I've always been attracted to small houses and cottages that have little lofts above them. The attraction was more of a "wow-so-cute-and-perfect-too-bad-I-have-a-zillion-kids-and-10-tons-of-stuff" kind of attraction. Being cooped up in my house for the last 192 hours I've done an awful lot of looking around and realizing that this house is SO BIG and full of nothing important. When we first moved in, it felt so empty. Everyone told us "Don't worry. You'll acquire things along the way and you'll have more stuff than you'll know what to do with." And good god, here I am. I feel like I live in a shrine devoted to stuff. Our stuff takes up more room in this house than we do. All I can think about is Fight Club: "You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you." - Chuck Palahniuk
This stuff is holding us emotionally hostage. It's crazy. If I didn't have so much stuff (which in my opinion we actually have less than most) we could fit anywhere as a family of 5. Seriously? What do we truly need? Do I need 15 or so pairs of dress pants? 18 or so pairs of pumps? Nope. A huge TV that we spend our time watching pretend people live their lives so we can procrastinate or escape from our real lives? (Side note: we actually shut off our cable two summers ago and we thought our lives would suffer tremendously. HAHA! I don't know how I accomplished anything before. We never turned it back on and there is literally nothing I miss about it.) It's all crap. We don't need any of it. None of that improves the quality of our lives, and in fact, most of them hinder it. So I am officially vowing to rid our house of everything we do not need by May 31st. I have a feeling that once we achieve this monumental task, we will realize how much of our living space was just taken up with our stuff and actually went unused. That's when we will DOWNSIZE! YAY!!!!
Oh? Not yay? You think downsizing is a bad idea? Small isn't fun? Small isn't awesome? Well feast your eyes on these delicious displays of tiny-ness in all their puny glory...
First: No Lie... a bird house.
This structure built on an estate in Louisiana was originally designed to store pigeons (to eat!) but has been converted into a most lovely abode! Apartment Therapy WOWS as always!
Next: Who doesn't want to live in a TREE HOUSE?!
Again, Apartment Therapy keeping us drooling!
This one is solar powered! It's in Georgia at a camp for kids who are faced with serious illnesses or who struggle with physical or emotional disabilities. How amazing! See more here.
How about this one?! Ohhh... looks so tranquil!
I know a lot of people really hate the whole "glass house" thing, but that creepy feeling of someone watching you at night aside, I LOVE IT!
How about a beach cottage?
This is so perfect. Right out of a story book. There are more pictures of the interior and they are so lovely. Find them at Architect Design
Or Eco-Friendly!
A little mod, but I'm still drooling over it! The house itself is pretty neato. See it at Dwelle Tiny House
Look at this amazing apartment!
So simple and perfect!
and check out this sweet loft! Both can be found at naBUZZ.
Speaking of lofts... droooooling!
This little farm house is amazing! Head over to Dwell and click through the slideshow!
I love this japanese loft designed by architect Toyo Ito!
How cute is that? Reminds me of The Secret of Roan Inish
So small doesn't mean plain or ugly. It just means keeping things simple. There are plenty of beautiful, fun, exciting and yes TINY places to live and I'm definitely headed in that direction!