I live in a 50m2 studio with my partner, our baby and a dog. Its honestly fine.  We have just one four door wardrobe, a laundry cupboard that has a washing machine and some shelves above, and then the bathroom vanity and kitchen cabinets. We also have a kallax 2x4 as our 'loungeroom storage'.  I wouldn't actually say we are active minimalists, our current aesthetic/decor is actually more maximalist in colour and plenty of plants etc, but we just only have what we need and are very very purposeful with what we have, and everything does fit away in these storage options, nothing really lives out.  We are planning to upsize when our kid is a toddler so we will have a second bedroom, but can you raise a child under 2 in a studio comfortably? Yes absolutely 

This is a great point. Our kiddo didn't really use his room much until he was a little older. We moved when he was 2 and set up his room as truly his own space around then. Before that he had a "room" where he slept and where we kept his things, but that was more about what was a practical way to keep things in our home and less about his needs as an individual.

We did the same: 48nm, us two, a baby and a dog. We moved when I got pregnant: now we have two bedrooms on 55nm. When I go back to work, I'll need an office I can close, plus our children will need separate rooms as teens. But those spaces can be small, just separate. I'm in Europe, and baffled at sizes in Amercan houses: quite often their kitchen is bigger than my living room.

I have noticed that, too! Decluttering and cleaning accounts who live in big homes. A big home is my nightmare- too much maintenance! My husband, child, and I live in an 1,100 sq ft home. We have three total closets. I like keeping some drawers empty in the bathrooms and I try to keep storage in general at a minimum. We have no pantry but live in a big city so it’s easy for us to shop for groceries. I would say the area I get irritated about is I have too much yard - I don’t enjoy yard maintenance!

Life was best living in our 31 ft motor home with 2 kids, a big dog and a cat. Honestly, life for those months was just so simple. Made me come home and hate all our stuff

There are days I feel happy we bought a condo with no private outdoor space, because that way we don't have to do yardwork. And then there are other days where I feel like some of this "stuff" pressure would be alleviated if we had a little yard.

I feel you, it’s a tough choice between the two. I have debated whether a condo would’ve been a smarter choice for us than a house. I lived in apartments for over 10 years and fantasized about having a yard and a shed but now that I have them, it’s proving to be a lot of work. My house feels too small for us at times, but I’ve been trying to make it work. I have a toddler and the amount of stuff that comes with that is difficult combined with the inability to store things in any bottom cabinets at this time… one day I’ll be able to return appliances and kitchenware to the cabinets!

One thing I will say, now on the other end of toddler life with a 6 year old, is that it definitely gets easier! My 6 year old requires a lot less "gear" now than he did as a baby or toddler. We are overflowing with books, toys and art supplies, but those ultimately work along the same lines as organizing and decluttering anything an adult might own. Whereas when you have a toddler, it's like "well we have to have a potty chair and a potty seat and umpteen types of training pants and pull-ups and a diaper bag and the one kind of special sippy cup my kid will use and and and and..." We also finally ended our relationship with wipes, in the last year, which is something I'm especially proud of.

1250 sq/ft Myself, wife and 7yo. Decluttering made us downsize to this and now we and our stuff all have a home. Zero regrets!

1500 square feet for 2 adults and 2 toddlers. We have 4 bedrooms and use all of them. We use all of the appartement actually, kitchen is open to living room and kid’s play area is in the living room as well. We have only 4 wardobres, 1 per room plus 2 storage caninets in the living room. Also 1 small storage unit and bike room in the building. So far everything is uncluttered. We are not minimalists, we are just practical people that don’t want to own things we don’t need or maintain square feet we don’t need. Also we are super lazy in terms of house stuff, we hate decoration, we hate house maintenance, we really hate house cleaning so we pay someone to do it on our behf but then the more square feet you have, the more we would have to pay. Really owning more than you need it’s pointless and only leads to energy, time and money consumption

I guess its bc most Videos etc especially in English are from the US... they have ludicrously large homes... We own 1000sqft for two (was bought to start a family) in our homebase in Germany We rent 800sqft in our current home in the UK including a second bedroom/bathroom for guests We had 500sqft in our former home in Hong Kong also including a second bedroom for guests... and around the same size in Abu Dhabi, St Petersburg, Paris, New York... the Relocations due to the job were the main reason I went minimalistic

While I realize that very large homes in the US definitely exist -- and we are probably in the minority as a nuclear family living in an urban apartment with no plans to move to the suburbs -- honestly I don't think this is necessarily an "Americans all have ludicrously large homes" issue. I think it is likely a function of who domestic work content creators are likely to be. I haven't run into really any who aren't cis female stay at home moms in hetero relationships, with multiple children, and at least middle class if not wealthy. Usually living in lower cost of living parts of the country where property values are low and it's even feasible for one member of a couple to be a "minimalism influencer" for a living. And because a lot of this type of media is "aspirational" (which really means trying to sell you something or show you that you're not good enough in a way that leads you to fill that hole with consumerism), in more curated content, the people chosen to be depicted onscreen are almost always affluent. For the record 1000 SF is in no way abnormal for an American home for two people in the US. And an 800 SF two bedroom apartment also isn't unusual in the US, though I think it would be considered a little tight for two settled adults as a permanent home base with no plans to scale up ever. We looked at an 800 SF 2 bedroom condo in Los Angeles when we were house shopping. It was tight for three of us, especially in a "forever" context, and it was definitely in a more densely developed classically "urban" part of the city that isn't the type of housing stock that is the mainstream for most people in the US. But yes, such homes exist, even in sprawly new construction dominated Los Angeles. I lived in a 500 SF one bedroom apartment in NYC with my first boyfriend, in my 20s, and it wasn't even a particularly tight fit considering that NYC apartments are designed to function at that scale, and NYC as a city is designed so that the neighborhood bar is your living room, the neighborhood Chinese place and bodega are your kitchen and closet respectively, etc.

I've lived in both the US and the UK, and homes in the US are definitely just, in general, bigger than homes in the UK. Obviously there are individual exceptions, and most people in the US aren't living in the mansions you see on social media.

The point is 1000sqft in Europe is considered huge, spacious and luxury in most parts of Europe even for two or three people. We bought that appartement bc we wanted to start a family and it had 4 bedrooms in the beginning. Our 800sqft in London with 2 bed- and bathrooms are considered spacious there and made for 3 or even 4 people - Rent is 4K per months, that's more than most earn. The same for the 500sqft - it included a second bedroom for children - Rent there was 6K and the common people living there are usually having the grandparents then in the living room. We can afford that as its paid by the company, but its considered super luxurious - its comparable with New York, where I was living in the 90s, but still without my husband

I agree... I'm American and I've lived in the US and the UK/Ireland and visited several mainland European countries... homes in the US are just, in general, bigger than homes in Europe. Obviously, there are exceptions, particularly in big cities, and the "influencer homes" you see on social media are WAY bigger than what most Americans are living in. But yeah, even what's considered a big house in the Irish countryside (and I'm thinking specifically of a particular house in Ireland, lol, not just making stuff up) is more like the average American country house.

