Living in the Small
Living in the small and also in western Montana means a few things. It means your dwelling space is as dynamic as the weather outside. It means checking the weather can be really helpful in terms of knowing when to open the windows in the early morning to cool down your space in preparation for high temps later on, and when to keep em closed to keep in the heat. It means many little things impact and affect your indoor situation in terms of adding to or subtracting from your level of comfort. It means it’s best to be prepared.
Prior to moving into the woods, we lived in a single-dwelling house in Missoula for 18-years which clocked in at around 550-square feet, which is quite small by U.S standards. We’ve been living in the small for all of our adult life. Mike & I have never known what it means to have a lot of extra space to maneuver around in. We’ve had bigger apartments than others before we bought our last (which was also our first) house, but all of our living quarters have been relatively small. We’ve never had to wonder which room or where the other one of us was when both of us were at home. There were only so many places one could be, and they were all within easy earshot.
Still, everything is relative. While we’ve lived in the small for the past over 25-years, we’re living in the smaller now. Our current cabin is 12X14. We did the math once. I think we determined it equates to somewhere around 220-square feet (which includes the bed loft). So around half the size of our last house. But our cabin is a big step up from where we were living in the duration of time between selling the house and building our cabin: a 1989 Chevy G20 conversion van. Our cabin is way big compared to the van. There’s no one or “right” way to live in the small I guess is what I’m saying.
Prior to living where and how we do now, I never much bothered with checking the weather forecast. It never really seemed to matter for my daily routine. But now I check the weather most every morning because it informs us on what to possibly expect, which is helpful for a number of reasons based on how we’re living. Montana has variable weather and big temperature swings, and not uncommonly in the span of just one day. Any seasoned Montanan knows you don’t leave the house without bringing along layers of clothing to put on or take off. We can get weather of every season in one 24-hour cycle almost at any time of the year. And because western Montana is chockfull of mountains, it’s easy in the summertime to be over-heating in one spot then travel a short distance and be met by a significant drop in temperature to the point where you need a sweater. The variables of weather here are real and many.
This past week, on Monday July 14, it was 95-degrees, full sun. The very next day, the high didn’t make it over 60, and the sky was so full of gray clouds that our solar panels didn’t pull in a drop of sun. This is what I mean by dynamic. Regardless of the season, one never knows what the day will bring here.
Living in the small is also dynamic. By this I mean, when it’s super hot out: any time you open the front door matters and makes a difference to the temperature inside; any time you turn the stove on to heat water or make a meal matters and makes a difference to the temperature inside; any amount of reduction in temperature you can manage to get in the early morning by opening the windows matters and makes a difference to your temperatures inside & throughout the day. So when it’s hot out, we open and close the door when entering and exiting as swiftly and as infrequently as possible; we cook outside; and we monitor when to strategically open and close the windows. When living in the small, you can feel the direct results of certain actions very quickly. If it’s 90+ degrees out and someone opens the door of the cabin and just leaves it open while they grab something before heading back out, you can feel the temperature rise inside. When you live in the small, there’s no buffer of space to disperse acute fluctuations of temperature. When you live in the small, you start to notice the changes straightaway, and you learn to alter and adjust certain actions and activities based on what you can feel is happening and taking place in the space around you.
When living in the small, everything we do and don’t do matters when it comes to what we use and how we use it. And I both like and prefer it this way. Living in the small requires that a person get very clear about what matters most to them in their dwelling space. There isn’t room for extra or useless stuff that doesn’t either assist to your practical needs or add real value to your daily life.
Living in the small isn’t for everyone of course, because, as I’m very fond of saying: nothing is for everyone. I like to state this expressly so as not to give the impression that I somehow think you should live in the small. So I hope that’s not your takeaway from reading this post. I mean. If you’re drawn to living in the small, that’s cool. If not, that’s cool too. Too often when folks talk about something they like or that works for them, it’s with the air of: my way is the right way and you should do it too. So just to be clear, I do not feel this way at all.
For us, living in the small is a lifestyle choice we’ve opted in on, which is based on a few things: what we’ve grown accustomed to based on where we’ve happened to live in the past; our available resources; and an interest in keeping to a minimum our consumer needs. It’s also a way for us to reduce our ecological footprint. It helps us to preserve resources, such as money, time, and the energy it requires to upkeep our dwelling place. It conserves other resources too, such as the amount of wood that’s necessary to heat our cabin in the fall, winter & spring, and how much fuel we need to run the generator in order to keep our house batteries powered up, so as to meet our electricity needs during the bulk of the year when we don’t get enough sun coming in through the PV panels to operate on.
Recently I turned 46-years-old, and at this point in my life I can honestly say that I prefer living in the small. It simplifies a lot of things. Sometimes what can start out as necessity or basic circumstance can turn into something more substantial. Sometimes it can become a way of thinking. A way of life & living.
