What size is "small"?

[Seven]

I love looking at websites about small homes. There's just one thing that bothers me: The sizes they call small.
My boyfriend and me share a 40square meter/ 430 square feet apartment. It has a small corridor, a bathroom with enough space for a tub, sink, toilet and washing machine, a living room with a kitchen nook, and a bedroom. The living room has a couch, two bookshelves and a desk. The bedroom has another desk, the bed, and three cupboards.

Everyone seems to think that's terribly small, and people claim they'd need walk-in closets, a laundry room, a TV room, dining room, and worst of all "Wouldn't know where to put any of their stuff".
To me, my home just looks normal. It's what we can pay afford. If you ask me, a "small home" is something like a trailer or the famous cabin in the woods.


What size of home would you call "small"? Or "tiny home"?

[kib]

I think it really depends on the circumstances. If you're in a residential neighborhood around here and ask a realtor to show you a small home, it will be around 900-1200 sq. feet. A small apartment will probably be around 650 sq. A Tiny Home, on the other hand, is a wee and special thing, probably no more than 350 sq, and unlikely to be listed as real estate at all.

OTOH, in Manhattan, a small apartment can be as small as perhaps 200 sq. feet and still be considered a viable dwelling on the real estate market.

And of course there's the semantic aspect of this. "Small" doesn't necessarily mean "too small", just as if you happen to wear a size S, then that is what is perfect for you.

[catherine]

That's why I have such a love/hate relationship with HGTV. It's fun to get ideas for stuff, but OTOH, those buyers make me want to throw something at the TV--the ones who need a 2000 sq.ft kitchen for entertaining, and two closets in the master bath, and bathrooms all over the place (and of course theirs has to be "ensuite." And they need two sinks in the bathrooms because God forbid your DH shaves and leaves any stubble in YOUR sink.

The thing is, everything is relative. A lot of the post-war homes, the Levittown homes and all the homes in the suburban sprawl that took place in the 50s, were fine--then. The house my father built was a Cape Cod, 4 small bedrooms, a small living room, average size kitchen and dining area, and 1-1/2 baths. That was normal.

Then in the 70s, people had to have "family rooms" in addition to "living rooms" which expanded the need for more square footage.

Then in the 80s, everyone had to have a jacuzzi, which expanded the sizes of the bathrooms. By then, I think most people insisted on two full baths. When I tell people I raised 4 kids in a house with only 1 full bath they look at me as if I'm crazy.

And then of course, came the 90s, with the invasion of the McMansions with huge foyers, kitchens, bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, etc. When we moved into our house in 1985, our neighborhood was the "movin' on up" neighborhood, where houses were larger than the little 50s ranches that were built in the 50s. But then in the 90s, a new development was built across the road and a lot of my friends "moved on up" out of my neighborhood and into McMansionville.

I consider those little Cape Cod houses, the kind I grew up in, to be small houses now, but I would definitely downsize into one. Your home sounds like it's on the small side of "small." I lived in a house about that size, and I absolutely loved it. It felt perfect to me.

Tiny on the other hand are the 200 sq feet and under homes. Those are the homes that I would love to think I could live in, but in reality would require severe lifestyle modification.

Cool question

[kib]

Oh, I know, Catherine. "No, this house will never work, there's only one sink in the master bath." "I couldn't live with a green bedroom." "This brand new granite doesn't really match the brand new cherry cabinets, we'd have to replace it, and expand the kitchen, because it doesn't look like the one in the magazine - where would we put the 8' pot rack?"

I'd like to take a poll: how many people here actually use the bathroom sink at the same time as their mate? We certainly don't. And these are typically houses with two or three other bathrooms. If you look at the sponsors of these shows, I think the editors pick and choose buyer's stupid comments in the hopes this will encourage viewing home owners to rip out bathrooms, kitchen counters and anything else that would be profitable for the home renovation sector.

[ApatheticNoMore]

Frankly knowing what size place you live in seems odd. I suppose one would have to measure every room with a tape measure and do the math. Because in the apartments I've lived in, it's not like it says on the rental agreement or something. But it's a fairly standard one bedroom so I suppose it's about 650ft from what kib says.

[Gardenarian]

ANM -My dd did this as a homeschooling project. She measured all our rooms and got the total area. Then she measured just the perimeter of each floor and tried it that way. Neither measurements (I double checked them) were anything like the number of square feet that our house was said to have when we purchased it. (she got 1300-1500, the city said around 2000.) On the other hand, our lot was slightly larger.

Our new house has about the same square footage as our old, but much more usable space as it is all on one floor (no stairwells.) The rooms are smaller but are not oddly shaped, so there is more usable wall space.

For my part, I consider anything under 900sf to be a "small" house.

[JaneV2.0]

Small? Upper limit 1200 sq. ft. Tiny? Less than 500. Totally arbitrary.

[pinkytoe]

We are often told by realtors that our house at 1600 sf is small. Oh the shame - only one and a half bathrooms we are told. Only two bedrooms oh dear. When all the new homes going up around us are 3500-4000+ sf, then yes, we are small. But they have the presently mandatory bathroom for each bedroom, media room, exercise room, blah blah. Our space is perfect for us especially because the cats get the half bath all to themselves.

[Dhiana]

A friend of mind inherited one of those Levittown, PA houses and it is one of my most favorite houses to have lived in! Just the basics with hot water heated flooring to keep the home toasty!

We are currently on the hunt for an apartment and having a basic idea of square footage helps although layout makes an even bigger difference. We are looking for something in the 700 - 850sq ft range. Any more than that and it's more cleaning than I want to do

[Seven]

Thanks for so many answers - looks like this is a topic lots of people wonder about.

those buyers make me want to throw something at the TV

I know, right like they hate their family and want an extra room and bathroom for each person, so they don't have to meet.

I suppose one would have to measure every room with a tape measure and do the math.

I actually never did that. The numbers I wrote are what's in the contract.

We are currently on the hunt for an apartment and having a basic idea of square footage helps although layout makes an even bigger difference.

That's true. I've seen some weird layouts - one of the apartments I looked at had a bigger living room, but the bedroom was exactly the size of a bed. So there was no door (it wouldn't have anywhere to swing open), only a curtain, and you had to crawl onto the bed, and there was not even an inch of floor visible.

We are looking for something in the 700 - 850sq ft range. Any more than that and it's more cleaning than I want to do

One of the nice points of a small home: I can plug in the vacuum cleaner at one point, and vacuum the whole place. Within ten minutes.