Lately I've been intrigued by the idea of living well in a smaller home. Like many of you, I've been dismayed by the attempts to call huge luxury homes "green" because they have cork floors in the media room and every massive appliance is Energy Star rated. Given the state of the economy, people are getting the idea that a smaller home is better. Smaller certainly has a better chance of being truly greener.
I've lived in typical suburban homes all my life, the kind with two or three bedrooms and maybe a family room, between 1,000 and 2,000 square feet of living space and a back yard. I still own such a home where I spend the greater part of the year.
Why is living in this 23-foot trailer so enjoyable? In part it is where the trailer is--a beautiful place with a mild climate. In part it's being with family I love. But it's more than that.
I made a list of what I enjoy about this trailer:
1. Companionship with my husband.
We can be together while doing separate things--watching TV, reading, consulting work, writing this blog. We talk. We have fun. We enjoy being together quietly, each engrossed in our own activity. In a big house we keep losing each other.
2. More time for recreation.
There is still cleaning and maintenance, but a lot less than for a house. My husband goes paragliding and I go cycling. We have our own hobbies and interests, but we do a lot of everyday tasks as a team. Most of our time is discretionary. We cherish spontaneity.
3. Connectivity to the out-of-doors.
This trailer of one room plus a bathroom has seven windows, three operational skylights, and two doors with separate screen doors. It's always light and bright no matter what the angle of the sun or amount of cloud cover. We can regulate the temperature and control the breezes as the day passes. There is a furnace if it's cold and if it's hot, we choose to use a fan instead of the air conditioner.
I awaken to bird songs. Butterflies flutter right outside my door. The rain pitter-patters on the roof. It is the most tranquil and relaxing place I have ever experienced since childhood summers on the little back porch of my family home.
4. An interior space with a place for everything, and everything in its place.
I've always admired the traditional Japanese home for its simple lines and lack of clutter. The built-ins of travel trailers or other RV's, if nicely done, give this same feeling of serenity while keeping everything you really need handy where you use it. After living in a completely built-in room, the boxy rooms of typical home construction and free-standing furniture seem to waste a great deal of space, and large spaces can be very unhandy. Storage is often too high, too low, or too deep to grab things, use them, and put them right back. In traditional homes, functionality and comfort often take a back seat to style and show.
5. A really comfortable bed.
The queen-sized platform bed has a thin mattress, so we put a $20 foam topper on it. It's totally comfortable. We spent a great deal more money to sleep as well in our house. We move arm bolsters from the couch to the bed to prop up our pillows when we want to sit up and read, and I also knit there. Built-in lighting and cabinetry make it a delightful spot for many activities, keeping everything I'm using handy. We have an inexpensive comforter as the top layer of the bedding and don't worry about the wear we are giving it by using our bed as an activity center.
The bed is an important space for sorting things out, but those things get put away promptly. We keep it an uncluttered, inviting spot to work a Sudoku puzzle, nap, or just stretch out our backs.
6. Efficient use of energy and resources.
Perhaps the single best green advantage of a small home is that you can't fill it with stuff that is not useful and used. There is no spot in our trailer for a table lamp, no spot to display collectibles, and only one short piece of wall on which to hang decoration. Kitchen appliances are kept to a bare minimum. There is no place for holiday decorations and no place to keep the stuff the rest of the year. It really extinguishes a woman's shopping habit! And that is a very green thing.
The small shower/tub doesn't let you get more than your feet soaking, but the built-in seat and hand-held shower option mimic the comfort of more spacious arrangements. One uses very little water without feeling deprived. The trailer toilet has been no problem for us and uses a very small amount of water as well. For a stationary trailer, there needs to be a sewer connection available close by. Dumping the black water and gray water tanks is a regular maintenance task of living in a travel trailer.
Obviously the trailer would not be energy efficient in a cold climate. The windows are single-pane, for instance. The water line would freeze. The furnace design requires that one window be cracked open at all times. In a mild climate, the ability to open skylights, to cool down rapidly when the sun gets low, and the small space if heat is necessary, make the trailer a fairly good green home.
How to apply the lessons learned?
As I've indicated in other posts about our trailer, we use the family house next to us for preparing supper, baking bread, doing laundry, and storing our recreational gear. We have access to a tool shed and a patio with a clothesline. We spend some time with my sister every day. Entertainment of mutual friends and family takes place in her home (though we once did have five for dinner in the trailer--cozy and fun!).
So, to enjoy our lifestyle, we do need more than just 176 square feet--that's the interior measurement I computed. One solution is to organize small homes around communal spaces, and many apartment and condominium complexes are set up like that today. Perhaps one day we will live in such an arrangement.
But how can we apply the lessons learned in our trailer to our situation back in Iowa, to the vast numbers of free-standing single family homes across the nation? The climate makes a huge difference to most people. When a bad Iowa winter comes along, people get cabin fever. Friction develops even in harmonious families. It's a wonderful thing to have a family room or basement workshop or game room for family members to escape to, and to get children out from underfoot.
The nation's large homes aren't going to go away because they are too spacious to be green. We need to find a way of retrofitting homes to meet new climate and energy challenges. We need to find ways of sheltering more people in these homes--raising the number of residents per home reduces the carbon footprint of everyone living there, without doing one thing more.
