You’re standing in the middle of a room, and you can see the kitchen, the front door, and the hallway to the bedroom all at once. For some, that sounds like a nightmare. For others? It's the dream.
Honestly, the small house 700 sq ft lifestyle isn't just about saving a few bucks on your heating bill, though that part is pretty sweet. It’s about a weirdly specific threshold of space where you have enough room for a real couch, a "normal" fridge, and maybe a guest, but not enough room to hide from your own clutter. It forces you to be honest with yourself about how much stuff you actually need.
Most people think 700 square feet is basically a shoe box. It's not. For context, a standard two-car garage is about 400 to 600 square feet. So, imagine a two-car garage, then add a whole extra room and a bathroom. Suddenly, it feels a lot more like a real home and less like a storage unit you’re sleeping in.
The math of the small house 700 sq ft footprint
Let’s get technical for a second because the layout makes or breaks this entire experience. If you have a 700-square-foot space that is poorly chopped up into tiny, dark rooms, you’re going to feel like you’re living in a submarine. Designers like Sarah Susanka, who wrote The Not So Big House, have been preaching this for years: it’s not about total square footage; it’s about "perceived" space.
In a small house 700 sq ft layout, you usually see one of two things. Either a "Great Room" concept where the kitchen and living area are one big rectangle, or a traditional split where the bedroom is tucked away. If you’re building or buying, go for the Great Room. Every wall you knock down adds about 4 to 6 inches of floor space and a massive amount of visual "breathing room."
Windows are your best friend here. High ceilings too. If you can get 10-foot ceilings in a 700-square-foot house, it feels like 1,000 square feet. It’s a literal magic trick for your brain.
Why people are fleeing "McMansions" for 700 square feet
The average American home size peaked around 2015 at over 2,400 square feet. But things are shifting. Why? Maintenance.
Think about it.
When you live in a small house 700 sq ft, you can deep clean the entire place in forty-five minutes. You aren't spending your entire Saturday vacuuming rooms you don't even use. There’s no "formal dining room" gathering dust and housing that one treadmill you bought three years ago.
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Everything is intentional.
The cost reality nobody tells you
People assume a small house is cheap. Kinda.
While the total price tag is usually lower, the cost per square foot can actually be higher. This is because the most expensive parts of a house—the kitchen and the bathroom—still exist in a 700-square-foot home. You aren't saving money on the "cheap" square footage, like extra bedrooms or long hallways. You’re paying for the core infrastructure.
According to data from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), specialized small-scale builds often require custom cabinetry and "apartment-sized" appliances, which sometimes cost more than the standard stuff you find at big-box retailers. But the long-term ROI? It’s usually through the roof because your property taxes and utility loads are microscopic compared to the neighbors.
The "Guest Problem" in a small house 700 sq ft
This is the biggest hurdle. Where does your mom stay when she visits?
In a 700-square-foot setup, you have to get creative. You’re looking at high-end sleeper sofas or Murphy beds. Some people actually build a "flex room" which is basically a 10x10 space that serves as an office during the day and a guest room at night.
It’s a trade-off. You lose the dedicated guest suite, but you gain a life where you aren't paying a mortgage on a room that sits empty 350 days a year.
Making the 700 square feet feel huge
If you want to actually enjoy living in a small house 700 sq ft, you have to ditch the "standard" furniture. That massive sectional sofa from the showroom? It will swallow your living room whole.
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Go for "leggy" furniture. If you can see the floor underneath your sofa and your chairs, the room feels larger. It’s a visual trick that prevents the furniture from feeling like heavy blocks of wood and fabric.
Built-ins are the secret weapon of the small house world. Instead of buying a bookshelf that sticks out two feet from the wall, you build shelves into the wall. You use the space between the studs. You use the "dead" space above the doorways for seasonal storage.
The psychological impact of less space
There is a real mental shift that happens when you downsize. You start to value quality over quantity. Instead of five mediocre frying pans, you have one really nice cast iron skillet because that’s all the room you have.
It reduces "decision fatigue."
When you have less house to manage, you have more mental bandwidth for literally everything else. It's why the "Tiny House" movement took off, but 700 square feet is the "grown-up" version of that. It’s big enough to have a full-sized shower and a dishwasher, but small enough to keep your life simple.
Specific design choices that work
- Pocket doors. Standard swinging doors take up about 9 square feet of "swing space." In a house this size, that’s a lot of wasted real estate. Use pocket doors that slide into the wall.
- Continuous flooring. Don't switch from tile to carpet to wood. Use one consistent material throughout the entire 700 square feet. It draws the eye all the way to the back wall, making the footprint seem unified and expansive.
- The "Outdoor Room." If you have a small deck or a patio, treat it as part of your square footage. Use large glass sliding doors. If the eye can see the outside, the brain registers that as "living space."
Real-world examples of the 700 sq ft life
Look at the "ADU" (Accessory Dwelling Unit) trend in cities like Portland, Seattle, and Los Angeles. These are often exactly 700 to 800 square feet because of local zoning laws.
People are living in these full-time, not just using them as guesthouses. They’re finding that a small house 700 sq ft allows them to live in high-density, desirable neighborhoods where a "normal" house would cost two million dollars.
In Austin, developers are building "cottage courts"—clusters of 700-square-foot homes around a shared garden. It provides the privacy of a single-family home with the footprint of an apartment. It’s a middle ground that actually works for 21st-century demographics—single professionals, young couples, and "silver splitters" (retirees downsizing after a divorce or death of a spouse).
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Common misconceptions about the size
"It's only for one person." Not true.
A couple can comfortably live in 700 square feet if they aren't both working from home in the same room. If you have two people who need private office space, 700 square feet starts to feel very tight, very fast. However, if one person works out of the house or you have a dedicated "nook," it’s totally doable.
"You can't have pets." Also false.
A 700-square-foot house is plenty for a dog or a cat, provided they get outside. In fact, it’s often easier to keep a small house clean when you have a shedding pet than it is to chase fur around a 3,000-square-foot mansion.
Practical next steps for your small house journey
If you're serious about moving into or building a small house 700 sq ft, start by auditing your current life.
Go through your house with a roll of blue painter's tape. Mark out a 700-square-foot box on the floor of your current home or a local park. Stand inside it.
- Measure your "must-have" furniture. Will your current bed and sofa fit? If not, factor the cost of new, appropriately scaled furniture into your budget.
- Check local zoning. Many areas have "minimum square footage" requirements. You don't want to buy a lot only to find out the city requires a minimum of 1,000 square feet.
- Declutter now. Don't wait until moving day. If you haven't used an item in a year, it has no place in a 700-square-foot home.
- Focus on the kitchen. In a small home, the kitchen is the hub. Invest in high-quality, quiet appliances (like a Bosch dishwasher) because in a small space, noise travels. You don't want a loud fridge buzzing while you're trying to watch a movie ten feet away.
- Light it up. Plan for multiple layers of lighting—overhead, task, and accent. A well-lit small house feels airy; a poorly lit one feels like a cave.
The transition to a smaller footprint is rarely about the "stuff" you lose. It's almost always about the time and freedom you gain. Less to clean, less to fix, and less to pay for means more time to actually live.