Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors

by Jeanne E. Arnold, Anthony P. Graesch, Enzo Ragazzini

Winner of the 2014 John Collier Jr. Award
Winner of the Jo Anne Stolaroff Cotsen Prize

Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century cross-cuts the ranks of important books on social history, consumerism, contemporary culture, the meaning of material culture, domestic architecture, and household ethnoarchaeology. It is a distant cousin of Material World and Hungry Planet in content and style, but represents a blend of rigorous science and photography that these books can claim. Using archaeological approaches to human material culture, this volume offers unprecedented access to the middle-class American home through the kaleidoscopic lens of no-limits photography and many kinds of never-before acquired data about how people actually live their lives at home.

Based on a rigorous, nine-year project at UCLA, this book has appeal not only to scientists but also to all people who share intense curiosity about what goes on at home in their neighborhoods. Many who read the book will see their own lives mirrored in these pages and can reflect on how other people cope with their mountains of possessions and other daily challenges. Readers abroad will be equally fascinated by the contrasts between their own kinds of materialism and the typical American experience. The book will interest a range of designers, builders, and architects as well as scholars and students who research various facets of U.S. and global consumerism, cultural history, and economic history.

Genres: Nonfiction, Sociology, Photography, Architecture, History, Anthropology, Adult

180 pages, Hardcover

First published October 15, 2012

Reviews

[Stacy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book and looking at the pictures are like going to a Sociology class. This book is fascinating! The authors looked at 32 families to see what our lives are like at this point in history. What did they find out?
1. we have a lot of stuff. blame it on walmart and costco but our stuff is taking over our lives and our homes.
2. our children are also taking over our lives with their stuff. and they have a LOT of stuff.
3. people are not going outside anymore. ever.
4. kids are now solitary creatures who prefer screens to anything or anyone else.
I loved this book. It really made me think about what i want for my life and my family and my home. I came to the conclusion that i need to get ride of a lot of my stuff, go outside more, and stay put in my little tiny house.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I checked out both this book and it's companion book from the library - both about the same study. I was thinking this book would just be the accompanying photography book to the main book that goes into detail about the study results. Instead, the authors/editors attempted to just re-write the first book, using more photos and less words. Why, I have no idea. There is no point to it.

What they should have done is this. Instead of publishing a few of the floor plans, print all 32 of them. Instead of showing a variety of photo sizes (mainly smaller photos) they should have put one photo per page - especially of the cluttered houses so we could see the images in more detail. Of course, sometimes it would have made more sense to print smaller images. Like why not post an image of each of the 32 fridges? You could fit all of them onto 4 pages. Then show the most messy, least messy and average fridges juxtaposed with their living/family room. The authors tell of a link between a cluttered fridge door and cluttered house. Why not show the reader instead?

Another bone of contention was that the photography book had no images of the few minimalist houses the study viewed. Why not? What exactly do the authors mean by minimal? Why not show us the rooms so we can decide for ourselves? Why not compare and contrast rooms and houses more? During the section on outdoor use, the authors mention only one house used their backyard for more than an hour at a time. I'd like to see their backyard in order to see if the layout or design facilitates that behavior.

Finally, I didn't care for the images of the owners in their houses.I was distracted by them. It made me focus more on the people and less on the surroundings, which is what the photos were meant to show us. That one photo of the mom sitting at a desk with her dirty bare feet propped up, gross. Why show that image? How embarrassing for that woman.

What I mainly got out of this book was that a lot of people have cluttered unappealing houses and no taste. Not bad taste, but the absence of it. I can appreciate someone decorating in a style I don't care for. They own their style, they enjoy it. Maybe art nouveau or southwestern are not styles I like, but I can respect someone who decorates their house in that style. Most people in this book looked like they lived in a thrift store, with no rhyme or reason. Just a bunch of crap that didn't go together. I can recall two images of rooms that looked nice - not my taste but put together. The rest - Lord! It's like the before houses in Clean House with Niecy Nash.

The nosy neighbor in me enjoyed flipping through the book, but it could have been much much better.

[Kirstjen · Rating 5 out of 5]

So far, I've learned that the more crap you have on your refrigerator, the more you consume in general. From the pictures of this book, I'm learning that the vast majority of people have absolutely no taste & have homes packed to the rafters with junk - seriously old computer equipment, tons of DVDs, crappy bed linens, and flat screen TVs that block picture windows. Kid stuff all over the place. I would seriously be depressed if I had to live in any of these homes.