Given all that, there's still a need for new small home designs that utilize different construction methods, reducing raw materials consumption and construction waste. We need new small home designs that connect to communal spaces and others that work stand-alone in rural areas. We need designs that incorporate passive solar techniques and alternative energy sources, that collect rainwater from roofs and shunt gray water into gardens. Do-it-yourselfers have achieved these designs already, and the affluent can afford custom designs. Now we need to make it easier for the less adventurous ordinary folk to have the option to live this way also.
In my mind I am already thinking "outside the box" about the boxy rooms in my Iowa home that once seemed just fine, but now I realize they do not meet my needs as well as they could. For the time being, I can't make the house smaller or add more people to it, but I can use my list of valued features to make my home more convenient, more comfortable, more fun--and more green.
I couldn't agree more, Joyce. I've lived the RV lifestyle exclusively for over 10 years and find most RV parks do that 'communal spaces' thing you mention to one extent or another. I'm going to keep your suggestions handy to pass along to my 'stick home' friends as food for thought.
Happy Greening!
Don
Posted by: Don LeCouteur | February 17, 2009 at 05:57 AM
Anne Michelson wrote a similar post about Living Small in a micro-house. I cant decide whether its really worth the move.
Andy Greene
Going Green for Rednecks
Posted by: Andy Greene | July 05, 2009 at 09:19 AM
Good for you. You have learned what is really important in life. I also feel better when my house is clutter free and I have more time to spend with my family. Thanks for your post!
Posted by: Chris | October 27, 2009 at 12:00 PM
Oh I just love the small home-less to to clean concept! I live in a 90 square meter house and it is such a bother to clean- I do need the space for the studio but I just can't be bothered to clean all the time! I miss my one room apartment now LOL
Posted by: Movers | January 24, 2010 at 12:33 AM
I've found that shrinking my living space as I get older is looking more and more attractive. Less to worry about keeping clean and in its place and more time to enjoy the good things.
Posted by: Tom | January 26, 2010 at 05:52 PM
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful for me.
Posted by: Betonherstel uitvoering | January 28, 2010 at 08:36 AM
Wow! Sounds like just the right thing to do. In a set-up like this one, you are not just closer to nature but closer to your partner as well!
Posted by: Study in UK | February 14, 2010 at 03:45 AM
Thank you, everyone who has commented.With your encouragement I will go forward on this topic.
And yes, the togetherness that my husband and I experience in our little abode is a contrast to losing each other in the big house, where we spend too much time in separate rooms. Most activities are more enjoyable when done in each others presence. The older we get, the more we treasure time together.
Our trailer is coming up on its 5th birthday. Five years of sun and heat (whether or not we are staying there) and months-per-year use of mechanical systems are beginning to take a toll. We've tried to take meticulous care of our trailer, but maintenance and repair of an RV is a learning experience. More about that soon--your comments and experiences welcomed!
Posted by: Joyce Emery | February 14, 2010 at 11:03 AM
Easy option to get useful information as well as share good stuff with good ideas and concepts.
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Posted by: Betonschade reparatie | February 15, 2010 at 09:07 AM
Agree on the cost. I think some of the other hurdles right now to RV home maintenance are:
1) Most of us have a lot more experience with traditional home maintenance and repair, and RV construction and systems are new to us. Information on how they actually work seems difficult to obtain, proprietary to each manufacturer.
2) While it seems like RV living is widespread in the USA, availablility of parts, expertise, and labor is harder to find than going down to the local home improvement store.
3) My hope as an environmentalist is that RVs are driven or towed around the country much less as time goes on. If the trend started by the recession does continue, it will negatively affect the RV market and there will be even fewer service options and replacement parts for those living in RVs. Result: very poor people will live in RVs and others desiring small greener homes will make different choices.
4) A hint to the growing market in small, modular, more sustainable home designs--in order to ramp up on these, we need standardized parts and locally available service outlets. Partnering with existing RV and/or modular home manufacturers to produce static modular homes that use less energy and materials than traditional homes would seem to be a win-win situation. I believe some partnering has already occurred.
Posted by: Joyce Emery | February 16, 2010 at 11:50 AM
It's not just a norm - it's also really important, we have to let the "greeness" enter to every corner of our life, of course - even when you moving into a new house or renovating the current.
The whole thing is to find the cheapest and most effective ways to move forward, without having to spend too much, it's not complicated if you really want.
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Posted by: Account Deleted | May 12, 2010 at 01:48 AM
The whole thing is to find the cheapest and most effective ways to move forward, without having to spend too much, it's not complicated if you really want. Sounds like just the right thing to do. In a set-up like this one, you are not just closer to nature but closer to your partner as well!
Posted by: Betonrenovatie met garantie | June 15, 2010 at 03:56 AM
I also lived it a trailer for almost a year with my girlfriend. We took a trip across the states, coast to coast, and those great things you have enjoyed from living in trailer are familiar for me. The reading reminded me the wonderful times we had. Thanks for shearing, this wonderful post.
Posted by: moving quotes | October 03, 2010 at 06:04 AM
I loved concept of small home with green living. My new home is almost ready. I am shifting there next month. I will take care of all the points shared by you. Thank you very much !
Posted by: Moving Company | October 23, 2010 at 10:14 AM
Personal energy use is going to be such a massive thing in the next decade or two.
With so many large buildings already in existence, perhaps they'll be divided up into tiny personal living spaces with communal facilities like bathrooms and kitchens - a bit like your own arrangements Joyce.
This might use less resources than retrofitting large buildings with the newest energy efficient technologies just to have the same number of people living in them.
Posted by: MH | November 01, 2010 at 11:37 AM