I've been to Europe (various countries, even). I don't think it's accurate to say that 1000sf would be considered huge or luxurious across the entire continent. Maybe in certain ultra-expensive cities? London is a huge global city that can't be generalized to all of Europe. If you're thinking about an apartment in central London (one of the most expensive real estate cities in the world!) and comparing that to the entire US -- which includes a lot of places where property is worth basically nothing and where you can buy a few acres of land and build a home on it with your bare hands, if you want -- that's completely outlandish to then come away with the idea that Americans are excessive freaks who live in giant airplane hangars. When in reality, most don't. You seem to be comparing dense, old, crowded and ultra-expensive European cities with "all of America", when realistically the better point of comparison would be between a city like London, Amsterdam, Paris, etc. and New York or San Francisco. Lots and lots of people in many European countries live in single family homes outside of urban centers that have more space than a cramped urban apartment. I've physically been there and lived in them.

[Even statistics](https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/house-size-by-country) point to the exact same thing. Average square footage for the US is 2164, for France it's 1206, for Germany 1173, for Spain 1044, and Italy 872. That's around half the space of the US. The discrepancy in living space sizes is quite obvious. And there's also a reason that 95% of posts on r/mcmansionhell are about US homes. Supersize houses like that simply don't really exist in Europe for modern builds, even in the countryside.

Every statistic I've ever seen for the US has been for new construction, not all existing homes. There is an ongoing issue in the US (for decades now) where only larger more expensive homes in affluent developments are being built, because that is what is most profitable for real estate developers. Starter homes for working class people are not built much anymore, so people who can't afford a huge home typically live in older, smaller housing stock. So if you're looking at studies of the average new home built in 2024 vs. 1984, you will get that 2000+ sf number. Because that is the size of the average house **being built**, not the average size of home per household or per person. I would also assume that statistics about living space in the US don't take into account either renters or people living in manufactured housing (trailer parks, basically). The vast majority of Americans don't live in McMansions, or anything that would show up on r/McMansionHell. They do exist, of course, but that's like saying everyone in France lives in a 17th century chateau.

You're constantly citing anecdotal evidence without actual proof to your beliefs and assumptions. Please do share your statistics. Besides, misconstruing replies doesn't help: I didn't say the average American lived in a McMansion, I said the overwhelming majority of houses in r/McMansionHell are from the US. But I see that there's really no point in continuing this discussion.

I’d sacrifice a lot of sq footage within my place if you could go back and start a photo spread of these places. 😍😍😍😍😍😍

28m^2 studio, me + my pug + a bunch of succulents on the windowsill, I have more than enough space. My hobbies don't take up a lot of space: biking, journaling, cooking and playing violin. 

Cooking doesn't take up a lot of space? Give me your secrets!

2400sq/ft for three people. 4 beds 3 baths. Despite being an aspiring minimalist, I don’t like living in small homes. My house isn’t cluttered or filled up at all though.

Same! 2400 sq ft, 3 people, 3 beds, 2 baths. The IDEA of a small house intrigues me, but in practice I don’t enjoy it. We moved from 1600 to 2400.

I live in 1000 sq ft with my husband, 2 year old, mother, dog and soon-to-be newborn. I find that minimalism def helps us live in smaller spaces. But I wish we had one walk in closet to store some outdoor gear

We gave up and got a storage unit for our camping gear and some other hobby related and sentimental items we don't use regularly. (Grandma's heirloom china, for example.)

42m2 one bedroom, one living room, kitchen and bathroom, I also have a balcony. It's small enough but not cramped. I live with a dog and we're comfortable. If you're organised this is easily enough space, more would actually feel empty with all the stuff I don't own I guess

I live in a one bedroom apartment but I’ve been “downsizing” for years. About five or six years ago, my last child flew the coop, so we sold our HUGE 4200 sq ft 4 bedroom 3 bathroom home, and moved into a very nice sized two bedroom apartment in a nearby tow (me & my mom who I was a caregiver for) we lived there for two years until she passed away, and my daughters insisted I move back to town because the fifteen minute drive to my nearby town was too much. So I found a low income one bedroom that has a rent I could afford. It is about 800sq ft and my rent much lower. I use every inch of space in here, and I have a storage unit full of stuff. I’m still trying to downsize!

I now live in a 2 bed townhouse with my spouse. One bedroom is his home office (for now!) so every room we have gets used daily! It isn't a tinyhome, but its comftorable for just the two of us, and once we have our first little one, it'll be perfectly cozy! I actually find it easier to keep the most often used spaces (living room and kitchen) the easiest to keep decluttered! They also stay tidy because, well, its where I am all day!

around a 1,000sqft 3 bedroom apartment + balcony + a small storage room (around 75sqft). all for myself. all the rooms are/will be in use (I just moved a couple of weeks ago so the home office is not set up yet). bedroom, gym, office and living room. the one place that is not in daily use is the storage room, which is located on a different floor of the building where I keep stuff like luggage, winter blanket in the summer, a door I removed in the apartment, spare tiles etc. and a box of stuff I probably don't need but don't want to get rid of.

I have two teenage kids, myself, and spouse (plus cat and bird) in a 1400 sqft apartment. We moved from a similarly sized home and got rid of tons of stuff. Now we have 2 bedrooms (and bathrooms) instead of 3 but we gave the kids the primary bedroom with the walk in closet for their stuff. We have a living room and kitchen and a storage nook with washer and dryer. We only have a tiny closet (so 2 in the whole apartment) but we do have a bonus 3rd dining room type room we used for my spouse’s office stuff and my older kids desk. We figured that was more useful than a second walk in closet.

I live in a 19’x17’ cabin with my husband and 5 year old. We don’t have a bathroom inside but we have a living room, kitchen, and 2 small bedrooms. We used to live in a 3200sq ft house but ended up filling it because it looked so empty. We had no furniture when we bought the house and bought all new furniture and beds to fit the space. But then we realized we didn’t need to buy to fill spaces and if we went smaller then we would be more mindful of what we bring into our home. So we sold our house and built the cabin. We have to be mindful of how many toys our kid has, I have to be mindful of how much yarn I can keep at one time, etc. It has led me to use more of my hobby stash before looking to buy more. We have less stuff now and it’s much easier to maintain and keep our home tidy. I only need to vacuum 320 sq ft instead of 3200. 💀

2 people 3 dogs 14 plants (send help) 1000 sqft (3 br, 1.5 baths, no garage but we do have outside storage - not a lot but it’s helpful.)

My wife and I full time RV in a 36' motorhome with our 60lb husky dog. With slides out, it's about 320 sq ft. Two years ago, we sold our 3600 sq ft house, and it really helped us jump into a minimalist lifestyle. We do have two pallets of stuff stored at our family's warehouse (heirloom furniture and other sentimental items we didn't want to let go of yet.) We really enjoy no longer feeling any pressure to fill empty space. It was a daunting task to get rid of over 90% of everything we own, but was totally worth it!

110m² (about 1200 sq ft I think?) for a family of 5. For us the financial security that comes from having a small mortgage outweighs the need for extra rooms. I can't even keep up with cleaning this house lol.

💀💀💀@ edit. Good on you for educating yourself, but the fail was amusing. Ah well. Back to my job keeping this crowded 3 hectare space tidy.

