People sometimes talk about “living large” and we Americans sure know how to do it- in our cars, our homes and our lifestyles. The average home size keeps expanding, and Americans use the lion’s share of the world’s resources. It’s been said that for everyone on earth to live the way we do, it would take 3 planets to sustain!

Fortunately, we are also excellent innovators, and by increasing our efficiency dramatically we can live well on a lot less.

There’s an interesting story in this month’s YES magazine about a woman named Dee Williams in Portland Oregon who sold her 3 bedroom house and built herself an 84 square foot one. That’s not a typo- 84 square feet! She allows herself only 300 possessions at a time- so if she acquires something new, she parts with something else. Most of all, she has a luxury of time that used to go to earning money for and doing maintenance on a larger place. She seems very happy. Not all of us could live like Dee. But her story shows that bigger doesn’t always mean better.

Where can you live smaller and maybe better?

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