Tiny House, Big Living

I love hearing the stories of people on this show. Tiny House Big Living screens Sundays at 9.30pm on Channel 94 (in Australia). Each week there's two half-hour episodes.

While it's fun seeing (and critiquing) the various designs, I really get inspired when someone is making a big positive life change. Recently we got two good stories in one night.

Paul and Bekah Dreisbach

Paul and Bekah each grew up overseas. Their families were in the Philippines and Africa. Paul shares how this changed them.

"Our backgrounds of growing up in a third-world culture and country have affected why we're going to go tiny. People living in shacks or the smallest little places are just as happy and we've realised that it's not necessarily the place you live in or how many things you have but it's the people you're around."

Bekah reflects on the moving back to the USA:

"Here it's just a struggle to have more and buy more things and you surround yourself with so much stuff and yet you miss out on a lot of great experiences because of that."

Their destination of Oregon is more expensive than their home state, so "going tiny was a great financial choice for us. We'll be able to live tiny, save some money and do all the things we want to do."

Rich and Sonda Moriarty

Showing that it's not just for young couples, Rich and Sonya also talk about their reasons for downsizing and simplifying their life, now their five adult children have all left home.

"We're empty-nesters. We want more time; and the way to have more time is to live more simply. Less things to take care of."

They'd been thinking about this for couple of years before taking the plunge.

"I'm so glad that we took that leap and we decided to go for it, because it's just so liberating I guess - having just a few things now instead of all of this stuff. It's really made us think about what's important to us."

"I didn't think we'd be able to do this but I'm so so happy that we made this move."

Comments

Simple phone

I get my fair share of teasing for still using a Nokia phone. So I feel quite vindicated that someone has now invented a new non-smartphone . It's pitched for those who want a decluttered life. Instead of features, its selling points are things like "reclaim a little quietude from the constant intrusions of technology", "no internet connection, no app store and definitely no camera for taking selfies". One quote from the article said "as smartphones get bigger and bulkier, there is a place for something small and simplified, without all the functions." That kind of statement resonates with me. Not just for phones, but for so many areas of life - including the houses we live in.

Why own a car, when you can go get?

That's the slogan of one company providing an alternative to car ownership. Here's our experience with them. Why not just have our own car? Another time I'll write a full post about that, but suffice to say that car ownership is a pain in the neck. The servicing, the maintenance, the repairs, the parking, the traffic, the registration, the insurance, the cleaning... For my wife and I, about 98% of our transport needs can be done on foot, by bike, by train, bus or ferry. Maybe 99% if you include rideshare. So we choose to avoid the pain (and cost) of car ownership. However, car use (I think of it separately from car ownership) can be handy in certain situations. We had one of those situations last weekend. Here's how it went. Booking a car My wife signed up for GoGet , and booked the car online for the time window she needed it. As a first-timer, she received her little membership card in the mail. On the day of the booking, GoGet sent her a reminder email about 20 minut...

Too Much Stuff

"Why is it so hard to resist new things even when we know we already have too much. Can we find an alternative to the more, more, more mentality?" That promo got me hooked into the half-hour doco "Too Much Stuff". Australian viewers can see it online . Otherwise, here are some of my highlights. Host Sarah Wilson sums up the problem right at the start. "At every turn we're urged to possess the next thing that will make us feel smarter and more desirable. Anything we want is available with just one click. We're filling up our lives with stuff; yet ultimately, many of us feel empty, guilty and stressed out by our consumption." She sets out to explore an alternative. To see if "radically reducing our consumption" can lead to a better life. (Spoiler alert: Yes) Sarah says many people call her a minimalist but she's not so much about getting rid of things, more about not buying stuff. What's wrong with the Marie Kondo approach? Each ep...

But wait... there's less!

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