[ambyr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have been babbling about this book to everyone I've seen since I read it. It's an archaeological look at early twenty-first century American home life, a sort of material culture of the recent past (and it is definitely past--for all that the study is barely a decade old, some of what it describes is barely recognizable today. The rise of the smartphone, in particular, I suspect has made some enduring shifts on home life.) The photos are fascinating; my only complaint is that the text is often all too short. I wanted less coffee table, more academia. But what I got was still worthwhile.

Some particular observations that have lingered in my mind:

The benefit of microwaved meals isn't that they save cooking time, it's that they save thinking time (namely, menu-planning).

People say they use their yards; they lie. (Even in Southern California, where you'd expect the year-round pleasant weather would make it a more attractive option.)

The single most beneficial remodel to your home in terms of quality-of-life is (if you have only one) adding a second bathroom.

How much stuff a family has on their fridge directly correlates with how much stuff they have in their house.

Families spend by far most of their time in their kitchens. (I am, grudgingly, starting to understand why people like open floorplan homes. I still hate them, though. MY KITCHEN, MY PRIVATE SPACE, GET OUT. Uh, this may be why I live alone.)

[Nick Klagge · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book presents some really interesting academic work. I had heard of it a while ago, but had forgotten until Elise brought the book home--one of her professors had discussed the work in a class. The authors are anthropologists at UCLA who undertook a painstaking study of the material home lives of 32 self-identified middle class families in LA over a couple of weeks. Just as anthropologists studying ancient cultures try to derive knowledge about them by the material remains that we can find, so these anthropologists studied modern American life through the specific lens of the houses of these families and the objects inside them. One of the cool things about the study is that the authors made a point of recording a rich catalog of data--blueprints, comprehensive photographs with tagged objects and object counts by class and room, time-use observations of the family members themselves--even if it wasn't necessarily germane to their immediate research interests. The goal was to establish a valuable dataset that future researchers could mine in all kinds of ways.

The book is brief so you should really read it yourself, but I'll mention some of the interesting findings--which are in line with many of my personal preconceptions:

-Families made heavy use of processed convenience foods in preparing dinner, yet these actually saved very little food preparation time--about 10 minutes per meal on average. The main time effect of these foods is to save the parents the effort of planning menus for the week.
-Despite the fact that all of these families live in LA, and that many of them had extensively renovated outdoor spaces, the total amount of time spent outside at home by all family members was effectively a rounding error.
-High (self-assessed) levels of clutter were associated with higher stress levels of the mothers (not fathers) as measured by cortisol levels. (It is not clear to me, at least from the presentation in the book, if the association is causal, or if so, in the implied direction. It could be that stressed mothers tend to be more bothered by clutter.)
-The families in the study ate meals together even less frequently than averages reported in national survey data (which were quite low in the first place).

The book is heavily focused on photographs, and I think one of the most interesting parts of reading it was just its role as an antidote to the unrealistic depictions of homes we see in the media. This is a truth that I think I and many others have digested regarding depictions of bodies and human beauty in media, but it is striking how analogous the situation is with depictions of living spaces. It is a little funny at first to see a coffee table book filled with pictures of regular, messy houses.

[Cindy Knoke · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Life At Home in the 21st Century,” is a photographic ethnography that explores what the typical middle class American family home in Los Angeles looks like and what these images may have to say about contemporary life at home for the middle class. The researchers gained access to 32 Los Angeles family homes. In these homes the researchers inventoried objects, took extensive photographs, drew out detailed diagrams, and interviewed family members. The result is a fascinating peek into middle class life in Los Angeles.

With an n of 32 homes, the study results are probably not generalizeable to wider populations, yet the peek they provide into these people's lives is most interesting. They limited their research subjects to middle class, dual earner couples, living in LA .

The overall effect of this book on the reader is powerful. Immediately , I started trying to distance myself from the images, catching myself thinking, “I’m not like this.”

Interesting don’t you think? Why did I feel the need to do this? Maybe because this book is a startling anthropological expose' of the dark side of US consumerism. What you get is multiple visual impressions of the result.

People seem to have mountains of possessions, filling up, and overwhelming their living spaces. It almost seems as if the homes are built to house the possessions, not the people, and brings up a question, do people own possessions, or is it the other way around? These photos seem to imply the latter. One mother says, “Every good girl should have tons of Barbie's.”

Whoa. What kind of statement is this?

You will see the results of this kind of thinking in this book and it is disturbing.

