Live Small, Be Free

I always have conflicted feelings when I see something, in print, in a mainstream medium, that jives with the inner workings of my head.  On one hand, it's confirming, it's validating....and it gives me hope.   On the other hand, I always get a petulant "hey! that's MY idea" feeling as well - as if everyone else is going to hop on board, it's going to be trendy, and I won't be that unique person anymore but instead, another yuppy bandwagoneer (right).

I really shouldn't be so selfish.

I am proud to say, that when I happened upon this article in the NYT today, my first reaction was that of the former.   The latter took a few minutes to kick in. ;)

Although the article is about 1/20th the length of what it would have been if I would have wrote it (thanks to my verbal diarrhea and yearning to convince the entire population), it covers all the various motivations for living small, and how living small can benefit us:

Financial: "When you build small, you can spend money on higher quality materials" Can you imagine what you can do with all that extra cash? 

Environmental:  Tiny house, tiny footprint. 

Unencumbered Lifestyle: less stuff, less stuff that requires maintenance and repair, more relaxed living, closer family.  The biggest appeal of all, and one that I have personally enjoyed, and continue to enjoy.

I believe the opening ad to this book, says it all:

 How much space does it take to be happy?

Even if you aren't into the TINY houses, its still a question worth asking of oneself - even just as a personal exercise.  Even though I am still pretty hell bent on my off-the-grid concrete/earthwood/yurt with a living roof top, I still love to visit all the Tiny Homes websites to imagine what we could fit into. Personally?  I like The Loring. 

And of course, whenever I get lost on Jay Shaffers website (or video tours), I can't help but to hum a modified Don Ho:

"Tiny houses 

Make me warm all over

With a feeling that I'm gonna 

Love you till the end of time"

Comments

[Carey]

One thing I love about reading your blog is finding out these things about smaller houses or Yurts. My husband would love to try out a Yurt in fact now, and tonight when he gets home I'll be showing him the Live Small site.

Thanks!