Location, Location , Location

One part of sustainability is related to how the community you live in is set-up. One aspect of this is how easy it is to navigate around a community without needing a car. In the neighborhood we live in it is easy to get around without a car, but some important places are so far away that most people would not chose to use these alternate forms of transport.

Tempe has a very extensive public transit system, and because the neighborhood we live in is near downtown and the university, we are close to the central station. We are also near the light rail system that is opening at the end of the year. There is even a free shuttle that can pick us up just several yards from our house and take us to the central station or ASU. The street we live on and many of the streets in our neighborhood are also setup well for pedestrians and bikes.

Unfortunately, however, the closest grocery store is about 4 miles away. There used to be two small grocers in this neighborhood, but much to my chagrin, they were absorbed by development (ASU and condos). I would love to be able to walk, bike, or take the bus to a nearby grocery store everyday and get a bag of groceries, but with the stores being so far away, I instead drive once a week and get several bags in order to save time; I don’t want to spend an hour or more each day biking or bussing to the grocery store.

This interesting site I found can give potential buyers and renters an idea about how walkable a community is. Our neighborhood gets a good walkable score (83 out 100), but the site mistakenly thinks there is a Fry’s grocery store 0.34 miles from our house and also considers convenience stores grocery stores . Very misleading!

Tricks to Living in a Small Space III: IKEA (compact furniture)

The third major key to living in a small space is compact furniture. I’ve notice that much of the furniture here in the Western U.S. (and probably other parts of the country) is big, cushy, and extravagant. However, this kind of furniture is not compatible for a small place, where every inch of space is priceless.

There are two main items in our apartment worth mentioning as compact: our love seat and our dining table. Our loveseat is made of a minimal amount of material; it is just a wood frame with cushions on it. Of course, it’s not as comfortable as having a big cushy couch. We don’t care, though. We were just happy to find something we could both sit in at the same time that would fit in our space.

The second piece is our table. It only has an area of about 5 feet, but we haven’t had any problems eating on it. There is enough space for our plates of food and drinks, although there isn't much space for anything else.

Where can one get furniture like this you ask? Well, here in Arizona, the best place to go is Ikea. I’m sure one of the reasons so many college students shop there for their dorms is because Ikea seems to specialize in small, minimalistic furniture.

Tricks to Living in a Small Space II: Multifunctionality

The second key to living in a small space is multifunctionality. The biggest problem in our apartment is the size of the kitchen; there is literally no counter space. To solve this problem, we bought a large cutting board. This large cutting board has been a live saver when it comes to preparing our own meals. Check out these pictures to see how we use it, and awesome place we found to store it while not in use!

The cutting board thing is just a simple trick we discovered. For someone who owns their own property, there is an endless array of ways they can remodel or design from scratch to incorporate multifunctionality. For an example of what I mean, check out this design: a bed that goes up into the ceiling during the day to free up the floor space for day use. There are also many books on the subject. The book How to Live in Small Spaces suggests tables and beds that fold down from the wall, chairs that are stackable, and furniture on wheels, so that any given space can be converted from one purpose to another.

Tricks to Living in a Small Space I: Vertical Storage

The biggest key to living in a small place is utilizing wall space. For our apartment, we repurposed one of our bookshelves and our entertainment center. We also bought two large storage units.

One of our bookshelves stayed a bookshelf, but the other is holding most of our kitchen stuff, because we don’t have enough kitchen cabinetry. Our lovely entertainment center is now holding a mishmash of kitchen appliances, living room appliances, and cookware. Our two shelving units are holding office supplies, shoes, recycling bin, etc. One thing I like about our shelving units is that they are made with a minimal amount of materials. Both are open on the sides and back, and the shelves on our metal unit are racks instead of being solid.

Of course when it comes to aesthetics, our set-up is not much of a winner. Having the pressure cookers on the entertainment center with the TV is not exactly classy. Nor are cups and bowls on a bookshelf. Also, having almost everything we own out on display can be visually overwhelming. One possible solution to this problem would be to cover the fronts of the bookshelves with some sort of curtain. We’ve decided against it, though, as this would interfere with functionality. On the bright side, it seems that the high ceilings help to alleviate the feeling of clutter in this place.

Our First Energy Bill

Our first energy bill was 25% lower than the bill we received the previous month in our old apartment and also 25% lower compared to what we paid last year at this time. Unfortunately, I could not compare the kilowatt hour usage, because I did not save the old bill, but I am fairly happy. I was hoping for more of a savings, because our new place is half the size of our old place, but I think there is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to saving energy; house size is not directly proportional to energy use. Also, our ceilings here are vaulted, whereas our old ceilings were not, leading to a vertical square footage that also needs to be taken into account (for cooling costs).

Furnished!

Here are the pics of our new placed furnished. After living here for over two months now, I have to say it has not been much of a hardship. In fact, it makes life a lot easier in many ways; cleaning is a breeze, and everything we need is within arms reach or a short skip and a jump. The most difficult thing for us has probably been dealing with our laundry. We have a hard time motivating ourselves to drive down to the laundromat.

Hiatus

Sorry for the hiatus. We have been without internet access at home and have been really busy (school is kicking my butt!). New posts coming soon!