I guess that depends...my husband and i lived in a tent for awhile. and at the time it was perfect. we've also lived in some large apartments which was nice. now we live in our camper while we're building our house. All things being relative, our friends are surprised at how "small" our house will be (about 1500 sf) but to us it will seem like the taj mahal. :) So, right now, about 1500 sf is just right.

It depends. Right now we (myself, boyfriend, two dogs) live in a 450 sf studio rental with the world's worst floor plan. Even if we simply owned the same space and could move around some of the fixtures, the space could be livable for a lot longer than it is right now.

Interesting. I don't need a huge house, medium is fine. I hate tiny cramped kitchens and bathrooms with no counter space and that are hard to clean. I don't mind minimal walls so long as the place can be dark and quiet when I need to sleep.

If you buy a used house that is already big, it's still more eco friendly than building a brand new home (with a need for a sewer system and all that) on a previously pristine piece of land.

Size doesn't matter, the function is...

My max is 1500 sq ft. If it were a well laid out space, I could deal with 900, but only b/c there I am married with a child and two dogs.

I live in a house that's 1200 square feet and there's not a lot of unused space, except for the dining room, in the middle of the floorplan, and that we really only use a handful of times per year. The rest of the time, it becomes a dumping ground for interrupted projects that you can't put away just yet.

If anything, I'd like to have another 3 feet of space on either side of our 25x48 rectangle and open things up. And if we invested $85 000 in major renos, we could have both that better bathroom, kitchen and laundry room that I've been dreaming about.

So when all is said and done... 1200 sq.ft would be enough, if only we won the lottery and could make it more functional.

Size doesn't matter - layout and function does! I have lived in a 390 square foot apartment with the best layout ever and felt like I was living the high life and I have shared a 2400 square foot house that had the worst layout ever.

Nice place for morning meditation.

It depends on situations, people, and layouts. I for one would not feel comfortable if I had small kids and a bedroom with no walls. I know I need some private space - with my partner I can just tell him but with kids it's harder to have meditation time in the middle of living room. I have issues and have to have him take our dog for a walk sometimes....
We have about 1200 sq ft and that is a lot but the layout leaves a lot of be desired. We have sooo much space but functionality of it doesn't seem to be there: tiny master bath, huge half bath downstairs, horrible basement/storage area due to badly placed laundry, and a small kitchen with a super huge dining room. I just happen to like the small kitchen - I hope when we want to move one day someone else will as well.

I actually dislike having too much extra space (blah blah cleaning, blah blah heating/cooling), but I have a lot of design equipment (which I use frequently) and need enough space for it. 700-800 sf works very well for me.

Insufficient counter space in the kitchen is also not an option, since I do a lot of cooking. I am willing to someday trade in my tiny table for a couple of bar stools if necessary, but I MUST have enough counter space.

My house right now is just under 1400 square feet, and it's more than enough for me, my husband, our dog, and our two rats and two degus. :-) We're only planning to have 2 kids, and since the house has 3 bedrooms it should be the perfect size for a family of four.

I actually like that having a small (by modern standards, anyway) house forces us to think very hard about what we buy, because we only end up with things we really, really want. That said, I have NO idea how my husbands family of 7 (plus a dog) managed to live so long in a comparably-sized house without killing one another. ;-)

My current 8'x9' studio living space has taught me I need a minimum of 100sqft for even the minimum of a daybed, shelving, and desk+ dining chair. I also want enough room to swing some kettlebells without hitting anything.

I'm currently saving to replace my cheap daybed for a sturdy chaise or armless sofa because I'd have to lose some shelving to add even the smallest armchair now. Otherwise, I find the space a good tradeoff for cheap rent without roommates in this economy.

The one real downside is the stoveless kitchenette. Replicating that functionality with single or dual function appliances soon becomes a space hogging, expensive situation. Yet it's probabaly even more expensive to eat out all the time as I do.

I also dislike that my relatively spacious bathroom has such a small shower stall. I'm sure the owner thought the extra space offers great storage and a dressing area, but post shower mugginess defeats both.