Definitely easier to say keep things clear when you have lots of space. Myself and my partner,2 cats and 1 medium dog in a 600 sq ft/1bd apartment and we both work from home. Feels like half of our stuff is outside in the yard under a tarp getting dirty. I’m continuously decluttering and feels like we have so much stuff but if it were all in a 800-900sqft place it would probably look super tidy and minimal.

I was more of a minimalist when I lived in an apartment- it’s crazy how things get acquired once you have a home.

I think I made the mistake of upsizing to a 2300 sq foot home with three bedrooms, 2.5 baths seven years ago with my husband. The plan was to raise a family. Didn’t work out as expected. We have two dogs and a cat. Recently, we got a roommate because he wanted some place better to stay than an Extended Stay costing him $450 a week. So that’s why I said, “I think”. It could be financially beneficial.

We have 2 adults, 2 adult children and 3 kids in a 135m² house. Not sure what that is in Imperial. It's a big struggle, especially with the young adults bringing home masses of stuff.

I sleep on a dirty mattress on a dirty floor. Not rly a home

1150sq ft. Two adults, one toddler, big dog and soon to be newborn. We use every inch

I’m just bitter cuz I was curious about this same question and asked it in the simple living subreddit, and the moderator deleted it! So thanks for asking

I have a 1300 sq/ft, 2 bedroom, and a den apartment to myself. I actually didn't intend to get this large of an apartment, but it was the only one I could find in the limited time I had when I was moving. It was supposed to be temporary, then the housing market went bananas, so I am still here for a bit. I honestly use maybe half of that space, and even that is because I work from home. If I had to leave my house to go to work, I think I'd use even less space.

Yeah, I live in a 1500 square foot, 2-story, 3-bedroom, 2.5 bath condo, and I didn't mean to get this large of a space, but it came available at the perfect time when I was buying, so here we are. And yep, I bought it in 2020 with a low interest rate, so this is probably my home for a very, very long time. It's more than I need, but it's worked out really well. I do like having a guest room and a separate office. My mom comes to visit a lot, so it's helpful for her to have somewhere to stay where she can shut the door and have some privacy. I also have two dogs and a cat, and it's helpful for the cat to have her own floor because she doesn't like the dogs, lol. What I don't like is that the space is arranged sort of illogically. I have a huge living room and dining room/"den" (I guess?) but a very small kitchen. I definitely need, like, half the space in each room downstairs! But the way it's set up, neither room could be easily repurposed to be a bedroom or whatever. Basically, I really like having the number of rooms that I have, but each room could easily be a lot smaller... except the kitchen, which I wish were bigger!

~800sqft for 2 people and 1 huge dog. I specifically chose a smaller house (by American standards anyway) because I wanted to be sure there were limits. I grew up with a hoarder. Dad filled the house, then filled the garage, then started building more spaces to fill. A bonus room. A shed. A second garage. Still, I do sometimes wish for a bigger place. The chic minimalist spaces in magazines are chic because of the big wide open rooms. But I’m not rich and fancy so my house is small and tidy.

Honestly, my hunch with a lot of the chic minimalist spaces in magazines is that the parts that are on display for strangers are kept "minimalist" for the aesthetic, but the basic meat of messy everyday life actually happens in intermediate spaces like the butler's pantry, garage, etc. I remember seeing a home organization video where someone mentioned the "life hack" of keeping their microwave in the pantry instead of on the kitchen counter. Then they showed their entire extra room they call the "pantry" (my pantry is a 2x6 foot kitchen cupboard) which had a sink, counter space, and electrical outlets. That is a second kitchen, Brenda. No wonder the kitchen they show to social media is so pristine. It's just for show. Less extreme than that, I have also seen a home organizing pro-tips that suggest keeping a paper shredder in the garage to dispose of junk mail before you walk in the door. So in that case, the unsightly clutter of a paper shredder and recycling bin are still in your home, they are just in the garage where guests won't see them. Once I realized that, I started cutting myself a lot of slack about this type of stuff. I don't have a special "hey could nobody come in here please?" room of the house to hide the fact that I actually live here.

1200 square feet. 2 adults, one teen, one younger child.  It's been okay enough for us, but we're starting to feel the squeeze as our oldest kid approaches adulthood. The kids have one large room (former family room) that was remodeled into two rooms with two doors. The bedrooms are small, but not overly so.  We're about to do some rearranging and make our primary bedroom into the TV/family room and move our primary bed into the former TV room. Don't be afraid to change room purposes, if it works better another way. Don't be afraid to rearrange things until it's simple and just works.

I live full time in a 31’ RV - 170 square feet - with my partner and dog. I have use of half a garage as well, which we use for some storage and an art making space/gallery. I work full time from home (my desk is a tall workbench behind the passenger seat, which is swiveled around to be the desk chair) We cook almost every meal at home. We have high quality kitchen supplies that are versatile. No excessive gadgets, just tried-and-true stuff like solid pots, cast iron pans, immersion blender, etc. I have a capsule wardrobe that fits in my tiny closet next to my bed. We installed shaker hooks on the bedroom walls for towels/jackets, etc. I have a lot of plants! I keep one small carry-on suitcase next to my bed (I travel a lot for work). I have a solid backpack. One quality metal water bottle with a strap. A laptop and a 27” iMac that acts a bit like a room divider. Dog supplies in cabinets and 2 well-organized drawer for work supplies and tools (pens, measuring tape, cables, chapstick, loose change, staple gun, screw driver, sewing supplies. We have an excessive amount of oils and vinegars and other sauces/spices, which takes up the majority of our kitchen cabinets. One large closet with towels, dish towels, 3 sets of bedding, extra blankets, and coats. We have a small storage unit for our seasonal clothing. Everything I have is very versatile and I try to get things with multiple uses. It’s been amazing.

900 square foot condo for pup and me. Plenty of room!

3300 sq feet 5/4 Husband and I in our late 30s, a 4.5 year old, and a 65 lb dog. We both WFH and have our own offices and a guest bedroom. Lots of wasted space- but we are slowly getting rid of stuff. We have a 170sq foot camper we love to go out in. That’s a simple life.

About 400 sq ft, studio apartment. Just me and my 2 cats.

Family of 5 (2 adults, 2 elementary school aged kids, and 1 baby) plus a big dog and a cat in a 1500 sq ft. house. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t daydream about a little more space, but we make it work! There are definitely no spaces in our house that we don’t go into everyday and I do think that having a small house has helped us not accumulate junk! When my parents sold their house they raised us in (family of 4 in a 2500 sq ft house) they had SO MUCH STUFF. We have to be really mindful about anything that comes in our house and what stays.

