Downsizing Your Home

WHY SHOULD I DOWNSIZE MY HOME?

Because it's undoubtedly the very best way to go green and:

• Reduce your energy consumption
• Reduce your use of resources
• Reduce your ecological footprint
• Reduce your overall consumption of "stuff"

YOU CAN DOWNSIZE BY MOVING TO A SMALLER HOME

• 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

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'm simply sealing 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'm psyching 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 is not going to be easy -- I'm extremely attached to my books -- but on the other hand it will be easy 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.

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

I will only keep the books that will fit on one shelf that I will build all around the new sunroom-office, above the windows. I will also keep the cookbooks that will fit into a bookcase I'm building for them in the kitchen.

And from then on, I will buy mostly used books.

However, I will 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 will also downsize my kitchen, and keep 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

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 people insensitive to what they 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 website about The Story of Stuff.

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