Are most Americans hoarders? It would seem so. I got a feeling of depressed people, living depressed lives, crowded out by their depressing glut of depressing possessions. The authors state that contemporary people accumulate more possessions now than at any other time in human history.

Read this book. Give it to your hoarding relative, and e-bay or shopping addicted partner. It provides a cold, sober, slap, of “stop it already. Please!”

Donate this stuff. Stop buying it. Go Zen. Minimal. Anything but this waste and disgrace.

Excellent book. Highly recommend.

I gotta go now. I'm gonna go clean out the garages and donate stuff!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at what it is to be a two-income, middle-class American family in the twenty-first century.

Let's see...

-Amassing stuff, often more than their homes can hold, totally saturating their houses in material possessions, overflowing closets and garages, even putting themselves in debt to do this, and suffering psychological stress and anxiety (primarily the mothers) because of it. Some pictures show families living surrounded by basically chaotic messes. An interesting correlation was found between a cluttered fridge (magnets, papers, photos) and a cluttered home.

-Eating less fresh foods and depending on processed, boxed foods. Their study found that when the parents chose to cook a meal from fresh foods, it actually only took minutes longer than the boxed foods. It is not that boxed foods are faster to prepare; it's that they require less thought & less planning. Families are stockpiling foods from warehouses like Costco, filling not only their kitchen's pantry and fridge, but overflowing into the laundry room and garage. These small families have so much food stockpiled that they usually need two fridges to hold it all.

-Despite the fact that people often have yard space, and children have things like swing sets and trampolines available in their yards, nobody is actually spending any time out there. Instead, they are inside partaking in sedentary activities, mostly staring at TV and computer screens.

-Families spend most of their time in the kitchen. Not just for cooking and eating, but the kitchen has become a command center for gathering, scheduling and planning.

-Everybody thinks they want a big master bedroom, but what they would actually benefit from is having an additional bathroom.

[Janna · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think everyone should read/look at this book. It's a quick and easy read and is very interesting and thought provoking. I only had 2 complaints about the book -

1. All of the pictures/examples and information came from the messiest and most cluttered homes (granted this was the majority of homes). It would have been nice to see one example per chapter from the homes that were not the norm (i.e. a family that did park their car in the garage, or one that had only a few items on the front of the fridge).

2. The study documented 32 middle class families in the Los Angeles area. In all of the families, both parents work full time and at least one child is between 7-12 years old. I personally have nothing in common with any of those families, except the middle class distinction. It would have been better overall and certainly more relevant to me (though probably impractical and expensive, since the researchers are UCLA faculty) if they studied a few homes from other areas of the US.

Overall though, really interesting book and everyone should at least check it out of the library!

[Emily Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is one of the best analyses of American culture I've read in a long time, even though it's a bit dated now (the study was done in 2001-2005). While part of Life at Home's appeal is voyeuristic, it's possible to tone down the schadenfreude if you choose to see this book as a reflection of your own life rather than just a glimpse into your neighbor's. In the 21st century, there is no escaping the fact that our lives are completely contextualized--defined, constrained, and/or enabled--by material possessions, from the most rabid Black Friday consumer to the most ascetic minimalist. This book invites you to be an ethnoarchaeologist of your own life; to consider deeply your relationship to your stuff and the distance that might exist between the life you think you have and the life you actually have.

[Angela · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting book. Archeological approach to examining the "stuff" that clutters many homes. I found the photos fascinating, seeing how these families dealt with the excesses.

Parts I found especially interesting were the underutilized outside space (even in sunny California!), the kitchen as command center, and the higher cortisol levels in mothers in the more cluttered homes.

I have to say I recognized myself in places, like the layers of papers on the refrigerator and the stockpiling of food/goods. In some ways, it made me feel like I'm not so bad -- more of us have cluttered, messy homes than want to admit it. It also made me pinpoint some of the things I want to change. The book doesn't provide solutions. Still, it's a helpful reflection if you're looking to be more mindful about what comes into & goes out of your home.

[Beth Anderson · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected more from this book. The authors tried to portray a country (America) where everyone is obsessed with "stuff" , collecting way too much of it to the point if ridiculousness. I had read about this book in a variety of places so thought it sounded fascinating. Instead, if was just a voyeuristic view at a few hoarders, all from the same general Los Angeles area. I would have liked to have seen more representations from across the country, and in varying degrees.

Also, not much evidence was given about how the hoarders were selected. It seemed as though only people with a real problem were represented.

