Simple Little House Seduction

Dear Elaine,
I wanted to respond to your invitation to readers to share their ideas about the things that complicate their lives. One of mine is the "bigger is better" philosophy. It seems to apply to so many things: houses, cars, food... In most cases, I don't think it's making us better -- just more stressed, wasteful, polluting, in debt and fat.

My husband and I once had a house that was way too large, and I didn't enjoy the maintenance and time that it took out of my life.

So when we were going through a corporate transfer and were house-hunting, we decided that we didn't want to live in a big suburban starter castle -- we were searching for a modest home in an established neighborhood with mature trees within walking distance of the necessities.

I finally found what I was looking for, and it was love at first sight. Built in the 1920s, it looked like a cottage you might find in England or France. It was one story, made of stone, with a slate roof, diamond-paned leaded windows with wavy glass, wide-plank wood floors throughout, 18-inch-thick exterior walls, solid wood-paneled doors, a wood-beamed ceiling in the living room and quality materials throughout. It was in move-in condition, and the price was right.

So what was the problem? Size. It had three small bedrooms, one bathroom, a living room, dining room, kitchen, small utility area and a one-car detached garage. That's it. Storage was minimal. There was a closet in each bedroom, but they were only about 5 feet long -- definitely not the walk-in variety.

When my husband saw the house, he said, "You must be kidding. Once you get your stuff in, where am I going to live? One bathroom? Oh sure. Even if we were able to get our bed in one of those rooms, we couldn't even walk around it. Which room are you going to turn into a closet?"

I'm sure that when that house was built, it accommodated a family: husband, wife, probably two kids, maybe three. Times were different, and we do use a lot of appliances and things that were not available then.

Nevertheless, I was dismayed that here we were just two people, and we couldn't fit ourselves into this wonderful house. I later learned that it was purchased by a single woman who was planning to turn one of the bedrooms into a closet.

Even though I didn't get to enjoy a permanent relationship with it as my home, that little house gave me the incentive to continue to examine my needs (and my stuff) and focus on values such as quality over quantity, better rather than bigger, and less is more. I don't want to miss out again should the opportunity ever come along. Thank you, little house. -- Julia Smith Grossman

Dear Julia,
No doubt many can relate to your story. I moved out of a large home into a smaller space and have never looked back. Having less space meant having more time, more energy and more opportunity to enjoy it. I regularly hear from people who've done the same. And while it's true that those charming little cottages probably don't hold what most of us have come to think of as necessities, it's so easy to cross over the line to the point where too much is just too much. Thanks for the reminder.

Elaine St. James is the author of Simplify Your Work Life (Hyperion, 2001).

Copyright 2001 Elaine St. James. Distributed by Universal Press Syndicate.

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