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Mr M passed this article to me about the relationship between spending and happiness. Well, we all know that money does not make you happy, but I honestly thought that what you can do with money can. This is a recurring thing I find again and again, especially being a designer. I am meant to make stuff for people to want more stuff. But do i really want it to be like this? Of course I always try to make things that matter at another level (that's why rituals in living are so important to me), but at the end of the day you are producing more material bodies that will lay somewhere at somebody's place.

I showed you this two small apartments a while ago because I just moved into a small flat myself (39 square meters to share with Mr M). Whilst this has been an economic decision (in Europe you just cannot afford to live any bigger in a city without a very serious income or getting into loans and debt), it's interesting to see people taking a conscious step in this direction. Again a contradictory position to me, I like the idea but at the same time I'm pretty sure I'd go too big before too small if money wasn't the issue. That said, the tiny flat has definitely improved the way we live in some ways (even though we've never lived in massive spaces before): we need to be tidier and cleaner, more aware of what surrounds us, smarter, more essentialist. Everything has at least one function and a spot. I could say it's more flexible, in a way, because it needs to be.

This video appeared in RowdyKittens, a blog of a lady who did make the choice of living as small as possible.

What do you think about this? Could you downsize? Have you ever needed to?