Downsizing Your Home

Downsizing your home could be your first step towards reducing your impact on the planet. It could also save you quite a bundle. 

<br><br> "Where do I start downsizing?"  "How do I do it? "Do I need to see a consultant?" These are some of the questions that people ask when they become aware of reducing their consumption and their ecological footprint. And the answer is...

WHY SHOULD I DOWNSIZE MY HOME?

Here is my own house downsizing story.

Eight years ago, I bought this home:

 

It was beautiful. It had over 2,000 square feet of space, three bedrooms and two and a half baths. It had a garage and nearly half an acre of green lawns.

Winter came. Heating bills began to show up in my mailbox. $600 per month! Ouch! My total heating bill for that first year was about $2,500 and the cost of electricity was projected to go up every year.

I researched and investigated every way of making it energy efficient: wall insulation, attic insulation, basement insulation, hot water heater insulation; draftproofing; interior storm windows; new windows; new siding; energy-efficient lightbulbs; alternate energy sources, and so on.  

What I found out is that it would be complicated, expensive, and extremely disruptive.

According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC, a government-owned corporation), in their brochure about Pre-World War II Houses (from the "Renovating for Energy Savings - Case Studies" series), which outlines everything that's wrong with those old houses, and what to do about it:

If all of the recommended improvements ... are carried out, overall energy use can be reduced as shown below. Actual energy use is affected by weather and lifestyle, so specific energy savings may vary...

This brochure applied to my house, which was built in 1928, so I was very interested in the possible outcome of applying all those measures.

The outcome was illustrated in a graphic that showed potential energy savings varying from 29% to 47%, depending on the region. For my area, the figure was 41%, but that was probably based on oil or wood heat, which is how most people heat their homes here. However, I was using electricity, and had neither the intention nor the means to switch to oil or wood.

Therefore, I figured that by spending tens of thousands of dollars, I might save about $750 a year -- some of which would be cancelled out year after year as the price of electrical power increased.

It would take 25 to 30 years to amortize my investment! I couldn't wait around that long.

I loved that house but staying there didn't make any sense. In order to achieve the energy efficiency I was after, I had to sell it and buy a smaller one. I had to downsize.

My next house would have to be:

• cheap, so I could afford to gut it in order to insulate it properly;
• small, so I could afford to heat it, not just now, but in years to come;
• just one storey, so I could stay there into my old age;
• close to everything, so I could continue to walk everywhere;
• close to neighbors, so I could feel safe;
• already built, so I wouldn't waste new resources in constructing it.

This is the small fixer-upper house I purchased for $10,000 and that's how it looked when I acquired it. (As they say, "it had a lot of potential"!)

That house is the subject of this website and you can read all about my project by clicking on the buttons in the navigation bar.

YOU CAN DOWNSIZE BY MAKING YOUR PRESENT HOME SMALLER

Have the kids grown up and moved away? Was your house too big to begin with?

Whatever the circumstance, you might be thinking of reducing your living space without having to move.

In my case, for instance, since I didn't want a second story in the first place, I just sealed it off. That's a lot easier than you think! If you want to see how I did that, see my stair remodeling project.

In summary, the best way to reduce energy consumption is to reduce the size of the house.

This is because the size of our home carries a whole set of consequences.

Let me explain.

ENERGY USE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONSEQUENCES

My big house used more energy for everything, not just for heating, cooling, cooking, washing, etc.

For example, it had a very large yard, which required mowing every few weeks. (It rains a lot here.) Since I don't have the strength for a push mower, in spite of myself I had to buy a gas mower - a noisy, polluting machine.

It had three stories and several rooms, therefore more light bulbs and, well, even with the best intentions one forgets to turn them off sometimes.

It had electronic thermostats in every room, and so I had to keep remembering to go around and turn the heat down when I went out, or at night. Sometimes I would go away for a few days and forget to turn the heat down. (Programmable thermostats don't work for people without a definite routine, and that's the case for me.)

A big house just produces more waste.

Repairing a big house requires more energy because of its sheer size.

My big house contained more stuff than I needed.

The more space you have, the more stuff you buy. And the more stuff you hoard.

Even "good" things like books. Instead of borrowing it from the public library, you buy it. You read it, then you shelve it. After all, you've got all that space, and books look nice, and they make you look intelligent!

But for producing books, trees have to be cut, and that doesn't make me feel very smart.

So, in preparation for moving into my small house, I had to psych myself for saying goodbye to all the books that I haven't read in over a year. (Reference books are excluded from this pruning, of course.)

This was not easy -- I'm extremely attached to my books -- but it was relatively simple to choose which books to get rid of - they have been in boxes in the basement for over a year! There was just no room for them in the apartment I moved to after selling the big house.

And then I thought I might even make a bit of money by selling them on eBay or Amazon Marketplace.

I only keep the books that will fit on one shelf that I built at the top of the new sunroom-office. I also kept the cookbooks that will fit into a small bookcase.

And from then on, I decided to buy mostly used books.

However, I continue to make an exception for books about permaculture and other environmental subjects. Those I like to buy new simply because their authors and publishers need our encouragement in order to keep producing those valuable books, which usually have a very limited circulation.

I also downsized my kitchen, and kept only the utensils that I use regularly.

A big house has a bigger ecological footprint.

In case you're not familiar with the concept, the ecological footprint is

the area of land and water required to support a defined economy or human population at a specified standard of living indefinitely, using prevailing technology.

The premise is that if every person, family or nation on earth lived like Canadians and Americans do, we would require several more planets like this one.

Naturally, a bigger house takes up more of the Earth's space physically, but, also, building it required a lot of resources and generated a lot of waste, and once it has outlived its usefulness, it will produce even more waste.

And most of that waste will probably be toxic.

My small house will have a small garden.

Thanks to my permaculture training (and new methods like Square Foot Gardening), I will be able to grow a lot of food in a small space.

No more lawn! Adiós gas mower!

A FEW TIPS FOR DOWNSIZING

• Downsize your wardrobe. They say if you haven't worn it for a year, you don't need it.
• Downsize your car. (According to environmentalist David Suzuki, "Light cars produce fewer emissions and cost less. Annual fuel costs average $648 for a new Volkswagen Jetta and $2,067 for a Ford Expedition 4x4.")
• Downsize your meal portions. We eat too much and it's killing us and our children. Also, food production depletes the earth's resources.
• Join a Voluntary Simplicity group. They're everywhere.
• Take a permaculture workshop.
• Live within your means. Forget about keeping up with the Joneses - they're probably trying to keep up with the Smiths (who are trying to keep up with the Browns, etc.)!

I'm sure you can think of a thousand more ways to cut down, cut back, cut off... and feel immense relief for doing it.

We are already experiencing the effects of climate change, yet it seems that homes are getting bigger and bigger.

Why are so many of us insensitive to what we are doing to the future generations?

Considering the environment and the present economic situation, downsizing your home seems like quite a rational decision right now, doesn't it?

Do you need more convincing? Then check out this great video about The Story of Stuff. 

Then come back and tell us how you're tackling this downsizing issue.

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