I'm loving this great use of otherwise wasted space as book shelves.
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| Image Source: Apartment Therapy |
When I saw this photo it got me thinking about small living spaces and reminded me of the smallest apartment I've ever seen. Take a look at the clip below. Measuring just 12 x 7 feet this Manhattan studio really is tiny. But with a rent of just $700 a month it makes for affordable living in an expensive city.
While the idea of trying to live a more streamlined existence with less 'stuff' appeals to me, I think I'd go insane living somewhere like that. I have seen larger (read: normal) size studio apartments that have been very cleverly designed to maximise space with clever storage solutions, so although small, the spaces don't have a cramped or cluttered feel.
At the other end of the spectrum, I'm I just can't figure out the McMansion trend of recent years which is all about bigger being better: huge characterless 2 story homes built with the maximum allowable footprint, double garages out front and an excessive amount of huge rooms. It's sad to see our suburb losing it's lovely character when the older homes are bulldozed and replaced my these monoliths.
I love our perfectly comfortable and cosy single story 1940's house. After all, the bigger your house the more space there is to keep clean and tidy! Even if I could afford a huge home I honestly don't think I'd want one... unless I had 4 or 5 children of course. We are lucky to have a lot of built in storage as well as a big attic space which I couldn't do without. I do have a lot of 'stuff' but it's well stored, organised and arranged so that our space doesn't look cluttered (I hope!).
Do you like to live in a streamlined way, or is clutter or controlled chaos more the order of the day? What about living space, could you live in the tiny Manhattan studio? Or would you like to have a sprawling home with more rooms than you could use? Do you think bigger = better? Or possibly, like me, just somewhere comfortable that's in between...
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