It's certainly not a new thing, just rethinking and re-evaluating old values and trying to regain some independence, sensibility, eliminating many unneeded burdens, and saving some precious coin in the process.
It's really a shame how smaller homes have disappeared off the radar in most places, either being turned into sheds and garages or mostly torn down to make way for larger homes made out of chipboard and staples covered with plastic siding.
In some places, they never went away, be it a community of second tier and third tier lake cottages that haven't yet fallen to the mc lake mansions sprouting up along it's shore, a small forgotten town that the highway bypassed, or the cabins in the woods that haven't been swept up in some movie star or singer's holiday ranch. And Alaska one of the strongholds of smaller homes without all the bells and whistles. Sure, in the cities most of what will be found will be large and modern, but even there, tucked in here and about you will still come across a smaller home or a cabin, some even quite historic, but yet abundant enough and not so noteworthy to call attention to it, make it into an attraction or move it to be displayed in a park. When questions arise, for whatever reason, to describe one's home, it's still necessary to ask basic things, such as if a place has a full kitchen, indoor plumbing, how many rooms, number, if any, of bedrooms, whether it's heated by wood or not, and even if it has phone service or electric. While the bulk of the people in the cities certainly live a very modern life, like anywhere else, just go beyond the city limits up here and that is often the exception rather than the norm the farther one goes.
While I almost always refer to my home as a cabin, that's really just the vernacular up here to how people refer to anything smaller or that which varies from people nowadays consider to be a traditional house. When most people down in the states think of a cabin, they usually think of some shack out in the woods or in the mountains that has none of the conveniences of the everyday world. And in some cases they might be right, but there is a whole spectrum from basic shelter to elaborate homes that would often put their own to shame, but it's more the matter of where one lives and how they distinguish it from other places as to what name or label they put upon it.
How did we ever get to the place that so many think that every child needs a separate room and a private bath, an eat in kitchen in addition to a fancy dining room that might be rarely used, a family room as well as a formal living room that is mostly off limits, a media room, an office or two, a gift wrapping room, and walk-in closets that rival bedrooms of the past (not to even mention bathrooms that are as large as a school locker room that can accommodate an entire gym class).
Do I sometimes wish for more space, the answer to that is occasionally now and then, but on a weekend like this when temperatures could well hit 50 below, I'm more than giddy that I have very little to heat (I heat with oil and I use less than 200 gallons a year, and by no means do I scrimp on heating). When I do install the cookstove that will cut that expense dramatically, but I'll still have the oil heat for backup, those times I may just not feel up to feeding a fire, and of course the flexibility should I ever want or need to be gone for the day or longer that I don't need to be concerned about things that should remain warm.
But as for bigger, do I really need a guest room for guests that come so infrequently that I don't even exactly recall the last time someone stayed overnight? Even if I didn't have other options to put someone up, I could rent a whole lot of motel rooms for the cost of another room, the furniture in it and the heat to maintain it. As for other rooms, well, let's face it, I can only occupy one space at a time, so where is the advantage to having so many other rooms for different purposes other than space to squirrell away more stuff and encourage spending more to fill those spaces.
As it is, I have more than enough taking up space, and it really hit crisis mode when I had to move all of my mother's belongings over to my place when she wound up in a nursing facility and really could not do anything with it until after she passed away and I then had the daunting task of sorting through it, selling off what I could to satisfy the demands of medicare and the nursing home, which placed liens on her house for more than three times the value, and a couple of other creditors that likely will remain just as unsatisfied when her house finally does find a buyer. But that's what happens these days when care facilities have free reign to charge $500 or more a day with most everything else an added cost, and laws that are ever increasing the noose to grab and squeeze every possible dollar out of a person and their belongings, and often things that a person grew up with or family heirlooms are nothing but dollar signs to the greed of those that profit from the misfortune of others.
But coming back to the issue of storage, it is one of the reasons why I have remained in stationary accommodations, rather than the dreams I had when younger of having the freedom of life on wheels, and basically being a turtle with my house on my back. Much as I plotted and schemed how I could live in an RV, I just couldn't figure a way to do so with all the must have treasures that I could not bear to be without. Not to say I haven't done some drastic reductions in the past. At one time I was set and prepared to take off for Alaska, down to the point of having everything boxed up and weighed, and pared down to what would fit, space and weight wise, in a box trailer that I had built upon a purchased frame. That move did not happen due to my awaiting seemingly critical element that never did arrive, and four or five years later when the move actually did occur I did opt for professional moving, which did allow for more (2 seacrates, 8x6x4 foot in dimension) and whatever else I did pack into my 10 ft camper that was a semi-pop-up (but still leaving room of course to use the camper for the week-long trip). What else that did sour my desire for a life in an RV, though having the camper, was how many of the campgrounds were bumping up the fees to the point where it really begged the question of if it could be done economically, and let's face it, RVs are notorious for being shoddily constructed with very little regard to insulating properties.
Perhaps if the tiny house built on a trailer concept had been more prevalent than just the park model RV offings at the time, which at the time were rather expensive option, I might have gone that route. But in reality, I do have those capabilities, it just requires hiring a truck with a lowboy trailer, just as it was brought here, rather than simply finding something with the strength to tow it.
Well, as I finish up this post, I see it has hit 50 below, the dog is in the other recliner taking a nap, the sun will be coming up in two hours (though the sky is already starting to lighten up) and January is half over. Hard to say what the day might have in store, but I will be in my little home that is all my own.
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