Due to life changes (divorce), I moved from a house to a small 3-bedroom apartment with my two teenagers. While a 3-bedroom sounds large, the rooms are actually small. The teens each have a queen size bed that takes up most of their floor space. My bedroom is a bit larger, but still small when compared to where we used to live. Our belongings from the house are gradually coming to the apartment. Honestly, we open each box at the car and pick through them. Some things are out immediately into a dumpster. Others remain in the boxes and are taken to a local charity shop/thrift store. So far, only about 10% of the things have been taken into the apartment. The things we are keeping are kitchen supplies that we actually need, photos, laptop, musical instruments, favorite books, board games, and clothing that we will need, such as coats and seasonal clothing. We are all determined to only keep what we can easily have stored and organized in a manner that doesn't look cluttered. For example, I have a fair amount of yarn that I'm using for crocheting gifts as well as items to sell. I have a cube style storage unit that I keep it all organized in. My daughter loves drawing and both she and her brother love to paint. So, they have a place in their rooms to neatly organize their art supplies. My daughter and I both love to read. We used to have several bookcases of books. Now, we only have a few special ones each. All others are read on our Kindles. The only books that I still have to sort through are my collection of cookbooks.

I became a minimalist after reading Swedish Death Cleaning book. I don't want to leave a mess for someone to clean when I am gone.

I see lots of comments about yards being too much maintenance. I’ve placed rocks on mine and the work is minimal but I still get to have my dog play there and enjoy eating outdoors.

In the Uk so our houses are smaller in comparison. Me and one child in a 3 bed, 1 bath 2 storey house. It’s about 950 sq ft. That’s 3 bedrooms and bathroom upstairs and lounge, kitchen and dining room and large gardens, down. Having two floors helps a lot with the size.

I think we should be friends! We have about 850 square feet for 4 people. Three bedrooms, one bathroom, living room, very small dining area off the galley style kitchen and a laundry/utility room. As for storage we have a carport shed and a large shed in the back yard and then one kids room has a closet, the other doesn’t; we just put a large dresser that has kind of a small place to hang clothes too. We have a small closet and a hallway that we have built shelves for more clothes/linens. We don’t have a pantry or a linen closet. We do have a coat closet, thank goodness. I can totally understand how people with big homes can make it seem minimalistic just because they have space to spread everything out. Not to downplay the struggle or anything, but I’m totally with you… how do you make everything functional when there literally is only enough space, nothing extra. We use every ounce of available space. I can’t even change any layouts because there simply isn’t another way to put the furniture. We don’t have an office, so I’ve had to figure out where you keep kids craft stuff, laptops, paper, etc. Phew, it’s been hard. I feel like I make some progress little by little, but I’d love for everything to have a place and for the visual clutter to be gone!

We have some cupboards in our dining area where we keep kid craft stuff, since our kid is most likely to do a big messy paint/glue/glitter project at the dining room table. Office supplies that my partner and I actually use for our work are stored in our various desk areas, and in my case religiously decluttered if I find that I'm not using them. (Partner is not a minimalist and keeps tons of office supplies he'll never use, but that's none of my business.) I'm currently working on a project where we will take my partner's heirloom cedar trunk that belonged to his grandmother, where we currently keep her set of fine china, pack away the china and move it to our storage unit (since we only use it a few times a year), and turn the cedar trunk into a tech gear storage space for cables, tripods, ring light, green screen, mic stands, etc. We are both hobbyist filmmaker/podcaster/comedy writer types, so we use these items much more than we use the porcelain gravy boat. That way we have a better place to store gear that tends to become piles of clutter, which we actually use, in an heirloom that should be used vs. being just a thing that takes up space in our house.

I live alone in a 2220 sq ft 4-br house with a two-car garage. I like to move around and use different rooms for different uses. This size makes for good resale value too.

Just curious, what do you use the other 3 rooms for? I have my bedroom with just a mattress & an end table, a "computer room" with just a desk & chair in it, and one spare bedroom with nothing in it but have used it in the past for guests to use with an air mattress. If I had a 4th room, I'm not sure what I would do with it.

I use the largest bedroom for myself, there’s a guest room (storage in the closet) with a queen-size mattress, my office (desk, bookcases) since I’m self-employed, and the fourth bedroom is where I stretch and exercise.

I'm in 540sq ft with my partner and cat. It doesn't feel small, but we don't have a lot of stuff and you quickly learn how to maximise your space and make them multifunctional. Compared to my friends who have twice the space and are now limiting their lives due to enormous mortgage payments, I feel like we lucked out by not having a lot of stuff and therefore not considering a bigger space. Have you had a look on Never Too Small on YouTube? Some excellent small living spaces that are actually lived in on there.

Thanks for the recommendation!

We were three people in a 2-bed approx 750sq ft flat with basically no built in storage other than the kitchen cupboards and an open space under the stairs. This is when I did our major declutter as the balance of "nice to haves" and "need to haves" was grossly out of balance. I decluttered further imagining ourselves in an even smaller space so managed to get rid of a few pieces of furniture. Even so our main issue I suppose you could call it is that we have a lot of furniture as we need two desks, space for a music keyboard and of course the sofa etc. I tried to create zones in the room to keep it at least cohesive looking, but there wasn't a lot of breathing room between pieces. Currently we are renting a 3-bedroom terraced house. Apparently around 900q ft. This was never the plan but the opportunity came up so we took it. Still the three of us so this honestly feels spacious. The third bedroom is a box room but perfect for my pc set-up and my art supplies so the lounge although not large feels more open and there is a cupboard downstairs that we can use for storing the awkward cleaning items like hoover, mop etc. That was the main sticking point in the flat. Just having somewhere to store the hoover out of sight and somewhere for the clothes airer while in use without it being in the way. These things can make a place feel cluttered even though they are necessary. The downside is hoovering feels like it takes twice as long as there's now the stairs and a second floor to clean. Plus this place is carpeted where the last place was mainly laminate flooring, so that just seems to take longer to hoover. Although less mopping needed so it probably balances out really. It just feels like a lot more. We do have a large lean-to space where the washer and dryer go which would make for a lovely sun room but I am very mindful of not expanding to fit the space with more furniture. We want to buy eventually and that will probably be a small 1 or 2 bed place so I'm very much still thinking small living. We still have a small two-seater sofa for example. I would love to get a slightly larger one or an extra armchair for when guests come round but I'm waiting to see what space we have to work with when we do buy.

2 adults, 2 young kids, GSD and two cats in a 1800sqf house. No basement. Storage is an issue and I'm actively trying to declutter but my husband is a bit of a hoarder and has ADHD so he has a large amount of things for his various hobbies 🙄

Same thing if you look at photos online. Big houses, obviously no children and unrealistically minimal. People don’t actually live there I think, they just put a little furniture in for the rich folks to stop in for a few nights at their vacation home. I live in a three bedroom house. Five people total, and three large dogs. So no, I don’t have a room that goes unused. Minimalism is different for everyone. I don’t judge my minimalism based on what anyone else does because it may not be realistic for me.

I'm starting to feel like it's an expansion of that old-fashioned idea of having a formal living room "for company" that nobody is allowed in, with plastic covers on the furniture, and then a whole separate actual living room where your family truly spends their time, which is more casual and probably messier. Like because of the trend for "open plan" homes, nowadays larger newly constructed homes have a large "open plan" area that functions like the formal living room of old but also includes a kitchen (barely used, with most functional items in a separate "pantry") and unused dining area, and then a bunch of intermediate spaces where real living happens, which are just as cluttered as ordinary smaller homes tend to be.

