Live Smaller

Here's a presentation on living in a smaller house, one that meets your basic needs. You can see the slides here and listen to an audio presentation here.

The trick might be finding such a house. New construction seems to focus on building the most square footage that will fit on the lot. I'd like to see more, maybe not 140 square foot homes like this presenter promotes, but well-planned multi-bedroom homes under 1400 square feet. What I see are 2- and 3-story houses that are over 4000 square feet. Yikes! What must those heating and cooling bills be like! In-fill developments seem to be concerned with bigger and bigger houses on smaller and smaller lots. Now I realize that settled communities are worried about decreases in property values that they think will result from higher density development, but I think we have to overcome those prejudices to provide simpler/smaller spaces in service of environmental responsibility. This does not have to mean that smaller houses on smaller lots will be cheaply made and ugly and so be bad for established neighborhoods. Some of the pictures I see of small homes are lovely homes. Some of them cost more per square foot and have higher quality features than the larger houses and McMansions.

There was a report at Time last year on small homes. NPR's report from last year is here. The New York Times had an article earlier this year on the subject. MSN has a report here.

My question would be, "Where will I keep my seasonal decorations?"

Photo from Flickr