Oh, and I want this, and I want that … oh, and this too! Whoa, wait a sec … are you trying to fit everything you had in your big home into your small home plan?
Small home living is gaining steam in our economy and with the push of green building. Saving money and saving the earth is in. Small homes can help. But with small homes your thinking has to change. It’s a big mistake to try to keep everything you had in the bigger home and just shrink everything down.
The House That Won’t Sell
There’s a house on the market in our neighborhood that just sits there. No one seems to want to touch it. A walk through almost gives you the willies. It’s all cut up. There’s no flow or openness to it and you never seem to know where you are. It’s like the Winchester Mystery House … kind of fascinating but totally unlivable. It’s a maze.
And that’s why it won’t sell. There’s no flow. A well designed home is friendly, warm, has a certain synergy to it and is just, well … livable.
Small Home Plans Should be Open and Flowing
By flowing, I’m not talking about a river gorge where water from a sudden downpour is raging through a narrow channel. Think of a gentle wave on a quiet beach lapping up over the sand.
The smaller the home, the more critical this openness and flow becomes. And it’s achieved not by giving up your wants, but by eliminating the separation of your wants into their own identities. Let me explain.
Shared Rooms and Combined Functions
The goal is to create living areas within the same space or room. The result is fewer rooms with the same living areas that compliment the way you live. For instance; a bedroom that accommodates a reading area, computer station, or meditation retreat … or whatever is important to your lifestyle.
That’s just one of many ideas. Flow, in a small home, is more about the gentle movement from one side of a room to another and to another, from “station to station” rather than from room to room. All the stations are visible but each has its own unique flavor, purpose, and unimpeded access.
So, you certainly can get what you want while living within your ideals and choosing small home living.
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