutter 15 Minutes a Day – 5 Great Tools That Make it Easy!
• What Is Clutter?

3. 100 Thing Challenge

If you want to try extreme decluttering, you can read more about The 100 Thing Challenge. I stumbled across Dave’s blog a months ago and learned that he is living with 100 personal possessions. Why?

Dave is trying to remove himself from consumerism. Reading about this project inspired me to do the same! I’ve found that scaling down to under 100 personal things has enabled me to question what I need and has removed a tremendous amount of clutter from my life.

4. A clean home makes for happy people.

There is nothing worse that walking into a grimy home. Living with others requires cooperation and sharing chores. Always having one person clean the house isn’t fair. I’ve found that it’s important to split up cleaning responsibilities and share the load. All of us lead busy lives and it’s important to help out around the house.

5. Minimal furniture.

Get the big bulky furniture out of the house or minimize the amount of stuff you own. Keeping light and easy to move furniture makes cleaning and moving very easy. One strategy that has worked well for us is using big pillows as chairs.

6. Beautiful art and pictures.

Rather than displaying decorations on the counters, hanging beautiful photos of family, friends and art on the walls is perfect. Pictures give a small living space character and hanging art/photos is minimal and beautiful. Plus, photos are a portal to past memories and remind me of what is important in life. Not stuff, but people.

7. Keep the good stuff.

Stick with quality items. Keep stuff that you use everyday and love. For instance, we donated all of our big and heavy furniture and kept our favorite Ikea chair. We purchased it used and absolutely love it!

Questions…

I’m curious to hear from you. What strategies have you used to make living in a small space with others fun and easy? Would you add anything to the list?

You can learn more about small living by reading my blog, RowdyKittens or following me on Twitter.

Sensibly sized cottages facing a common green (Ross Chapin Architects)

Would you pay $600,000 for 1,000 square feet?

Many people are willing to pay more for less, as evidenced by the popularity of Ross Chapin‘s small homes in custom designed “boutique” communities. They are selling well in the Northwestern US and getting good press nationwide (articles in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes and HGTV).

In this issue of the Small Living Journal we interweave the two concepts of living smaller and living in communities because they are fundamentally linked: the smaller your home, the more you take advantage of the community around you.

We can’t help but be reminded of our collective past, one that is wonderfully devoid of clutter, high energy bills, spending lots of time alone in our cars and staring at glowing boxes for 8 hours a day. Is there a way to piece together a new, community-minded existence while living small?