anna and i have been watching TV shows about people decluttering their lives and moving into tiny homes.  tiny homes = 400 sq. ft and smaller.  a whole tiny home industry is underfoot in the u.s.  make sense i suppose.  how much space and stuff does a person need anyway?

well, that is a delicate question and the answers run the gamut.  our house is a 1300 sq. ft.  california bungalow.  not the definition of a tiny house but it is for most u.s.american homes, small.  for many of my friends our house is too small.  for a few others it is just the right size.

my friend alex gildzen just posted a piece on his blog about downsizing, decluttering a lifetime's accumulation of things to live a bit more simply.  my things, i am talking about just me now, are books and movies.  a shitload of books.  a house filled with the damn things.  i remind anna she knew what she was getting into when she agreed to marry me.  i love being surrounded by books.  i am comforted by their presence.  i read and reread everyday scanning the shelves and taking one or two either to the john, to bed, or stuffed in my backpack to read on the go.

still we live in a small house.  i love DVDs too.  i have hundreds of them.  i buy fewer of them now.  when our DVD player in the front room went kaput we decided not to replace it and instead subscribe to online streaming services Amazon Prime and Netflix.  i love these services.  having 1000s of TV shows and movies at your fingertips is empowering.  digital culture requires less space.  it does not clutter one's life.

and yet, i know how alex feels.  when one gets a bit older you want to simplify.  you don't need so much stuff anymore.  i can't give up books tho.  even if publishing gets all digital i will still be the guy to fork over dough for the printed thing.

our house is just the right size for us.  plus i enjoy urban living.  my fair city is just big enough, wild enough, to feel like an asphalt jungle and yet small enough to be a cozy community.  i am intrigued by the tiny house movement.  every time we visit IKEA i always pause before the displays of LIVING IN 200 SQ. FT.  anna thinks that i would like to live in such a small space.  i would.  perhaps.  i try to live simply right now.  i don't need a lot of things.  but then again i do.  my world would be colder without books to surround me.