SMALL HOUSE
FLOOR PLANS AND IDEAS
Small house floor plans are those incorporating less than 1000 square feet of interior space. This is pretty much accepted as the rule of thumb, but it hasn't always been so. In the fifties, the average American home (with 2.7 children) was 1100 square feet. Today the average family lives in just over twice that. But, a trend seems to indicate people are beginning to explore the idea of living with less ... space, that is.
 Smaller living environments could include a beach house, a bungalow, a functional well designed RV, a nice cottage, a ranch plan or some really cool unusual house. If your particular small house floor "plans" mean you are now living in a small house, plan to stay there and wish to improve it, or think you may want to live in one, read on.
But, before you put your home up for sale, check out the info here: Home Staging - The comprehensive home staging website detailing staging careers, training and DIY staging (opens a new window).Outdoor and indoor cooking options to compliment your new smaller home can be found at GAS GRILLS! Here you'll find Hibachis, grills, smokers and accessories (opens a new window). There's certain adjustments you need to make to condition yourself to living full time in a small house. Floor plans make a huge difference, but let's work with what you have.__________________________________________
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__________________________________________ A GUIDE TO GETTING SMALLER:• A Place for Everything, and Everything in its Place
Floor space is a premium. Like retail space, the actual small house floor plans or area is valuable real estate! If you are like most of us, you get a little careless when putting things away at times, but that habit becomes more and more problematic the less space you have. What worked in your 2600 sq. ft. suburban home may not work in a 986 sq. ft. bungalow. You should really concentrate on developing cabinets, closets and storage areas (floor to ceiling, if possible) to hold your possessions, where you can A) see them easily, B) get to them easily and C) make sense of it.
• Keep Your House Floor Plan Always in Mind
The configuration of the actual "footprint", what we're calling the house floor plan, is your guide to creating space. A long, skinny home has different possibilities than a square home. Attic "space" might be turned into attic storage, or even living space, if allowed by the codes. If you don't have a set of house floor plans of your home, and you intend to do any major work, remember; hand-drawn—if accurate—is usually accepted for permits.
• Think: "Double Duty"
LOTS of things can have a split personality, and add precious space to your house floor plan! A window seat that becomes storage for all your guest blankets, pillows and sheets, a futon for a couch, a covered deck with a vegetable garden, the kitchen window for "living" herbs and spices ... well you get the picture.
 • Do you Really need that?
Sounds simple, but most folks find it hard to let go. That old toaster you replaced with a new multi-function one, the chair nobody sits in, kitchen appliances you had before you were married, artwork that really isn't art. Take stock and get brutal! Giving things to Goodwill puts money in your pocket at tax time (get receipts) and selling stuff on eBay
or Craigslist puts money in your pocket immediately. Throwing useless items away puts space and sanity in your life. If you're a "hoarder", though, maybe you shouldn't be thinking about a small house floor plan at at all. Meditate on it.
• Think About your Acquisitions
Here's a cool mindset to get into; when considering a purchase, think of something you can live without. Especially if the thing you are considering takes up floor space. For instance, you'd like to have a new recliner. Can you live without that flower-patterned ottoman? An espresso machine? How about trashing that ugly little piggy cookie jar? Got an old tower computer with a 50 pound monitor? Laptops are pretty inexpensive these days. Do you really need a special place to do your computer stuff, or could you work sitting on that new recliner?
• Use the Vertical Space
Look around. Your house floor plans don't tell the whole space story. Concentrate only on the space between the top of cabinets or shelving and the ceiling. A three foot wide shelving unit has about six square feel of useable space on top! Your refrigerator has maybe twice that. No matter how much you try and cut down on your possessions, you'll most likely have some things you seldom use. This is the place for those things. Get a folding step stool you can store beside that refrigerator.
• Think Outside the Corrugated Cardboard Box
Here's an idea; Get a box large enough to put everything you keep shuffling around (all those things constantly in your way whenever you're looking for something you actually need) and only take one at a time out as you need it and don't put it back in the box. In six months, see what's left. What you'll be looking at are those items that are continually plotting to make your life more confusing and cluttered. Feel good that you foiled their scheme and act accordingly.
• Some Final Considerations
• Be thoughtful in your actions and choices. If you don't need it, don't get it.
• Go paperless. A file cabinet is nice, but this is the 21st century, and computers are made with gigabytes and gigabytes of storage. Back up everything, of course, or store stuff online, which has the added advantage of being accessible from anywhere.
• Important or most used items should command space easily accessible, while those things you only use from time to time not so much. I believe deep pantries and vanities were made for just that purpose.
• Get in the habit of putting stuff away right after use. You gotta put 'em away anyway, right? There's an ancient belief that if you do something for 21 days in a row, it becomes habit. I don't know if that's really true, but it works for me.
• Don't think small house floor plans will be easier to keep clean. Traffic dirt patterns are more pronounced because you're more likely to walk in the same pattern more often, dusting may become a problem as things are closer to each other and things like a shirt over a chair, a dirty dish or unopened mail on the table stands out more in smaller spaces.
 • Consider skylights. More light is more better. And, tubular skylights (image right) can be installed on a Saturday by anyone, and most cost less than $200 each complete.
• Lighten up. Not only should you maintain a more relaxed attitude, but choose colors designed to trick the eye into believing your small house floor plan is actually a much larger space. Colors like whites, eggshell, light earth colors, etc. Dark colors for accents and small areas. Remember the "60-30-10 Rule." Put simply, its 60% dominant color, 30% secondary color, 10% accent.
• Think about everything you own as a potential for adding space. A stackable washer/dryer combo, a TV with built in DVD player, a self contained music system (like Bose®) or a dining room side table/office desk.
• If you're remodeling to change the actual house floor plans and are planning on doing some work, think about cutting down your existing interior walls and making them half walls. Visually this is one of the best ways of "adding space" to your home. The more open, the larger it looks. Make sure they're not load-bearing walls and talk to your local building permit office.
So, get thinking! I lived in a 600 sq. ft. cabin in the mountains once and loved it. Everything I needed was there and once I got my efficiency-meter adjusted, it was really an easy, fun experience!
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