Downsizing to 660: Forget About the King-size Bed

Hmmm, does the new reality of rental living have a trickle-down effect on our psyche?

My apologies for being missing-in-action from my blog for the last couple of weeks. Life threw a curve at me that required my full and undivided attention. An intolerable situation in the apartment building I was living in forced me to find a new place to live on very short notice.

In slightly less than two weeks, I searched for a new place, found one, secured it, set up utility accounts, signed a lease, packed and moved – all the while keeping a lot plates spinning at work. Fortunately, I found a good place in a nice neighbourhood albeit with a larger cost attached to inhabiting it. But it was an exhausting and nerve wracking stretch of time.

I had lived in the same place for over eleven years and did not realize how much had changed in that space of time. I was caught off guard by the new reality of rental living – downsizing of our living space – when I bravely struck out looking for a new place to hang my hat.

My old apartment was spacious at 740 square feet including a solarium. I quickly learned that the new standard for a one bedroom apartment, condo or townhouse is 660 square feet including the balcony (for units that have one). That equates to about 550 square of livable space which seemed to me the equivalent of living in a shoe box.

It is easy to see the logic from the building developer’s perspective. Smaller units = more units per building = more rental revenue per building. If you want spacious living, be prepared to shell out big time for the privilege.

Renters with budgets to live within have no choice but to downsize our expectations and our possessions if we want to live in a newer building. In Tolkien terms, the living space available to us seems more appropriate for hobbits than for men.

An aside: It seems counter-intuitive that the trend in retail is the big box store. Cavernous stores that you can get lost in if you are as directionally challenged as I am. I cannot help but wonder: Who are these big box stores selling all their wares to as many of us downsize our living space?

This new reality of rental living also has me pondering the nature of home. Our home has traditionally been our castle, our retreat and our emotional safe haven. This is truer than ever in a world where we are forever looking over our shoulder for the unexpected threat.

What does it mean for our psychological well-being that our safe haven is contracting around us? Do we subconsciously compress our emotions to safeguard our peace of mind? Can we recharge to the same degree that we used to when we had more space within which to relax? Do relationship issues become more acute when we are tripping over one another at home?

I am naming it the 660 metaphor – the downsized physical, and by extension, emotional space into which we now have to fit our hopes and fears, our need for security and our increasingly complex relationships.

Breathing space is at a premium when we close the door behind us. Our psyches have no choice but to recalibrate and compress. Welcome to the 21st century – and forget about that king-size bed.

~ Michael Robert Dyet is the author of “Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel” – double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com or the novel online companion at www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog .

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