I don't want a tiny home

Can I still be called a minimalist if I don't want a tiny home? Of course I can!! Is there a rule that as a minimalist we should automatically want to live in a tiny home? Nope!

Even though I don't want to live in a tiny home (less than 500 square feet), I don't want a mansion either. The bigger the house, the more time it takes to maintain it. Who really wants to spend a whole weekend cleaning up and maintaining things? Not me, that's for sure!

In my current two-bedroom apartment, which is approximately 850 square feet, when I decide it's clean up time it usually takes me a little over an hour, two at most if we've been a little messy that week. That includes dusting everything, vacuuming and washing the floors.

What I want is a home with enough room for the things I decided to hold on to and with room to spare. Not so I can add stuff to the home, but so that I have room to just be. I like open spaces. Think of an art gallery. I like how they leave room between artworks so that we can appreciate their beauty. That's what I want in my home. Room between the items I decided to keep to better appreciate their beauty/usefulness.

I used to dream of a house with an extra room I could turn into my personal study/library. Every wall lined with book-filled bookshelves. A writing desk, one or two big leather chairs. If I could get it, it would also have had a wood-burning fireplace.

Now, I'd love to have a room with nothing in it but a beautiful area rug and a comfortable armchair. Nothing hanging on the white walls. No curtains to obstruct my view of the outside. Somewhere I can go sit in peace and think or clear my mind. But I suppose if I minimize the amount of items I own, my whole apartment could feel like that, even though it won't be so sparse.

So if I'm living alone, I think an apartment that's approximately 700 square feet would suite me just fine. But I guess to some, that would be a tiny home.


Comments

  1. Clearwing12 June 2016 at 02:03

    I am with you on this. I used to fantasize about having a tiny home (since that's how I was first introduced to minimalism), but I think I would rather just utilize some of the cool multifunctional space-saving things usually associated with tiny houses, like walls on wheels or lofted beds.

    On second thought, I would love to have a room with hardwood floors and just a rocking chair, potentially a candle to light the room, like something from a few hundred years ago. I think the talk of square footage gets a little out of hand, especially when the things you own aren't supposed to matter.

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