Downsizing can help the planet too
A win-win from rethinking your personal space needs
It may seem intuitively obvious that downsizing to a tiny home would reduce one’s environmental impact, since it means occupying a much smaller space and consuming fewer resources. But little research has been done to actually measure how people’s environmental behaviors change when they make this life-changing move.
Researcher Maria Saxton looked at 80 downsizers across the United States, and found that downsizing had on average reduced people’s ecological footprint by 45%. She found that after downsizing people were more likely to eat less energy-intensive food products and adopt more environmentally conscious eating habits, such as eating more locally and growing more of their own food. People traveled less by car, motorcycle, bus, train and airplane, and drove more fuel-efficient cars than they did before downsizing. They also purchased substantially fewer items, recycled more plastic and paper, and generated less trash. In sum, she found that downsizing was an important step toward reducing ecological footprints and encouraging pro-environmental behaviors.
Combined with intelligent senior-stage downsizing and ‘stuff-management’, this research shows clearly that both you and your environment can benefit from thinking carefully about the space and lifestyle you really want and need.