Tiny Houses, Clever Furniture and Smaller Footprints

The American Dream is defined as the individual and economical freedom to live life, as the individual wants it. Normally the American dream has been associated with materialism and the slogan “The Bigger, The Better” no matter if we are talking about burgers, cars or houses.

In the midst of big greasy burger, octane hungry cars and voluminous houses a new trend that goes against “The Bigger, The Better” has seen the daylight.

“The Smaller, The Better”

“Tiny Houses” is the new trend. People who live in Tiny Houses are concerned about reducing the everyday complexity as people in big houses lives with.

The problem isn’t all the space a big house makes available, but all the stuff it contains. By reducing the size of your house, you force yourself to limit the amount of stuff you own and thereby reducing complexity of the everyday life.

“Tiny Houses” are normally between 100 – 400 square feet, whereas the average American home is 2600 square feet. When a house is this small it has some obvious consequences: Limitations on the amount of stuff and fewer square feet to heat in the winter months and therefore contributes Tiny Houses as a movement contributes to the health of our environment.

Two of the positive effects of Tiny Houses and downsizing are that often it will have a good effect upon the financial situation, because the limitation of square feet also makes it easier to heat up your home.

Fewer square feet to warm up has a positive effect on the heating bill. This starts a chain reaction; because when you consume less heat, you will also emit less carbon dioxide, which ensure a greener way of living.

One of the challenges for average size houses and alternative energy is sun cells or other alternative fuels. It has to be really effective to be able to be the only energy resource. With pin up houses it is easier to switch or experiment with alternative energy sources, like solar energy which brings great benefits.

It’s a radical change in lifestyle when you normally have been used to live on five times the amount of space. Therefore it is a necessity to downsize your life so it fits in your home.

There are many different ways of doing this.

Smart Furniture Designs

Some are starting to produce their own furniture. Others are buying compact multipurpose furniture. The most of us have heard about the sofa bed, where you are able to rearrange your sofa to a 2-persons bed, but there is also the classic Murphy bed, which is a cool invention.

When people decides to leave the comfortable normal life for the Tiny Life – as the movement has been baptized – there are several entry barrier and hurdles people need to pass.

First and foremost they need to accept that they are taking a choice that many people don’t understand. At the same time it isn’t easy purchase land for a Tiny House, the banks aren’t willing to finance the Tiny Life, because they see it as a high-risk investment and on the top of all this Tiny Houses are also a grey area in the legislation.

Right know the way we have designed our systems and countries it isn’t really suited for the Tiny Life, but the Tiny Life movement questions many of our assumption about the good life and could maybe be an innovation centre for a greener future.

Read more: Green Hotel: The Business Case For Sustainable Tourism