Interior Designer Thinks Americans Need Less Storage Than 18th Century France

Comments

11 responses to “Interior Designer Thinks Americans Need Less Storage Than 18th Century France”

1. 

   November 7, 2007

   Karli

   My vote is we NEED more storage!

   Reply
2. 

   November 8, 2007

   Lissanne Oliver

   America needs more storage?!?! John, are you kidding? America desperately needs LESS STUFF!

   Reply
3. 

   November 8, 2007

   Brandie Kajino

   Interesting question. I think it depends on what’s important to you. Buying a bigger home with more storage isn’t likely to solve the “I don’t have enough space” question. Having said that, it seems like modern homes (in suburbia) don’t have the storage built into them that the older homes do.
   Personally I like less stuff. It’s less time and commitment that I have to have to take care of it all. Maybe that makes me a “stuff” commitment phobe…. 😉

   Reply
4. 

   November 15, 2007

   Cynthia D’Amour

   I live in a 100 year old house. There is a walk-in closet to support all three bedrooms. The two smaller bedrooms both have an old iron bar about 18 inches long to hang clothes on.
   Supposedly they raised 10 kids in this house at one time. Not sure where they put the kids – let alone their clothes!
   I dream of more closet space. Good thing my house is very cute!

   Reply
5. 

   November 15, 2007

   Claire Tompkins

   I’m with Brandie. The relationship of the quantity of stuff to the amount of storage space in your house follows a variation of Parkinson’s Law. In other words, the amount of stuff you have increases so as to fill the space available to store it.
   I’m not against having stuff. I like stuff! But I don’t think we’ll reach that magic point of equilibrium where all the stuff has storage. Kind of like all those freeways they keep building that traffic catches up to before they’re finished…

   Reply
6. 

   November 15, 2007

   John Trosko

   Hey Claire,
   I had not heard of Parkinson’s law. I’ll look it up. I grew up in the east coast, in a home built in 1960. We had huge wall to wall closets with heavy wood doors. And anything we didn’t want, went into the attic. I think my parents never threw much away!
   But as an adult, I can see pretty quickly if a home has enough storage. But I think it’s all relative. If you like to do your office work in the kitchen, and there are papers and office supplies strewn about, it’s not the storage in the kitchen at fault– it’s yours. You must adapt and either move your office to another room, or build in the kitchen. Adaptation is key. You can’t have it your way unless you invest in your space– something many folks don’t want to do.

   Reply
7. 

   November 20, 2007

   Claire Tompkins

   John,
   Yes, adaptation is key. So is being realistic! People who work in the kitchen often turn out to have a lovely office elsewhere in the house, but they never go in there, for whatever reason.
   Sometimes they’ve set up a quite workable office in the dining room, but it bugs them because, well, it’s the dining room. I remind them that they’ve already told me they only use the dining room twice a year for family gatherings. But if their parents and grandparents had a formal dining room, they want one too, even if it’s just for show.
   Getting people to adapt their homes to the way they actually live right now, to make life easier, is really important.

   Reply
8. 

   November 24, 2007

   Monica Ricci

   An interesting conversation. I am generally of the opinion that we need a combination of LESS STUFF and MORE EFFECTIVE STORAGE.
   In my work with Beazer Homes, one of the things we’re working on and always talking about is building homes that have an abundance of storage, not just in the places you’d expect it, but also in areas where you might not. It’s storage where you need it most, not just bigger closets or a larger garage.
   ~Monica

   Reply
9. 

   November 24, 2007

   Monica Ricci

   PS: I have OFTEN told my clients of Parkinson’s Law when they sigh heavily and say, “We just need a bigger house”.
   UUuurrrrrrrcccchhhh!! Stop right there! That’s a wonderful teaching opportunity, to bring to light that Parkinson’s Law is indeed true that stuff WILL expand to fill whatever space is available. So unless you address the habits and attitudes that create the clutter issue to begin with, you’ll have a bigger house with even MORE stuff to get out from under.
   ~Monica

   Reply
10. 

    January 2, 2008

    anonymous

    John, I think Ms. Watty has a point. We need less storage, not more. People keep on buying stuff, jamming it in the drawers, and you don’t even know what’s in there. Less is more.

    Reply
11. 

    February 6, 2008

    kelleyfurniture

    Interesting question, it is needed to have more storage but sometimes it all depends upon the purchasing something bigger or smaller.
    Thanks!

    Reply