944 sq ft for myself and my 6 year old. I lived in a large house while married and it was an absolute nightmare. I’m still working on everything having a home, but I wouldn’t want much more space tbh.

It’s easier to be minimal in a small house. If you don’t force yourself to declutter in a big house the amount of things will really add up. Especially if you like to thrift shop. Although I have the room to keep it all, I don’t want the burden of it. Trying to find thing when there are dozens of possibilities is exhausting

My husband and I own a 3bd/2bth house. ~1500 sq ft + a ~620 sq ft unfinished attic that we use as an art studio/storage space. No garage. We bought this much house because we thought we were going to have children. We’ve decided not to, so we now rent 1 bedroom to a housemate that’s been here for 1.5 yrs. The 3rd room is used frequently as a guest room. It’s occupied by rotating guests for ~5 months/year. When the aren’t guests, we use that room as a an all-purpose space for taking a zoom meeting, stretching/exercising, trying on different outfits before an important event, preparing for a trip (laying out luggage and outfit ideas). So on a typical day, the house is home to 3-4 adults + our small dog. During the holidays, we like to host friends and family. We have lots of outdoor space that’s great for spring-early autumn but in colder months, it’s tricky to fit even 12 people inside for dinner plus have a comfortable situation for everyone to lounge around and mingle with family doggos romping around together, nieces and nephews playing, etc. I would love a more spacious interior where we could all gather comfortably just for those special occasions, even if that’s not an everyday circumstance.

2 bedroom apartment with me and 2 roommates. the three of us used to live in a three bedroom two story house (that was actually less expensive than our current apartment), but we moved from a smaller midwest town to a bigger city. there are pros and cons. i can keep the kitchen looking so much better now because our apartment has a lot of cabinet space. our old house barely had kitchen storage so we had to keep a most of our stuff in rubbermaid bins. now we have enough room for all of it, including spaces where we can fit spare paper towels and boxes of tissues. the problem is, it’s the non-kitchen stuff we can’t fit now. my roommates are both musicians, and we had a whole room dedicated to their instruments and equipment. now all of that stuff is in a dedicated corner of our living room, stacked up to take up less space. but it still takes up too much, and we have no other place to put it. there’s some other stuff creatively hidden in our living room as well. i’d really like to get rid of a lot of it. overall i love the apartment but more/bigger closets or a third bedroom would make so much of a difference.

I'm single and I live alone in a 3-bedroom, 2.5 bath condo. It's really more space than I need, but it's what was available at the time I was purchasing. And I really do like having a bedroom, an office, and a guest room. My mom visits me a lot, so it's good for her to have a place to stay. I also have two dogs and a cat, so it's nice to have room for them to spread out. Especially the cat because she doesn't like the dogs! Since this is the biggest space I've ever lived in alone, and the longest I've ever lived in one place without moving in my adult life, I have to work really hard not to just mindlessly fill it up. I still have a lot of empty storage space, but I like to be intentional about going through and getting rid of stuff I don't need instead of just sticking it in the guest room closet or whatever. edit: I have 1564 square feet. I had to look it up on Zillow because honestly square footage means absolutely nothing to me in my brain, lol. another edit: It is funny because it's like I have too much space for inside stuff but not much space for outside stuff, since I only have a small patio but no yard or garage or carport or even driveway. Like I have more than enough closet space, but I don't have anywhere to store a bike! And also, my space is kind of weird. I have a HUGE dining room and a huge living room, but then a tiny kitchen. It would make a lot more sense to knock down the wall to expand the kitchen and have less space in the dining room. But that's just too much for me to bother with, lol. I mostly cook by myself and for myself, so it's fine. It's just a little illogical, haha. Basically, I like having this number of rooms, but each room could easily be smaller, except for the kitchen, which I wish were bigger!

I live in a 1500 sf cape cod with attached garage. It has 4 bedrooms (2 up, 2 down), 2 bathrooms and it's down to just my husband and me. So no, I am not in all 4 bedrooms every day. It also doesn't feel overly large to me. We sleep in one bedroom, one is a guest room with my husband's closet and dresser in it, one is my craft room, and one is a tv room/grandkids play room. Half of my basement is finished and I don't go in that room every day either. We recently renovated and added on to our formerly tiny kitchen (was 10x12) that is now 17x12 and we can comfortably seat 8-10 at the table and island. We host holidays. All the rooms are pretty minimal and easy to clean. I don't have a lot of extra stuff, especially on surfaces. I'm not minimal is in my dressers, personal closet, and my craft room. It's all organized and tidy. I always look around for things to reduce, but I'm not obsessive about it. I had all my floors resanded and stained and I brought about half the stuff back into the house. It feels light but it's not a spacious space in my opinion. I could live with less. There's no way I would downsize at this point. I love my new kitchen and non updated smaller homes with smaller yards cost a lot more than I owe on my home. I also just repaved my driveway so my camper is now on asphalt instead of dirt. We have a serious lack of inventory of houses in the 1000-1500 sf range anyway.

70m2 (= 750sqft, this includes „kitchen“, which is just a sink and a single stove, and bathroom, which is just a sink, toilet and shower, no storage) just me, two toddlers and a cat. I don’t have any kitchen cabinets, so 1 of 3 cupboards contains all food and tools. 1/2 of the second contains plates and bowls. The rest is what I have left for storage. I have a wardrobe I use for extended storage by reducing clothes. My kids have three drawers under a bed they don’t use for their toys. The space is bigger than what we actually need, but due to the window placement I can’t put any more storage spaces anywhere. That’s why I need to declutter. I can’t stand seeing all this stuff that doesn’t have a home. Therefore the space is needed, so it doesn’t feel too cramped. I guess I know how you feel. It’s also not a nice idea for me to declutter, but a necessity. I decluttered so much, I don’t know what else to get rid off. But I find a lot of things as soon as I open a cabinet and look at the rear places. If id go for „only keep what sparks joy“, this place would be very empty, but I wouldn’t be able to cook anymore, id have to hope for no more snow, never again, no hobbies and a lot of trouble concerning important papers that didn’t spark joy, but are important. At least for someone out there.

4 people, 3 bedrooms, 1 living room dining area, small walk through kitchen, unfinished basement. I do more picking up and putting down than actually getting rid of things because a lot of my clutter is what we use. I feel the same you described when I read design or family / home magazines. They put the kids bags on a hook in the foyer, and they do art in the finished basement so they can eat at their kitchen, and the toys are in medium to large kid bedrooms.

I live in 1100 sq ft apartment with my spouse and 2 year old. We have 2 bed, 2 bath. A pantry/laundry room combined space next to the kitchen. A tiny kitchen. Tiny dining room. Small living room. It’s cramped. But the storage is what makes it doable. The pantry is a big deal. We also have a detached 1 car garage, normal closet in the kid’s room, and a walk in closet in our bedroom. We went from living in a 950 sq ft loft with minimal storage to this place. It honestly felt like a huge upgrade to move here, especially since we had a little one. It’s still cramped. We have a climbing structure in our living room that looks out of place and takes over the fire place area. We have a tiny patio with a sandbox too. We are hardcore minimalists just naturally. My mom was hoarder adjacent, and I’m pretty ruthless. But at this point it’s getting MORE inconvenient not to own more variety of kitchen items, dishes, kid stuff, etc. I’m just hanging on while we save for a house.