[Chanel Earl]

I've had this book on my to read shelf for a while. I have always wanted to understand my own culture better and put it in a greater context. It is easy to look at a culture I don't belong to and see what makes it unique, but I have a a harder time seeing what makes American life what it is. (When I was a teenager, I remember thinking it was weird that I didn't belong to a culture and everyone else did. Visiting other places helped me realize the truth.)

So, back to the book. The subject of this 2001-2004 study was the homes and family life of 32 L.A. families, each of which had two parents and several kids. In every family both parents worked. Even though my family lives in a different place 10 years later, the findings were still relevant to us.

I learned that American culture is not what we like to think it is. We like to think that we fill our homes with beautiful expressions of ourselves, and in reality we fill our homes from floor to ceiling with junk. We like to picture the entire family gathered around the dinner table, but we really don't eat together that often. We like to think we spend a lot of time outdoors enjoying nature, when the reality is that we stay inside all the time. I was surprised that we don't watch as much tv as many people think, but I wonder if now our time on phones and tablets has increased our viewing.

I liked reading this book because it made me feel good to realize that my own family life is actually a lot better than most (not the most enlightened thought, but there it is). It made me value my time at home. I also realized that we have a lot of the same habits and issues these families had, and in looking at my own life from a new angle. I've thought of ways to improve it. I always imagine that reading makes my life better, and it's nice to see it proven true.

[steph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay so this book was extremely interesting. It was a study done by researchers at UCLA that observed 32 dual income, middle class families in the Los Angeles area in the early 2000's. It was really cool, some of the data that they collected after observing different families for a few weeks out of the year. The kitchen area is the most heavily used room in the house, no one uses their backyards anymore (adults and kids), we have too much stuff per square foot, only 60% of families eat diner together, etc etc. I really liked the multiple pictures that were on each page along with different comments by families. All in all, a interesting book. I'm not sure if I would recommend it for everyone though, I thought it was cool because I live in LA but I'm not sure if everyone would find it as neat and as interesting as I did. Definitely made me want to re-think some things about my life and my home however.

[Adam]

They are collectors, wasters, consumers and hoarders, and they are us. Here are the findings, in text and photo, of a team of scientists who spent several years applying intensive methods of anthropological study to 32 middle-class American families. They confirm all our worst fears (and then some) about our conspicuous consumption. And of course there's bonus trivia here, such as: there is an almost perfect correspondence between—imagine this!—a cluttered refrigerator door and a cluttered home.

[Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the research people's youtube videos, and point people to them regularly, so you can just imagine how excited I was to get my fingers on this book!

Worth reading - yes. It will make you think about what you own and has some interesting data. The food chapter was also surprising to me.

Things I wish it talked about more - they didn't talk about the families that had less stuff much. I was so curious what made those families different. What was their secret? Did they eat better too? What did their kids' toys looked like?

[Zach Olsen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fun to read an anthropologists point of view of American homes. Pretty fascinating. The most startling observations for me were the disconnects between what we think we need and what we really do - like investing money in master bedrooms and backyards when we spend nearly zero time in them. The statistics about clutter, over consuming, and possessions were depressing. We Americans own, store, stockpile, keep and covet lots of stuff.

[Annemargaret Olsson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating book that looks at 32 families and how they spend their time in their house. I loved the pictures that looked into real homes. The book also gave insight into how materialism and technology is affecting our families and our lives. I feel that this book should be part one to an on-going series since technology has changed so much even in the past five years. Looking forward to reading the next edition!!

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was fascinated by this book. It is written in an anthropological style, so it is just a report of people, their stuff and how they interact with it. No judgement, no assessment, just details. I loved being invited into these families's homes and peeking around at their belongings and  home life. It's an aspect we often, if ever, are not privy to. If you're as interested in other people and how they live as I am, you need to get a hold of Life at Home. It's real life, y'all.

[Anbu Manoharan · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you want a short version of the book, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AhSN...

The book is kind of repetitive in multiple places. That makes it a quick read, made me skim and scan certain parts of it.

However, it gave me an idea of how I would end up if I don't give up my mentality to collect and hoard things. Unlike reading or watching videos on minimalism, this book is helping me shape my decision on how to have a clutter free house.

[Tristan Bridges · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really interesting archeological study of contemporary American family homes. The pictures are amazing. I wished there were more discussion, but they found some really interesting ways of visually depicting things like flow through the house, room use, stress levels for different occupants of homes, etc. A really interesting study by a cool interdisciplinary group of scholars.

