'Bigger just wears you out'

The New York Times did a story this week on how millennials favor microkitchens. Using Seattle as an example, Kim Severson writes about how aspirational tech-industry workers favor downsized kitchens that still have choice amenities like "expensive blenders, elaborate coffee makers and professional-quality knives." Many of them also have access to impressive communal kitchens such as the one local superstar chef Tom Douglas designed for the Via6 apartment building across the street from Amazon headquarters. (Douglas also has restaurants on the ground floor of this vertical neighborhood.) Adds Severson: 

The building was designed for a Zipcar generation that embraces a sharing economy, said Matt Griffin, the Seattle developer who came up with the concept for Via6. “Life becomes having access to it but not necessarily owning it,” he said. “If your kitchen is efficient, it doesn’t need to be that big. Bigger just wears you out.”

According to the article, an 860-square-foot apartment at Via6 rents for $3,379 a month. I know plenty of people -- especially two-income couples -- in Seattle's red-hot economy can afford such digs, and more power to them. But for many of us in modestly-paid occupations, "bigger just wears you out" can refer to the price tag a "big" career can exact just as easily as it can to the costs of owning "big" stuff.

I like to say that I live in Seattle's least-sexy neighborhood. My 1960s-vintage apartment (the same age as me!) costs significantly less than half the Via6 tab for a similarly sized unit. My home isn't fancy, but renting here gives me options -- for work, for travel, for rambling around a place that has plenty of room -- and when I want to go to the hip neighborhoods, they are a short bus ride away. It's the semi-affordable Seattle, complete with mismatched appliances and a genuine Mr. Coffee.