Still, if I owned this place, I feel there are plenty of design changes that could make it more livable. Working around a restrictive lease results in my not being able to take advantage of attaching things to walls or using the full height of tall ceilings.

Love this post. I've lived in 150sq ft and soon will live in 271sq ft.

Don't ask how or where they found the 1 extra square foot. I think it all depends on what you can and can't live without. I live in a 1920s building in downtown and am near everything: Work, school, co-op, farmers market. The place has enormous character but no bathrooms in any of its 37 studios. We have a communal bathroom (they clean everyday) and communal laundry room. And no stove which means I have an induction plate, a toaster oven, a microwave, and a water boiler. But otherwise it is paradise. Living small forces you to be creative with space and what is important to you. You also find out who your friends are. If they will visit you in 271 sq ft, they'll be there when you own the 600 sq ft. Remember the first Apartment therapy book with the man, his wife and new baby (the author's). They lived in 275 sq ft. It is all about creativity and design.

I like small spaces because I find them cozier than large homes. I could never live in one of those celebrity mansions. The smaller the better. If I lived alone (I have a bf and child) I'd be living in a studio. Right now we have a 1600sq ft. 3 bedroom apartment which is more than enough.

When I lived on my one, at one point I lived in a room with an "efficiency" kitchen (two hot plates, no counter space) and a tiny bathroom with just a shower, no tub. The whole thing was, I don't know, maybe 200 sq. ft. That was okay, I could live like that!

Living as a couple, though, I need at least one bedroom. I could not handle life in a studio with someone else. I'm an introvert and I need some space where I can shut the door and be alone! Right now we live in 1200 sq. ft. but we have a guest bedroom/office that isn't used very heavily. I think we could be okay living in as little as 700 sq. ft., but I would have to make my boyfriend part with a lot of boxes of unused things that he's packratting first. It would be hard.

I really love our spacious living room, though. For me, the biggest downside to having a super small space is that you don't have room to have more than a couple people over. We have a lot of friends and we like being able to have 20 people come over and play board games in our living room!

How about this lady living in a 90ft apartment?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1372926/Felice-Cohen-describes-miniature-90ft-home-Is-Americas-smallest-apartment.html

Check out these tiny homes-

http://www.tumbleweedhouses.com/

I would love to have one of these!

I lived in a 400 sq ft apartment with my boyfriend and cat and although it was tight living, it worked well enough. The 750 sq ft apartment we now live in feels luxurious though- especially with 10 ft ceilings and a small roof deck!

I had a hard time finding an apartment to my liking, because I love cooking and most apartments' kitchens are neglected and cramped. The kitchen is my #1 priority (with the bathroom coming in close 2nd).

I bought my tiny 1937, 900 sq ft bungalow in 1998. It has a sweet front porch and I added a 12X12 three season porch on the back. Plenty of room for myself and my cats. The only thing that I HATE is the layout of the living room. No entryway and the front door opens right into the middle of the room so no good way to have a nice looking seating arrangement.

My current day dream (& has been for some time now) is living in an English narrowboat - less that 7 feet wide or high, but anywhere up to 70ft long (depending on where you want to travel). It seems perfect: a small living space that you can take with you. If only one could do the whole world this way.

I can totally deal with about 300 sq ft. We lived in our trailer for 5 months one summer- with two kids (ages 7 and 1 at the time), two dogs (Labs), and three cats. It was... cozy. ;)
We had a small fridge, which forced us to cook fresher. And as we lived on the water, we ate fresh fish (pickerel) about 5 days a week. Our bathroom was small, but it had a small bathtub- enough space to have the kids bathe, and the shower worked fine for me. The kids shared a back bedroom (thank heavens for bunks), and the bunks had drawers under them. Then we had 4 Ikea "rast" dressers in there, with a bigger piece of countertop on them- so it made it into a craft area/desk.
Our bedroom was the living room- we had a futon. We had a massive closet in there, and the trailer had a storage room at the back (had to go outside to get to it) that was about 50sq ft. Kitchen was small but insanely functional.

All in all, I think winter would have been rough, but do-able. Summer was a breeze. And I would trade my "extra" 500 sq ft right now for that trailer so I could do yoga on the beach again... give me about 500 sq ft anyday!