Tiny Living: Making it Work

When it comes to owning a home, the phrase "bigger is better" has become the norm. But a new breed of home owners have decided to go with the "less is more" approach and scale down to -- gulp! -- well below 500 sq. feet. The reasons are clear right away: less expensive, less cleaning, less maintenance -- and also more energy efficient, cozy and elegantly streamlined. As Jay Shafer wrote in his book The Small House Book, "The key to designing my happy home ... lay not so much in deciding what I needed as in recognizing all the things I can do without."

http://www.dailygood.org/story/956/tiny-house-living-how-two-families-made-it-work-teenagers-sleepovers-alone-time-and-all-liz-pleasant/