As suburban sprawl carves its path through our nation’s heartland, homes are getting bigger and bigger. For some reason, everyone needs a couple extra bedrooms, workout room, wine cellar, media room, snore room, great room, and a study. Since the dawn of habitas, humans have loved to show off their homes and features within. This seemingly innocent, if slightly prideful condition has turned into a free-for-all of excess.

But what does it all get you? In most houses equipped with all the aforementioned rooms, families hardly ever use all the rooms. No matter how many rooms you have, people tend to gather either in the kitchen, or close to it. The kitchen is the warmest room in the house and people gravitate toward it.

Homes built before the housing boom after World War II held far fewer rooms than homes built now. Space was at a premium, not just inside but outside as well. Would you rather a neighborhood with large sprawling, character-less houses on large lots with no trees? Or a neighborhood with an intelligent integration of parks and greens, with houses full of character designed for everyday, practical needs?

We should become better observers in weighing the media room against leaving the world a better place for our children who grow up in these houses. This is a crucial time for the envionment and how humans are affecting it negatively. Every extra square foot that we think we need included in our house is that much more we have to heat, air-condition, etc. The most ethical and moral decision might be to do our small part in designing and wanting homes that are efficiently laid out and can be maintained in an effificent manner.

We might not be able to watch movies upstairs above the garage in theatre seats, but they make movie theatres for that experience.