Little, Little Boxes

Micro-dwellings reduce the residents' ecological footprints to the tiniest possible minimum. Even if you can't handle the space crunch, there are plenty of green tips to be borrowed from those who can survive in such cramped quarters. Microhomes can be as small as 10x10, in total, including the kitchen and bathroom. To make that kind of household run smoothly, you need some seriously intelligent architectural and design choices, and a willingness to let go of a lot of sheer stuff.

Although living in a house the size of a garden shed has its own major selling points, (like a tiny energy footprint, an extremely low cost of living, and total ease of maintenance and cleaning), you might not want to go as small as some micro-dwellers, especially if you've got a family, or a really smelly indoor pet. However, downsizing your home to the extent that you comfortably can is totally eco-smart.

When it comes to living green, less can really be more. For example, the fewer rooms you've got to warm, the less heating or cooling energy you'll need to raise the temperature of your house, and the happier the planet will be. Makes sense, right? Plus there's the fact that you'll end up buying less stuff, just because you'll know you've got no place to put a bunch of junk, so your resource consumption impact will automatically go way down.

The next time you're at a moment when moving houses is an option, think about the eco-impact of heading to a new place that has one or two bedrooms fewer than your current residence, or giving up some inches and slimming down to a house that's got a couple of multi-use family spaces instead of a separately defined playroom, living room, and den.

If you're not ready to actually shrink your square footage, think about what scaling down your current uses of your home might make room for. Could you consolidate your kitchen and dining room into a multi-use eat-in cooking area, and then use the extra space to set up some great green stuff, like a chic edible garden, and an indoor composting center to go with it? By literally squeezing more in to your home, you might even be able to make some of your bigger personal dreams or goals to fruition. Sculptor Julia Manheim made sure that her green home, the Quay House in South London, included space to house the world's smallest known art gallery for a resident artist. What can you make space for?

This post was inspired by World's Greenest Homes.