As soon as I landed in the UK, I noticed how much smaller everything is – from the roads, to houses, to fridges, everything seems minisucle compared to the U.S. It got me thinking – smaller is most certainly Greener! I have eaten out a few times and the portions are half the size of restaurant portions in the U.S. I bought an egg sandwich for lunch today, which would have appalled most Americans, as it was less than half the size of what my local deli serves back home. However, I was completely satisfied and ate every crumb. My daughter, who is normally totally outfaced by large portions (and I hate throwing food away), is so much more comfortable being able to eat everything on her plate. Generally speaking the smaller houses require much less energy, and the vehicles look like Polly Pocket toys compared to the SUV’s back home. The few friends I have here who have managed to buy whacking great homes, have had to close off multiple rooms because they can’t afford to heat them during this credit crunch. I’m really into downsizing and I’ve noticed a lot of my friends are too. My best friend, whose been hankering after a bigger family home for years, announced the other day that she’s totally made peace with her current home and doesn’t mind at all that her two girls will grow up sharing a room. She admitted that she’s always felt a need to keep up with the fancy, schmancy parents at her kid’s school and that now she couldn’t care less because downsizing has become cool. She also said its bought her family closer together, as they all sit in the kitchen to do homework, computer, read etc, while she turns off the heating/cooling in the living room.
I’ve become obsessed with looking at tiny houses and I love the Tumbleweed Homes. They are so adorable and cozy-looking (pictured). Spending time on their website is like browsing for doll houses. I’m not sure how I’d fare living in a tiny space, but I may find out in the not too distant future!
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I grew up in a family of 6 children. My grandmother always lived with us and we only had a 4 bedroom house with 2 bathrooms! Sometimes we lived in a house with only 3 bedrooms and either the boys or the girls would sleep on the porch. We were happy. I’ve never understood why people move up to larger houses as their children get older. What do 2 people do with 3,000 square feet? We have about 1900 and only use a small part of it. It is just 2 of us and we seldom use the living room and guest room. On a recent trip to Canada I noticed how small the rooms are and it ws the same in Ireland. They have small closets but they don’t have nearly as many clothes as we do and certainly not as much stuff. We could all use some down-sizing.