A lot of things are getting bigger – like your smartphone, which is about to feature foldable screens. According to the United States Census that’s what happened to our homes over the years, too.
In 1950, the average size of an American home was just 983 square feet. By 1973, it had grown to 1,660 square feet. In 2010, the average size of an American home had increased to nearly 2,400 square feet. Not everybody’s a fan of these giants. In fact, many people are choosing to downsize. They’re not necessarily interested in a tiny home – which generally is classified as such because it’s 500 square feet or less – but they are looking for something that’s around 1,000 square feet. Sure, it can be about the money, but there are ways that going small can make a big increase in your quality of life.
Clean Less, Enjoy More
The Bureau of Labor Statistics actually keeps track of the amount of time the average adult spends cleaning their house. Maybe that shouldn’t be surprising. It is work, after all. According to the latest report, here’s how it breaks down:
- 13 minutes per day cleaning up the kitchen after meals.
- 17 minutes per day on laundry.
- 29 minutes per day on interior cleaning tasks.
- 7 minutes per day maintaining the lawn, garden, and houseplants
That’s an hour and six minutes of daily cleaning. What we don’t know is how big this average house that the average American adult is cleaning. So, let’s take the statistical 2,400 square foot home the average American has lived in since 2010.
If you downsized to something around 1,000 to 1,200 square feet, you could theoretically save yourself more than half an hour of housecleaning every single day.
Own Less
Have you ever noticed that the amount of stuff you own is directly proportional to the amount of space you have to put it in? Large houses give you more reasons to spend money on furniture and interior decoration.
Owning a smaller house will cost you less to purchase, and then you’ll spend less reaching that directly proportional state of filling it up with stuff. Use the money instead to purchase experiences.
More Time
You’ll want to focus on those experiences because you spend less time and money cleaning and buying stuff to fill up your smaller house. The time savings for house cleaning will give you back more than eight days a year. (33 minutes X 365 days = 12,045 minutes or 200 hours).
One of the selling points of a big house is that everybody gets their own bedroom and there are extra rooms so everybody can have space of their own. As a result families end up not spending much time together. So, if you want more time, and more quality time with your spouse and children, a smaller home is a consideration.
Small is the New Big
One of the reasons why people shy away from the idea of a smaller house is that they feel…well, small. We’ve solved that problem. Our metal and steel residence and cabin designs feature clear span trusses that create beautiful open vertical spaces. Request free information from us if you’re thinking about downsizing.