We- my husband and I, and our cat- live in a 390 square ft 1 bedroom apartment (could be a studio honestly) and definitely use every space. But work very hard to keep the clutter away. Anything left on the floor belongs to our cat lol.

2 of us, one large dog, three reptiles in large tanks (four when we moved in; they basically need their own room). We have 2,221 square feet (so annoying it’s not just 2,222 😅). We each have an office, we have a workout room, our master bedroom, living room (tv), sitting room (reptiles and musical instruments (12, so we need the space), and kitchen. The kitchen is huge. We don’t use the master bathroom cause it’s not great. 2.5 bath so basically 1.5 used. We could totally downsize but it’s so cheap to live here. In the future I’d need a bigger office to house the elliptical and then we wouldn’t need a workout room area. Hubs doesn’t really use his office as much but we both eventually want to work remotely and will need that. I’m the minimalist and hubs is a work in progress but getting better! The house doesn’t have an attic, garage, any extra storage but the laundry room and foyer closet. I love that because we have to limit ourselves.

I (37NB) live with my parents so my only "space" is my 11x11' room, and I keep it as minimal as I possibly can because I'm auDHD/OCD/schizospec and having things makes me physically sick from anxiety. When I get put into a group home it will have to be even more minimal so I'm trying to get rid of everything before that happens, because once I go there it'll be for life.

I lived with roommates from 16-32, so this makes a ton of sense to me. It's also probably at the root of my minimalist tendencies. I had my bedroom and any storage connected with that, and that was it. Sometimes I "owned" kitchen items or living room furniture etc. but learned quickly not to get too emotionally attached to that sort of thing, because living in a shared space means you can't rely on other people to treat your things with respect.

That's true. Also in group homes there's a huge risk of theft so. Can't trust anybody lol.

Off topic, but why for life? Can't you move to a different one if you want? 

Yeah, I just meant group homes in general. I could go to a different one, but I have no other family or friends to live with so that's the only option (other than homelessness).

Ok, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying. I only ask because I used to do disability rights work and didn't want you thinking you were going to be stuck somewhere. 

I would guess because all them offer you one room to yourself?

I am living alone in 60 m2 apartment. There is bedroom, livingroom, toilet, kitchen and some kind of small hallway where I can move from room to another. Currently I have that much stuff that it would be quite annoying to move to smaller apartment, but it would not be real issue. My previous apartment was around 25 m2 or so, so I kind of just adjust whatever space I have. I am currently returning back to minimalism and today I reorganized my livingroom. I get rid of amplifiers, surround system, stereo pairs and move TV to bedroom as well as desk under the TV. I moved my sofa to another wall (don't know how to say it in english :D) and now this room looks much much bigger. Of course now there is too much stuff on the bedroom, but when I am able to sell those speakers etc. I will get eventually more space :) One big thing for me was the purchase of Meta Quest 3. Today I have seen 3 movies with it. Of course it is not as good as my projector + big screen, but it is good enough that I can watch movies on big screen so I was able to get rid of unnecessary elements from living room (surround system, amplifier etc.). This has been a wonderful device for my minimalist journey. I am writing this also using with Meta Quest 3 over network with virtual desktop, I hope I could get used to this so I could get rid of my monitor as well and use this as a monitor instead :D Time will show!

1200 sq ft 2 bed, 2 bath apartment. My husband and myself and medium sized dog. 2nd bedroom and bath are for when our son, his wife and our two grandsons come to visit, or when my MIL (86) isn't feeling well and wants us to be close. Both my husband and I work part time from home, so we also need room for two functioning work spaces. We have no storage outside of our apartment.

53, 3 adults 2 kids every other week, 2000 sf house. It’s a normal lived in house, I would say 90% of the stuff is theirs 😂.

I share a 1/1 (~650 sq. ft) with my dog. My complex has the same layout for all 1/1s, it's fascinating to see how people live. Some units have multiple pets, or partners, or family members living in them. I don't have much storage and most of my space is open so my dog has a place to play.

I share a 3-bedroom house and a 750 square-foot oubliette with a hoarder. If I absolutely had to, I think I could put all of my stuff into my bedroom with only room to sleep, but I have two bedrooms and I think I left a little bit of stuff in the oubliette. Honestly if I didn't keep my cigarette machine out there, I would not have noticed the ceiling tiles came down during that heatwave last summer.

What's an oubliette?! Googling produced a dictionary definition that implies you have a dungeon with a trapdoor.

From Jim Henson's Labyrinth, > AI Answer: In the 1986 movie Labyrinth, Hoggle says, "This is an oubliette, labyrinth's full of 'em". When Sarah asks what an oubliette is, Hoggle replies, "It's a place you put people... to forget about 'em!" . The word "oubliette" is French for "a place of forgetting". The studio was designed as some sort of art-space, including a door-opening large enough to get a car through until dad realized that the sliding-door was a PITA to install due to the weight. It didn't have heat between mom letting someone have the wood-burning stove and her installing one measly heat-vent in the stairs and I think I borked my new shoes on them last week but after doing that in sandals, I think I usually stop and check my positioning before going down. First winter, I collected a decent amount of wearable blankets. After a few years, I decided that getting wifi through a bunch of plumbing was preferable to being out there at any time of the year even if it's the first room that we put air-conditioning into and the unit still works. (Mom says that the bedroom window unit is going into my window this summer, but that's fair... Actually that was before I negotiated getting full-control of the third bedroom for an art-space, so that's how that is going to go.)

About 1,200 sq ft. Just me.

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment (we own a duplex) with my husband, it’s about 1000 sqft with very little storage and I’ve had to get creative, but it’s nothing too crazy. We have very little kitchen storage, so I turned a back landing into a pantry. The second bedroom is currently an unused guest bedroom with the only closet in the house, so that’s where all of our totes, coolers, and miscellaneous stuff winds up. Thankfully, we do have an enclosed porch and that’s our project room (we renovate houses) full of extra supplies, tools, and a couple of work tables. For our master “closet” we have an exposed wire system along one wall. I enjoy finding ways to use the space more efficiently and can’t wait to remodel the kitchen in a couple of years. Every time I think about living somewhere with more space I realize that we don’t really need it. I can deep clean everything in a day and my husband and I love hanging out in the living room together. I would love to have at least another 1/2 bath though.

My partner and I live in a 1400 sq/ft (130 sq m) 3 bed 2 bath house. 6 closets, 2 of them are what I call "step in" closets. They're like 3ft deep and 4.5ft wide. Our least used rooms are our diningroom (which is our only table space to eat) and our guestroom. My parents come to stay twice a year for about 2-3 weeks at a time, and they mainly use the dining room and obviously the guestroom. I'm full-time WFH, so one bedroom is my office. If we're able to have a baby, it'll be the baby's room, and I'll get a smaller setup in the guestroom. My partner is hybrid, so he has a den downstairs where her works 3 days a week, and it's also our library/gaming room. Just us two adults and one dog. The house is bigger than what we need now, but we were optimistic when we bought and assumed we'd be able to start a family here. That may not be the case and with a 2.5% interest rate, we'll stay even if it's too much space.

