How apropos that this topic comes up just after I read the editor's column in my recent "Midwest Living" magazine. The bulk of it was about a Tiny Homes festival called "TinyFest Midwest", that was held near Des Moines, IA. A few points from his column: American homes average twice as much space per person as they did 40 years ago. 8% of households rent off-site storage now, compared to 3% in the 1980s. And a lot about our drive to consumerism.
I'm sure I was born in the wrong decade/century. Before adding on the sun room, our current house was only 120 square feet larger than our first house we had built in 1977. Both of our cars fit into the garage...along with all of the yard equipment and various other garage sundries. I still use my Mom's old stand mixer (circa early 1950s), sit at a table that was a hand-me-over that my Dad refinished in 1977. Much of our furniture is from what we bought when we lived in our first house (1977-1991) if it isn't furniture that my parents' (or my aunt and uncle) had in their home! We aren't much in the way of consumers. Now if I could just get rid of all of the nostalgia stuff in the basement, we could have a much lighter load whenif we move.
We don't have basements in Texas -- tornadoes, but no basements, go figure. All the stuff that people up there stuff into the basement goes into garages, here.
Right now, I only have one car, so I'm not worried about the stuff in my garage. I've had two cars most of my years in this house. Last Spring, we had a bad hailstorm coming, and my neighbor couldn't get his nice car in his garage. He and I managed to get my garage floor cleaned up enough to get his car in next to mine in about five minutes. Granted, my car is a MINI Cooper, which made it easier. But, the point is that I can get two cars in my garage if I had two cars.
Year after year, I've gotten better about not buying things I may want at the moment, but after thinking about it, I decide I don't really need it. I'm not immune to impulse purchases, but I am getting better at resisting them.
CD