it's small, y'all!

A view from the front

From the bedroom toward the front

We, six beings, are living in a space that is roughly smaller than our old kitchen.  Okay, our living space is roughly just over 200 square feet. Thats about 1/10 of the space in our house without wheels, which is arguably smaller than most United States homes. It feels like we have been on a journey to get smaller over the last decade and this might be as small as our brood can handle.

Truthfully it isn't bad at all.  The immediate effect for me is to be aware of space and how I use it because when one has so little space there is no choice.  If I get something out of a cabinet I have to put it back or there is nowhere to put anything else.

Clutter is a luxury born of space and resources.

 Dishes are washed immediately after use.  If dishes sit out washing them requires more water. Tidying up occurs naturally instead of us declaring a state of 52 card pickup like we had to do in the past.  I am vastly more aware of the water we use because we have a display that informs us of our water usage and when we need to deal with it. I think ever home should require such knowledge. It is not a bad thing for human beings to think about water usage and the ramifications of sewage.

Every home needs a resource monitor.

Initially we were concerned about the litter box. I mean, come on, three cats in  two litter boxes in a tiny space is madness. Only it isn't.  We scoop the poop regularly and also sign the praises of Feline Pine litter. We have as little litter box odor as we had at our house (which was almost none) and we only have to be mindful of their habits as we are of ours.

Use the space you have and have fun!

I guess that is the trick to all of this, and part of why this trip is a great exercise in awareness.  We don't really need as much space (or stuff) as our usual abundance tricks us into needing.  I am pretty pumped up to explore this some more, but so far (on day 9) we are having a lot of fun!