"you live in that?"

Today in my art class, we had a guest speaker named Jay Shafer. He is the start of what is called the "Tiny House Movement." He builds houses that are anywhere between 80-400 square feet. Which is at least 1/4 of the size of what the average American lives in. Ridiculous.

He kind of seems like a crazy hippie who isn't really in touch with what it takes to live in America and what the modern lifestyle really makes us do. But, he knew all about this. He grew up in Orange County, the center of materialism if there is one. And, then he started asking himself questions. About what a home actually is. About what a person actually needs versus what isn't necessary. About how to change materialism to reflect a good appreciation of stuff, not just an accumulation of stuff.

Jay Shafer was one cool dude. So, even if I can't envision myself living in a house like that anytime soon, I can still look at his principles and respect him. He is a man trying to live a life where he is eliminating everything he doesn't need and making room for what he does need to grow.

And, it doesn't hurt that the houses are just SO cute!

I think that this principle is something that everyone, myself included, can think more about. I know I have too much stuff. I know I have too much stuff that I don't need. I know that I need to start thinking about how I'm going to tackle the idea of getting my excess of clothes from Indianapolis back to Colorado in May.