The New York apartment that Gale Steves calls home has a seven-by-nine-foot kitchen and a bathroom that is smaller than a twin-size mattress. But Steves maintains that’s still plenty of room for her and her husband.
“Almost everyone thinks they need more space,” Steves says. “Even people in big homes aren’t using their space well. In most cases, they have enough space—what they have is too much stuff!”
After noticing that the new economic realities have changed America’s tendency to move rather than improve their surroundings, Steves, the former editor-in-chief of Home Magazine, put her observations into the book, Right-Sizing Your Home: How to Make Your House Fit Your Lifestyle. After interviewing some 300 people for the book, she concluded that nearly all of them had enough space—they just weren’t using it appropriately.
Rethinking how you live
“You have to look at your space and look at how you live in your house,” Steves suggests, noting that most people are locked into using certain rooms in ways that aren’t necessarily the most beneficial for their personal lifestyle. Steves, for example, works from home and transforms her dining room into an office 98 percent of the time. The other 2 percent of the time, when her office disappears and she indulges her love of cooking, the dining room resumes its traditional role.
“Maybe a dining room isn’t what you need; I have a friend who got rid of her dining room table and brought in a pool table instead. It gets a lot more use, and her kids love it!”
Converting a room from its traditional purpose into something more practical for your own use may seem unconventional at first, but ultimately will result in a more comfortable lifestyle overall.
“It’s about how you live, not how your neighbors live,” she says. “If we don’t live in the living room or dine in the dining room, why don’t we change what we do with that space?
Maybe the living room is a good space for grandma or a boomerang child who moved back home. Right-sizing is all about what works for you.”
Repurpose rooms
Steves says that anyone can “right-size” their space, and says it starts with the art of RE: “Rethink, reimagine, readjust, rediscover, rearrange, reclaim, recycle and replace,” she says. “Anything but “resale.”
To do that, she recommends looking at where—and how—your family spends most of its time, then changing up rooms to suit those activities. It may mean turning an unused foyer into a gallery that displays family portraits and vacation photographs, or creating a cozy living area in the master bedroom. It could mean taking the television out of the living room and turning that space into a quiet library. The bottom line, Steves emphasizes, is that it works for you.
“Look at your space as if it’s naked, and just start over,” she says. “Instead of letting the house dictate what you do with your stuff, make it work for you.”
Right-size Your Home
Make your rooms suit your lifestyle
By Paula Felps
The New York apartment that Gale Steves calls home has a seven-by-nine-foot kitchen and a bathroom that is smaller than a twin-size mattress. But Steves maintains that’s still plenty of room for her and her husband.
“Almost everyone thinks they need more space,” Steves says. “Even people in big homes aren’t using their space well. In most cases, they have enough space—what they have is too much stuff!”
After noticing that the new economic realities have changed America’s tendency to move rather than improve their surroundings, Steves, the former editor-in-chief of Home Magazine, put her observations into the book, Right-Sizing Your Home: How to Make Your House Fit Your Lifestyle. After interviewing some 300 people for the book, she concluded that nearly all of them had enough space—they just weren’t using it appropriately.
Rethinking how you live
“You have to look at your space and look at how you live in your house,” Steves suggests, noting that most people are locked into using certain rooms in ways that aren’t necessarily the most beneficial for their personal lifestyle. Steves, for example, works from home and transforms her dining room into an office 98 percent of the time. The other 2 percent of the time, when her office disappears and she indulges her love of cooking, the dining room resumes its traditional role.
“Maybe a dining room isn’t what you need; I have a friend who got rid of her dining room table and brought in a pool table instead. It gets a lot more use, and her kids love it!”
Converting a room from its traditional purpose into something more practical for your own use may seem unconventional at first, but ultimately will result in a more comfortable lifestyle overall.
“It’s about how you live, not how your neighbors live,” she says. “If we don’t live in the living room or dine in the dining room, why don’t we change what we do with that space?
Maybe the living room is a good space for grandma or a boomerang child who moved back home. Right-sizing is all about what works for you.”
Repurpose rooms
Steves says that anyone can “right-size” their space, and says it starts with the art of RE: “Rethink, reimagine, readjust, rediscover, rearrange, reclaim, recycle and replace,” she says. “Anything but “resale.”
To do that, she recommends looking at where—and how—your family spends most of its time, then changing up rooms to suit those activities. It may mean turning an unused foyer into a gallery that displays family portraits and vacation photographs, or creating a cozy living area in the master bedroom. It could mean taking the television out of the living room and turning that space into a quiet library. The bottom line, Steves emphasizes, is that it works for you.
“Look at your space as if it’s naked, and just start over,” she says. “Instead of letting the house dictate what you do with your stuff, make it work for you.”