A Boston Family

Avg Sq Ft of New Single Family Homes

Recently Ashley's father, "Dad", who lives on the South Shore, griped about all the time he has spent clearing snow off his driveway. We joked that he could avoid that if he moved to the city, knowing we would have to kill him, cremate him and put him in an urn to make that happen. He grew up in what was once a rural part of upstate New York and often speaks about his idyllic childhood there. He cannot fully empathize with our decision to live in Boston.

He might find it interesting to know that in at least one small way (pardon the pun) our urban life closely reflects that of his childhood. His current suburban home is ~3400 sq ft, not including the attic, garage, basement and shed; that is ~1700 sq ft per person (more than twice the current median of 800 sq ft per person in metropolitan areas).[1] In the 1950s (when he was born) the average American house size was 983 sq ft.[2] Growing up, Dad's family of four lived in such a home with ~250 sq ft per person. Our family of four currently has ~300 sq ft per person in our home.

It is not just the U.S. of days past where smaller home sizes were common. Even today people in other countries live in much smaller homes than Americans (see chart above right).

Interestingly in these days of McMansions, another buzz word has cropped up in American cities, micro-apartments, referring to housing units smaller than studios and intended for single young professionals.[3] "Some high-end homeowners are [also] shaving square footage off of their new homes," according to a recent Wall Street Journal article, Luxury Homes that are Better, Not Bigger. Are Americans starting to see the wisdom in smaller homes?

Less is More 

Making the Most of Limited Space

Use of Ceiling and Walls

Bed and Storage Chest in One

Employ Multipurpose, Compact and Collapsible Items: Storage furniture including storage beds and ottomans serve double duty. My favorite multipurpose item is actually my iPhone. A myriad of applications make it useful for almost anything imaginable. The Best Baby Monitor application allows us to keep an eye on our children no matter where we are or go and has saved us from spending money on a baby monitor which is not necessary in our small space.

Manufacturers make a number of compact and collapsible items for babies. The 4moms rockaroo is a new baby swing that is 70% smaller than a typical standing baby swing. Boon recently launched a new version of their Patch bottle drying rack that is made for small kitchens. Cariboo's folding bassinet is a wonderful collapsible item.

Baby items made for travel also may be used in the house and not only are they often more compact but they can be used for their intended purpose, travel as well. Some people we know use a pack 'n' play for their infants rather than a bassinet or crib.

For the dining room, this luxury collapsible/extendable table which extends from 17" to 115" is high on our wishlist.


Know What You Don't Need: That book you already read, a changing table for baby, and that sweater you have not worn the past two winters are all items you do not need. After we married and moved from our two apartments to our one new home, we loaded all of our CDs onto our computers (if you do this back them up on another hard drive) and recycled the discs at Best Buy. We went through our books and admitted we would never open 95% of them again and donated them to a book drive. Extra linens that would never be used were donated to the local animal shelter.

When our daughter was born, we poured over sample registries and quickly learned what items are unnecessary; changing table, wipes warmer, bottle warmer, etc. We like our Stokke Tripp Trapp high chairs that grow with our kids, but you can just as easily and for less space have a booster seat attached to a dining chair. We frequently see toys at our daughter's friends home and remind each other that it is in fact good that she does not own every toy that each of her friends has; novel toys are part of what make play dates fun.

Behind Closed Doors

Borrow, Rent and Share: When a friend had her first baby a year after us, we loaned her all of our gear; baby bathtub, Bumbo, jumper, play mat, bottles, etc. She recently gave us everything back for our second child. In the interim period, we did not have to store our baby things.

Mom offered us a carpet steamer she was giving away (she moved to a place with all hardwood floors). However, rather than store this, w just rent a carpet steamer from Home Depot a few times per year. As much as we love skiing, we do not have the opportunity to go often enough to warrant owning and storing our own skis. We rent when we go. Last week a neighbor borrowed our pie dish. Last year when hanging new curtain rods, we borrowed another neighbors hammer drill. Again, we do not each need to own one of everything.