The Tiny Life

Just got this email from Jay.  In it he talks about his new push to take on the International Code Council.  Here is the email

It has been nearly 14 years since I started, what I like to call, my aggressive pacifist’s campaign to make the built world a smaller place. To date, my approach has been to pretty much just live my life in a small footprint and hope that my example might inspire others to do the same.

On Wednesday, March 3 at roughly 7:00pm at the Hopmonk Tavern in Sebastopol, CA. I’ll be taking a somewhat more active approach. Ignite Sebastopol 3 is part of Global Ignite Week. Roughly a dozen speakers from the Bay Area will be given just twenty slides and five minutes each to present their subjects. I will be using my time to rip America’s system of imposed excess a new body part. My distain for the building codes that restrict how small a house can be is no secret. On March 3^rd I’ll be making my position all the more clear. All presentations will be recorded and posted for international viewing.

I see this as a great way to kick off a period of more active activism in which I will be working to convince the International Code Council that International Residential Code (sections 304.1,2 &3 in particular) needs revision. I don’t expect this to be easy. The road ahead is likely to be a long one for all opposed to size prohibition- one full of marches and demonstrations, possible jail time and the all the fun stuff seemingly integral to social change. I’m already working on my “I Have a Tiny Dream” speech and bracing for the possibility of my own tiny Waco. I hope everyone else out there in favor of housing rights will start thinking about what they can do to help. I will, of course, be using our website to keep folks posted about marches, sit-ins, stand-offs and other fun ways to get involved.

I’m including a copy of my proposal to amend codes here. It’s still a work in progress, so feedback is very welcome.

Viva la Tiny Revolution!

Jay Shafer

I see videos like this and hear about people on Interest only loans, who can’t even touch the principle and I realize…..

This is why we do, what we do, at The Tiny Life and Tiny House.  To hopefully change thinking on how we live our lives when it comes to housing.

Watch CBS News Videos Online

• The u.s. department of energy reports that one-quarter of people with two-car garages have so much stuff in there that they can’t park a car.
• According to the national soap and detergent association, getting rid of clutter would eliminate 40 percent of housework in the average home.
• The national association of professional organizers says we spend one year of our lives looking for lost items.
• Harris interactive reports that 23 percent of adults say they pay bills late (and incur fees) because they lose them.
• If you rent a storage facility to store your excess belongings, you’re contributing to a $154 billion industry – bigger than the hollywood film business!
• 1 in 11 american households rents a self-storage space and they spend over $1000 a year in rent.
• It costs an average of $10/square foot to store items in your home.
• In a 2008 napo survey of 400 consumers nationwide, 27 percent said they feel disorganized at work, and of those, 91 percent said they would be more effective and efficient if their workspace was better organized. 28 percent said they would save over an hour per day and 27 percent said they would save 31 to 60 minutes each day.
• Stephanie winston, author of the organized executive, estimates a manager loses 1 hour/day to disorder, costing the business up to $4,000/yr if earning $35,000/yr – or $8,125/yr at $65,000).

Via

Hey all!

It has been a great start to this blog, while only being in existence for about 6 months we have seen a great response and can’t begin to tell you about how excited I am. Currently I am working on a few ideas to make this website even better, but until then, here are some things you might not already know about.

First off, we have a Facebook Fan Page, where I will have all the post from the blog, but other content as well.  This also allows you to connect with other Tiny House folks.  We are a close knit community and it is fun to meet others in it.

Next if you are a twitter person, follow me on twitter, again all the post, some extra content and various interesting things are shared through here.

Finally tell your friends about the blog and let me know about things you find (Tiny Houses, Products, Eco-Friendly things, etc.), I’ll post it and share with the community.

Click the following icons to join in and support TheTinyLife.com!

Found this interesting interactive chart that shows housing prices according to country and time periord.  really interesting to see what it is like here vs. elsewhere.

go here to check it out

So yesterday’s post obviously brought some interesting thoughts to light, some loved it, some hated it.  While it wasn’t necessarily a very good argument against tiny houses, it did bring up a few things that are food for thought.  I think it is important to realize that tiny houses address many concerns we have with McMansions and bring us into a life that is more in tune with where we want to be.  At the same time, there are downsides.

Taking today off, hope you had a very good new years and that this year will be a good one!

You might have heard about a new guy to the Tiny House movement, James Stuart of 12 Cubed.   I am excited to have him doing a set of articles for us in the coming weeks talking about his Tiny House.

His home is showcased at  twelve3.ca So check it and learn about his Tiny House.

Found this awesome concept for a hotel that would translate nicely to a Tiny House.  The really neat thing about this is that the skin of the structure is highly reflective so when placed in a forest it reflects the forest and almost blends in.  The skin more specifically is mirrored so it reflects outside, but you can see through it from the inside.  This affords a 360 degree view of the natural surroundings.  The architect says it would be “hung” from the tree, which seems both unrealistic and very high impact on the tree even if it could hold it.  None the less its a great idea!  Check the architect’s firm out here

For those of you who might have missed it, I recently decided to do posts only Monday to Friday, so get outside with this beautiful fall weather, the changing colors and enjoy the weekend off