[sleeps9hours · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow! Eye-opening view into how much crap we have in our homes. Better than most simplify/organize books in getting me to get rid of stuff. Just seeing pictures of how most of us live on a daily basis (these homes are definitely not camera-ready) makes me want to vomit out all the extra crap in my own over-privileged American home. Bring on the minimalism!

[Luminea · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fascinating study documenting the homes and lifestyles of middle class Americans in the 21st century. It was pretty scary to see the huge amounts of clutter, the small amount of time for leisure, and almost no time spent outside in the backyard! This book definitely made me reassess my priorities and my lifestyle.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collection of photos of the inside of Los Angeles dual-income-with-kids houses spanning from 2001-2005. Sort of quaintly dated at this point (OMG look at all those CRT televisions!), but shows how people store and organize their clutter, as well as what parts of the house are most used (kitchen, TV room) and least used (outside, formal dining room, master suite).

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I guess I was expecting more substance. The 18 minute YouTube video was enough to get the highlights.

[Kendra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Kinda judgy and so narrowly focused!

[Artemisia Hunt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This fascinating book was the result of a serious sociological study done by a group of UCLA researchers, who took a detailed look at the objects found in 32 LA area family homes during the first decade of the 21st century. Far from being a mere voyeuristic pursuit, the project’s methods were described as the “archeology of today” in which material objects and their uses became the descriptive data for observations about how modern families spend their time when they are at home in the 21st century. The researchers spent many hours in each home, observing the families in their natural habitats (so to speak), interviewing them about their family habits and customs, and most interestingly, counting and cataloging the abundance of material possessions visible in each room of a house.

The results were often surprising and always very interesting, even when pretty predictable. First, of course, was the overwhelming amount of stuff these families owned and displayed in their homes. Hoarding-level clutter was common in several places in each home. (The many photographs in the book are pretty shocking in this respect). Another less expected trend was how little people really used their backyards, even when they had generously outfitted them with outdoor furniture, BBQ’s and play equipment. And this in SoCal where weather would permit outdoor activities year round. Also, because of the vast amounts of stuff brought into these homes, most of the 32 homes’ garages were used entirely for storage with no room for even one car left inside the garage. This was true in a whopping 75% of the homes studied.

Time spent interacting as a family was another point of interest by the researchers. Sadly, the families didn’t appear to spend that much time even in the same room, with family members often watching tv’s in their own rooms being a common observation. Ironically, the only room that often seemed in demand at the same time was the main bathroom, as many of these homes were mid 20th century models with only one bathroom for the whole family.

Still, as a scientific study, all these data points were left to the reader of the book to form their own judgments or conclusions. Reading this book certainly made me think about my own family home and the stories it might tell about our history together: our priorities and daily pastimes, and especially what things we value most. And in this respect, reading Life at Home in the 21st Century has given me a new and thought-provoking look at my own life in the 21st century.

[Dar · Rating 4 out of 5]

Imagine that a team of anthropologists made a study of your neighbourhood and immersed themselves in your daily life. What would they find?

That’s just what happened to create the book Life at Home in the Twenty-First Century: 32 Families Open Their Doors.

Here’s the premise. The team recruited 32 families, all home owners in the Los Angeles area. Each family had two parents working full-time, and at least one child between the ages of 7 and 12. Their goal was to see how the families interacted with their possessions: how many things they owned, and how their belongings affected their behaviour. The study took place from 2001-2005, just before the advent of smart phones, tablets, and flat screen TVs.

They used some cool techniques: they asked every family member over the age of 7 to conduct a tour of their home (captured on video), they inventoried the visible objects in every room of every house, they took over 20,000 photos, and they recorded what each family member was doing every 10 minutes.

I bet most people’s reaction to this would be, “OMG, I wouldn't want anyone to see my house,” or “I’d have to do a major cleaning first!”

Here are some themes – and some random stats – from the book, along with some comments about my house.

The number and arrangement of items posted on the refrigerator is a good indicator of what you’ll see in the rest of the house!

The front of my fridge is aluminum so it’s completely clutter-free, being non-magnetic. Everyone who visits is taken aback by that!

Each family creates a kind of cultural museum in the public areas of their house, showing visitors what they value. They display treasured belongings from their home country; items showing their heritage and religion; items showcasing achievements with trophies and certificates; and each family had an average of 85 photos on display throughout the house. The authors noted that this “personalization” of the home is mainly a North American phenomenon and is not usually done in Europe or South America.

