Little House on a Small Planet: Simple Homes, Cozy Retreats, and Energy Efficient Possibilities

Living small frees up the mind, the wallet, and the soul.

 

As economic uncertainties loom large, and the evidence mounts that humans are responsible for much of global warming, the “new” trend is beginning to seem old: new subdivisions filled with McMansions, the friend of a friend’s childless brother who just added on a third bedroom. Many of us have suffered the consequences of an inflated mortgage, an unmanageable construction project, or a house simply too large to keep clean. Will our dream home always be a celebration of excess and a drain on our lives?

Some wise people buck the trend. They build, remodel, redecorate, or just rethink their needs—prudently and calmly constructing a joyful, sane life around themselves. They think, sometimes literally, outside the box, and they live close, warm, and simple, applying spiritual and social solutions to their material desires. Pockets of people all over America are realizing the benefits of scaling down. They are designing a new dream, one that reunites extended families, makes space for friends, and emphasizes home life over home maintenance.

Little House on a Small Planet is a guidebook to this movement, and an invitation to join. Author Shay Salomon offers fourteen basic principles for the design and habitation of efficient, high-density homes. These principles outline the invisible supports of a happy home, set within the context of a future, more caring society. With floor plans, photographs, advice, and anecdotes, this book asks, and answers, “What fills a home when the excess is cut away, and how do we get there from here?”

Shay Salomon is a carpenter who has built several tiny houses, a construction manager, and a workshop leader. She and Nigel Valdez visited more than a hundred homes while researching this book.