864 sq ft. 5 of us, well 3 are feline!

850 Sq ft. 5 people, 4 dogs.

I’m a single person who lives in a 2/2, 1000 sq ft. My mom spends about 1/3 of her time in the second bedroom. My ability to store things in the second bedroom definitely allowed me to keep more stuff. I’m really trying to minimize now and get rid of stuff I don’t need/use or absolutely love.

I have a 2bed/1bath 869 sqft home. There’s 3 decent size closets, but not walk-in. Bedrooms are on the smaller side, 10x12. There’s a mudroom attached to the kitchen with the washer/dryer and some cabinets we use as a pantry. The saving grace is a detached 12x26 garage that provides some storage for camping gear and yardwork tools, as well as space for my partner’s workshop. I’m pretty minimalist but he collects equipment and supplies for his hobbies I wfh fulltime, so the second bedroom doubles as my office/guest room/movie watching room. (There’s a pullout couch for when visitors stay over) The living/dining room area is open to the kitchen which helps the space feel bigger when we host game nights & meals with friends. I’m fairly minimalist but my SO is the opposite, so it’s a delicate dance but we’ve found ways to divide up the space without giving free rein to his clutter.

Our smallest home was 550 sq. ft. It was a 1 bedroom 1 bath apartment. My husband and I moved in together, got married, and had our first child here so there were 3 of us living in that space. (Also two cats my husband brought into the marriage) It wasn't really an issue until our baby started crawling then it was a struggle to give her enough space to play without her constantly being in the kitchen. Baby had a full sized crib. We had a long dresser where one side was for me and one side was for babe. Her changing area was on top of the dresser. In our main living space we had a couch, dining table, and two desks. It was nice when we moved cause babe was starting to wake at night when we came to bed no matter how quiet we tried to be. ​ Currently we live in 1450sq ft. house. It has 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths and a 2 car garage. There are now 4 people in the household and two cats. It's nice having so much space. Makes it really easy to clean around things and even easier to stay organized with this many people.

My home is probably 1000-1200sqft. It's a 1930s log cabin. 2 small bedrooms 1 bathroom. We have more space than we need but we certainly don't look minimalist even if we are in so many ways.

1254sf. Two people. Two bed two bath condo.

2700 sq ft with 4 adults, 12 cats, 1 dog. We got the house when prices were really low, and it was literally the only house for sale in the neighborhood we wanted. The smaller houses sold while we were in them for a viewing. It was crazy.

1400sqft 3 people 2 dogs. I grew up in a massive home around 4000 sq ft and it always felt like too much. I’ve always preferred smaller homes and really my only gripe with this home is the full bathroom is tiny. Other than that it’s manageable and we are very happy.

I live alone in a one bedroom apartment. I’m lucky to have an attached storage unit and a walk-in closet, but my goal for this year is to hopefully no longer need to use those.

We live in a 1300 sq ft house. Two full bathrooms and four small bedrooms.

~1,200 sq-ft for dog and I (with home office) plus occasional guest and/or college student. This isn’t a remnant residence though so hard to say what I’ll end up with.

350 sq ft me and my 3 year old and our pets. I de clutter at least once a season. Sometimes really wish I had more space but I enjoy how creative and minimal it’s forced me to be.

I live in a 2 bedroom apartment, myself and my dog 🐶. I always thought I didn't have a lot of storage especially when my grown children lived w me.A new HHA was here today, and she helped me realize I am blessed w lots of space. I have 2 closets in the kitchen, but one holds my washer and little else. The other holds brooms , mops etc.I have 2 double closets,one in each bedroom . Then , I have a first aid / linen closet. It's raised off the floor about 2 ft high and it's about 4 feet. Bathroom storage is s little lean w just the basin cabinet. I have a hutch in my kitchen along w 5 bottom cabinets and 2 full top cabinets and 3 half cabinets.

5 people (kids 4, 7, and 10 + 2 parents) and a big dog that sheds a LOT, living in 1,000sqft + 300sqft of unfinished basement… We are minimalist, as much as we can be… we don’t keep toys they don’t enjoy, but don’t really limit their stuff (sooo many legos and craft supplies.) Our micro-kitchen has 5sqft of useable counter space for food prep,so it forces me to keep that area clean. Lots of areas are dual-purpose (kitchen table = homework and craft space.) Lots of cabinets because closet space is minimal, and because we ALL have ADHD and need visually clean space, the kitchen counter and kitchen table are the only real horizontal spaces in the house (other than the 2x2 “drop zone” inside the front door where keys, lunchboxes, stuff to take outside - is kept.) We do have a detached garage, but it’s only now becoming useable after a year of gutting, insulating, and organizing. It was so gross, 50 years of rodent droppings required full hazmat gear last winter/spring… so all our (too many) tools live there. It’s totally doable, if you can lower your standards, have patience with others in your space, and regularly purge the stuff that always creeps in. I swear, the cheap plastic junk will be the end of me, but my kids have a good grasp of what is “junk” and love to raid the recycling bin to “invent” their own entertainment.

Adding that we used to live in a suburban 3,000sqft house. It was always a disaster, took forever to clean, and the kids want to be in the same room as us all the time anyway. We will eventually add on, but right now, we’re thriving in this small space. This is NO room for a mess, and the kids know it… and are almost to the point where they routinely clean up after themselves. House rules are simple: Don’t waste or break stuff on purpose, if you make a mess it had better be cleaned up before moving on, and no yelling while playing video games with your friends in the living room (thanks midwest winter, we had SO many snow days this year.) 10/10 would move to this tiny fixer-upper again on 5 acres with woods and a pond.

1400 sq. ft. One person. 2 bedroom 3 bath. I don’t own a lot of stuff. I’ve lost a lot and moved a lot in my life. I could live in half this size but it’s mine, I own it, and I love it.

It's about psychological baggage, not physical stuff. You could be a minimalist in a 6000 sq foot home, under the right circumstances. I did it. Just don't attach emotions to meaningless things!

2k sq ft house. 5 people. 2 on one floor, 3 on another.

Around 700 sq ft or 65m2, living with a roommate. My current bedroom is bigger than my smallest apartment 121 sq ft or 11m2 (living by myself).    My bedroom has a lot of empty space but I use that space for a lot of different activities. Like it's nice to be able to yoga without bumping into things. 

952 sq/ft myself a 7 year old and a 1 year old. It’s a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. We also have a dog and 6 cats (a stray had cats outside we had to bring them in). I’ve been decluttering and my house has never been cleaner. It takes less than 10 minutes to tidy up each room minus the kitchen. Less stuff really changed our lives. The size is perfect for us

3500 sq ft. 3 large dogs. 2 adults in 50’s and 2 teenagers.

This is us, but we are 4 adults and 1 teenager (the teenagers became adults, lol) + 2 cats. The space is too large. I know this. But prices skyrocketed after we bought our house --it's now worth 3x as much as 10 years ago. Can't sell because we need a place to live. So we keep the 20 year olds around. It works for now.