One recent change is that’s children’s pop culture has spread to all areas of the house, with kids’ toys in every room. Almost all parents play video games with their kids, most take pride in their kids’ toy collections, and a lot of parents like to display brand name items such as Disney or Barbie.

I used to keep my living room free of pop culture; but taking a second look, we now have a poster of my favourite rock star, Amanda Palmer, prominently displayed; a poster from the Toronto musical production of The Lion King; a Star Wars X-Fighter LEGO model; several of Rom’s Hero Clix toys; a metal Slinky toy; and even a hello Kitty Soap dispenser in the bathroom! I have only 6 family photos on display, all in one room, which I am now thinking is highly unusual.

At the time of the study, all families watched a lot of TV and played a lot of video games, but adults didn't have much time to use computers. I bet that has changed now that each family member is likely to have their own smart phone or tablet. You probably read the news story that 90% of adults under 30 sleep next to their cell phones, as do 70% of adults ages 30-49. And that was 4 years ago!

Almost all the families stockpiled food and half had a second fridge. The researchers noted that using frozen and prepared foods saved only 10-12 minutes in the evenings, compared to what they would have made from scratch, but it saved time in meal planning and food shopping, such as fewer trips to buy fresh produce. It also requires less cooking skill. It was noted that having packaged food on hand made it much more likely that kids would ask for something that wasn't served that night, and family members would each have a different meal.

Fathers cooked meals 1/3 of the time, but the mothers always ended up being involved somehow in cooking those meals, whereas when the moms cooked, the dads were doing something else!

Everyone had well-equipped back yards with patios, barbecues, swimming pools, play structures and so on, but they were virtually never used, even in LA with their beautiful weather.

Speaking for myself, I never use my yard except to maintain it, but I like taking care of the plants and seeing them from my windows. Realistically, the only reason I like my big yard is that it provides some privacy and distance from my neighbours :(

Another big trend was spending a lot of money on master bedroom suites. The researchers thought the parents were trying to get the feeling of a luxury hotel. Despite the expense, the master bedrooms were never used for anything but sleeping. In fact, the larger the room, the more likely it was that children and dogs slept there, too! The researchers wondered why the families didn't expand and remodel their kitchens instead, because 50% of everyone’s time was spent there.

Unsurprisingly, 90% of garage space was used for storage and not for cars. Home offices and garages were both used as catch-alls for items that weren't being used or didn't fit anywhere else.

The main conclusion of the study was that US middle class homes have an unprecedented amount of stuff and that living with it is stressing people out! In particular, mothers’ well-being is seriously impacted through buying, maintaining, organizing and cleaning a whole household worth of stuff.

I loved this book. I think it will be seen as the perfect snapshot of an era of “affluenza.” The majority of homes I've visited are like this. They may have a “staged” public area, but the rest of the house is packed with stuff.

Since 2005, American homes have changed dramatically due to the recession, foreclosures, job losses, and a new focus on frugality and minimalism. Meanwhile, I think families are spending even more time eating separate meals, going to separate activities and viewing separate electronic devices. It would be great to see a follow-up study on how the 32 families’ lives have changed since the recession and since their kids have grown up (the study was finished 8 years ago).

As for myself, the book points out to me that I am not a minimalist, and I can, at best, claim that my clutter is clean and organized.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Americans have so much stuff. We're messy benches who stockpile food, stack our hoards in carless garages, and who buy 40% of the world's toys in spite of only having 3% of the world's kids. Women do most of the housework and feel the most stressed about clutter (even in these two-income homes); children's spaces and objects take over every room, and no one goes outside. Even the kids don't have much leisure time.

Even though the info from this book is largely from the early 2000s (and it was published in 2012), it's likely still true today. (In spite of Marie Kondo's valiant efforts.)

A few interesting observations:
*Most of these families spend the majority of their time together in the kitchen.
*A quarter of the home renovations were focused on master suites that are rarely used (instead of in kitchens where they'd get back 90% of their investment).
*Pre-packaged meals only save about 5 minutes of prep/cooking time (though they do save planning time).
*People are really bad at observing and reporting their own habits.
*All of the 32 families described themselves as middle class, even though their incomes ranged from $50k-$200k+ a year.
*Americans display tons of family photos, which is not really done in other parts of the world.

[Emma Sea]

requested via library

[Katharine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A review of the use of and possessions in 32 middle-class Los Angeles homes from 2001-2005, from an anthropological perspective.