IT’S TIME TO TRADE DOWN—you know, the opposite of “trade up,” that consumerist jollywoggler apron-tied to myth-taken aspirations of the oh so GOOD LIFE. And I don’t mean “trade down” as nakedly showcased in a recent New Yorker story about Fred “Two Buck Chuck” Franzia; in Franzia’s take, getting cheap swill, or “super-value” wine, to the public is somehow sticking it to the man (well, the filthy-lucre-rich man in Napa, at least). I’m talking about the “less is more” and “simplify” movement as manifest rather remarkably in the move to small houses—very small houses—for which a market is growing with leaps and bounds.

BUZZ IS GOOD, make no mistake, and that’s certainly helping this square-footage-shedding exodus from old ways and old days, which saw homes grow and yards vanish. This monstrous home bloat was reported and seen as a business opportunity for what it signified, interestingly enough, in Trading Up: Why Consumers Want New Luxury Goods—and How Companies Create Them. So in addition to getting away from all those super-sized meals and instead eating healthy to shed pounds (thus minimizing your “personal housing”), it’s now time to jettison your energy devouring, megalodon mansion filled with stuff you don’t need and to live more simply. And as reported all over the place, including CNN, The New York Times, Oprah, CBS, TreeHugger and a recent cover story in E Magazine, business is booming, the triple bottom line being achieved.

There’s a telling comment in a workshop description at Small House Style that gets to the core of the issue here: “At the heart of our current economic mess is the ubiquitous ‘McMansion,’ a bloated and unsustainable product.” There it is, straight up and unadorned: We require a rethink, a reevaluation of what we need and what we want, a step change when it comes to housing, especially in the matter of size and over-the-top amenities (I’m not talking chicken coops, home vegetable gardens and community-building porches and patios—this is positively quantifiable, and quantifiably positive, use of defined, limited space).

One of the truly appreciable aspects of this movement is its geographical diversity; the fact that we’re not just seeing small houses in New York, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and New Mexico, they’re also in Texas, Iowa, Florida, Connecticut, Illinois and Kansas. Yes, they’re just about everywhere. Yes, it makes economic sense in so many ways. And yes, we can all live without the oodles of junk that we often feel coerced into purchasing (thanks very much, American buy! buy! buy! consumer society). Are big houses “dead”? That’s yet to be seen (albeit more are foreclosed, forlorn and stripped bare, resembling some Richard Matheson future-shock apocalyptic nightmare), but the “breakaway” movement toward little green houses that do a lot of good is certainly on the rise, and this is trading down in a very positive, proactive sense, indeed. So let’s consider small the new big, and down the new up—hey, we already know green is the new black.

—Allen

A precursor of the small-house movement: Thoreau's cabin on Walden Pond.

Find out more about ‘little green houses’
Small House Society
Small House Style
Tiny House Design
Tiny Texas Houses
Tumbleweed Tiny House Company
Little House on a Small Planet (book)
Tiny Houses (book)
TreeHugger on small houses
Tiny House Blog