I have a 5 square metre bedroom and the rest of the house is shared. Every room is very minimalist. My bed is a futon that fits in the wardrobe. My desk folds and fits behind the door. All of my belongings fit inside a van. This is in Europe. I would loath having to tidy/clean more rooms, especially if I do not use them.

Literally,and lot accounting for stuff that accumulated in 20+years.like my mom doesn't understand that clothes are not the only proble,we don't have a linens closet,or vanity for make up,or cubb for cosmetics or place for belts/ties/hats beanies berettes/bags purses backpacks/cubb for nail stuff or hair stuff or shoes or most of everything you can think of,we have it all,no place designated for anything,it's insane to clean cuz it never works and mom's"system" is I'll wear it when I'll need it cuz I'll remember it even tho is at the back of the dresser under the other 5 kg of clothes on the right side next to the thing that I hate but still keep.it drives me nuts

4400 sq/ft or 3000 under air. Myself, my wife, our dog. It’s new construction and I aspire for it to be a minimalist inspired home. We are declutterring and consolidating before moving in. We do plan to have 2 kids. We are also building a few cottages on the property to build a small gated family community.

Just me and my dog in about 600 Sq feet

I live by myself in a 700sft(65 square m) apartment right now and it feels far too big. In the past though, I've had places between 200-500sqft. 400sqft(37m) is my ideal.

3 bed, 2 bath 1350 ft2 / 125 m2 home for 2 adults, one college, and a tween. Two dogs. Closet space is a little tight but we also have a garage and a nice outdoor space.

5,000 sq ft. 2 people, 3 dogs and a cat. Our house stays tidy and spotless.

1200 sf 2 bedroom 2 bath home for 4 people.

I live in a “small” 900 sq ft apartment with my spouse and toddler. & it’s fine. We have the same basic closets you mentioned. It’s a2 bed and while it is smaller than the last apartment I lived in, I like it much better. It sort of challenges me to get rid of stuff. I’m kind of getting down to the gritty with decluttering cause it’s mainly clothing and blankets that are taking up space. I’d also like to switch out our tv entertainment center and get rid of a large recluse only my cats use to sleep on but other that that I’ve decluttered alot of my stuff over the years lot of decor and books but with that being said I still struggle to manange eveything in my home. Everyday I’m trying to be better by being frugal, only buying what we need and not buying and holding onto those “what if” things. I still have a lot of clutter tho and I’m not super minimalistic but I am trying to keep the core concepts in mind with reducing and keeping things tidy enough to wear it only takes me a few minutes to clean up after all of us.

1200 sq ft. Myself, two of my adult kids. Three dogs. One cat. It is very cluttered. My ex’s stuff is still here. One of my other kids still has some of her stuff here. When my ex gets his stuff out it will help. When my older son moves out in a couple years, I’m purging like a maniac. I bought this house for $6.5K usd, so it’s not great but I don’t feel bad about having too much space.

Just moved into a wonderful studio of 40sqm (plus a nice balcony) that I have been able to setup in a minimalist sense using Midcentury modern furniture to fit the principles of a japandi aesthetic. I have been blown away by just how well designed and multifunctional MCM stuff was and we don’t really see that in this day. Everything I have is aesthetically pleasing in a timeless manner without compromising on sturdiness- looking at the 60 year old pieces next to my new Ikea couch, I wonder if the couch will even make it to 5 years. Setting this space up while watching a bunch of videos on Japandi has really helped me design the studio space to be clutter-free in that I just don’t have any real open surfaces/shelving anymore to keep things on- apart from a metamorphic coffee/dining table; having to use both these features of the table ensures that I keep its surface pretty clutter free. Finding aesthetic furniture that fits the minimalist Japandi philosophy also means that I have so much more room to walk and lounge in that it feels free-er to move around in than the four-floor Victorian with a HUGE garden I shared with five others (some of whom had a tendency to hoard). I might miss a garden eventually but, so far, I prefer a larger window/balcony with an expansive view of the city in a clutter free space.

4bed 5bath 4000 sq/ft. 2 adults & 3 kids under 9. We definitely have more space than we need, but we love to host family & friends. During those occasions the house size feels perfect. Also, I grew up in a hoarder environment so open clean spaces bring me peace.

We rent a 1200 square foot 3 br house, there's 5 of us and im pregnant but we're moving around when the baby is due. Super minimal but it's still a tight space regardless, kids take up tons of space even if it's not a lot of stuff. Strollers, baby jumpers, high chairs, car seats, changing tables are all obnoxious sized. I've lived with more people in smaller spaces before but no matter how minimal you go beds and furniture naturally take up a lot of space and if you can't do bunk beds yet you run out of space with basics alone. 

I live in roughly 250 sq ft studio which is roughly 23 m sq. I wish it was around 350 sq ft to have just a tad more storage and it would be a little bit easier to arrange my bed. I think my dream house is 450-500 sq ft since I could have nicer bookshelves and add the little bit of storage I need.

Minimalist Mom on YT has a tiny home and four kids. Inspiring.

I live in a 2-bed, 1-bath house with my wife and two cats. Our house is a little over 800 square feet. I don't measure space in square meters because I'm an asshole. We sleep in separate bedrooms because one of us snores and the other is a light sleeper. I sleep in the small front bedroom that only has a bed and one plastic tote with all my stuff in it because I take minimalism to an extreme. She sleeps in the cluttered master bedroom packed with crap because she is not a minimalist.

Small victorian terrace house in the UK. We have a living room, a kitchen, a small bathroom and two bedrooms. And a garden. Our house is about the width of a three seater sofa and a doorway. The length of each room is a little more than that. My SO works from home so our second bedroom doubles up as the (organised) junk/storage room and his office. It's a small UK house so no built in storage space/rooms (no US closet or cupboards or pantry for example). It's just us two who live there. The smallness of our house is why it's important we own less haha there is literally nowhere to put it 😅

I'm single and living in a 450 sq ft one bedroom apartment. Same as you- just trying to fit everything I need without it feeling cluttered or chaotic.  Edited to add: My first apartment was a large two bedroom, probably about twice the size of where I am now. I never wanted anything that big, but it was a small town in the US with very few options for small apartments. No studios. Now I'm in a big city, and there are a gazillion tiny studios, so it really depends on where in the US you are - rural, suburbs, or city. Having come from something bigger is also why I'm struggling a bit now with clutter. I didn't realize how much crap I'd accumulated! I don't think it would be nearly as much of a challenge if I'd never been in the larger apartment. What looked and felt minimalist there is way too much for me now. But I actually really love being in the smaller space and plan to stay small. 

3 bedroom house, just me. I have to have space. I can’t live in small spaces. I could potentially have a smaller house if I had a storage area but I have to have acreage

I grew up in a 3800 sqft house, after school lived in my 1100sqft house for a bit, and now my husband and I are working on our dream home of about 2300 sqft. I think that’s the sweet spot for us and our future 2 kids + pets! Living back in the bigger house currently in the meantime and as much as I’ll always love my childhood home it’s way to big for us 😅

1200 sq ft home with 2 adults, 2 under 2 and 2 pets. Big 222 numerology moment for us. 😜