Could you live in
600 square feet?
That is the premise
of the Tiny House movement, as shown on shows like “Tiny House
Hunters” (and many of those houses are much smaller than 600 square
feet). The premise of the show is a family looking to buy and live in
one of these houses. The movement sells itself as a low-cost housing
solution.
It is an interesting
idea. It would push one to be VERY selective about what one keeps and
what one can do without. And that is where I think it has the most
merit.
Most families could
not live in such a small space and remain healthy. Particularly in a
climate where you spend a lot of time indoors. I suspect most of us
would be at each other's throats in a relatively short time. And
indeed I have seen at least one article that suggests many families
end up not using their tiny house as a primary residence. But the
question of how much stuff we have remains.
Over the last few
decades average house sizes have continued to increase, even while
average family size has decreased. By current standards the 6 of us
living in a 1200 square foot (plus finished basement) 3 bedroom house
are cramped. We have different assumptions about how much space we
need to live than earlier generations did. We also have more stuff
and larger furniture (think overstuffed couches and queen or king
sized beds). Indeed many people find that the amount of stuff they
accumulate expands to fill the available space.
I wonder what we
would do if we had to move in to a house half that size.... Have a
big yard sale? Donate a couple truckloads to Goodwill? Then again
that may not be the worst idea (the purging and culling – not the
moving into a tiny house).
I am remembering
that Jesus challenged his followers not to worry about possessions,
or even to worry about where their next meal was coming from. Jesus
sent his followers out into the world with instructions to carry
pretty much nothing.
Where do we find the
middle ground between living wholly on faith and trust and relying on
the kindness of strangers versus accumulating stuff and ensuring we
have at least 3 days worth of basic supplies in an emergency kit
(ironically most of us, even with all our stuff, don't have that
emergency kit)?
I am not sure. But I
do think our faith challenges us to do so. Our faith challenges us to
rethink how big our houses need to be and how much stuff we have in
part as an exercise in determining priorities. But the big reason our
faith challenges us on our possessions is as an exercise in
stewardship.
What do we do with
the gifts God/life/circumstance have given us? How many of us have so
much stuff that we could not possibly use all of it (how many of us
have stuff we forget we even have because it has been in storage for
so long)? I know we do. We can barely use our basement as
living/playing space. Yes, in our case much of it is gifts given to
the girls and/or inherited things and hand-me-downs. But still I have
to wonder if this is a model of good stewardship.
I encourage all of
us to consider what we have in our lives that we could cull down
and/or do without.
And as it happens...
the garage sale is coming up. Maybe our culling and thinning can end
up providing more treasures for someone else to bring into their
lives.
Gord
