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“What’s life like after living in a tiny apartment?” asked Duarte Geraldino, correspondent for Al Jazeera America’s Real Money With Ali Velshi, last week in my apartment.
“I have a lot less bruises,” I joked. But the truth is, while I may no longer live “tiny,” I came away from living in those 90 square feet with an appreciation for living large. And I’m not talking about space.
Living in that small studio forced me to cut back on stuff, which as a result taught me that owning less stuff meant fewer hours spent putting that stuff away. I also came to realize that living in a smaller space meant fewer hours cleaning it, not to mention working fewer hours to pay a higher rent. In a nutshell, small space dwellers have more time to do the things they enjoy.
Now that I live in an apartment almost five times larger (though that’s not saying much), I am still living by those same lessons. Sure, I now have a couch and a kitchen, but I have the same amount of stuff that I did in the small apartment. It’s like someone who gets a huge pay increase and continues to live as though they’re making the original salary and saving the extra money. In a sense I’m saving the extra space. For what?
Glad you asked.
In the years I have lived in my new apartment I have had several parties, often filling my (extra) space with over 20 friends and family and never once feeling cramped. At one time living with less was a necessity, now it’s a choice. And I choose friends and family over stuff every time.
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