“Small” Living

So, I was reading this article http://realestate.msn.com/buying/Article2.aspx?cp-documentid=6803386&GT1=35000 online this morning, and I found it interesting, because we are one of those families of 4 living in a 1,000 sq. foot home. It is a house, not an apartment, but there are times I’ve definitely felt like even an apartment these days would be bigger than our house. I like to read about what others do in a small space for storage and organization because this is something I really struggle with. What to do with everything when there just isn’t anymore space. (and I feel like I’m constantly getting rid of stuff too, but apparently not enough).

Another thing I find interesting in this article is that they mention that the reason most people choose to live in a small house or apartment is because it’s worth it to be in a good neighborhood, or near a good school, or close to transportation, close to things etc. So, I guess they are focusing on small living in a city or suburban type setting. We are the opposite. We are living in a small house because we wanted land, and to GET AWAY FROM neighborhoods, stores, traffic, etc. lol And as a bonus, we have cheaper monthly house payments too than most people. Sure, it can be annoying sometimes having all of the kids’ activities be 20 minutes away, or suddenly running out of milk and having to decide which is worse, driving in to get some milk or listen to your milk-loving 3-yr-old ask a million times for milk when there is none. But overall we really enjoy where we are.

I love our setting, being on 10 wooded acres is just awesome. I wish we had a little more room in the house, but I would not want to live in a city to get that. (And we are pretty good at "making do" in many areas of our lives).

I love it that our boys can go outside to play and have a lot of room to run around and explore, without worrying about neighbors or busy streets.
I love it that I don’t have to worry about nosy neighbors or other people’s kids in my yard/on the street/etc.
I love it that we see more deer and birds and frogs and turtles than we do cars or streetlights.
I love it that if we’re in the mood to play in the creek or walk on a trail, we can just go in our yard, walk on our trail through our woods to our part of the creek.
I love it that we can have bonfires, roast hotdogs, make smores, sit around the fire and drink beer, or whatever else we want in our own yard.

Well, I could go on and on, but you get the point. I do have complaints about our house itself, but I love our setting. Anyone else out there live in a small house like us, or am I the only cramped one? lol Would love to hear any tips on organization and storage for small living if you have any.