You guys are so point on about having to keep things tidy and to downsize everything. I am at the point where I am thinking about having one great wine glass, one perfect cereal bowl, one teeshirt for each day...stuff like that. I just can't have so much stuff in here, especially since this is a shared space. In fact I think I will take out some of my excess tupperwares right now.

Sadly, I find that wherever I live, and whoever I may live with, I manage to load the place up with clutter.

I live in a two up, two down - as they're known in the UK - ie two rooms downstairs, two rooms upstairs, namely a lounge (living room, sitting room)and a kitchen on the ground floor, and two bedrooms upstairs.

Nowadays there is also a bathroom upstairs and often a dining room downstairs - in the 'olden' days ie Victorian/Edwardian, when many red brick terraces (small houses adjoined on either side, like in Coronation Street)were built, the toilet or 'little girl's room' was out back, in the yard, and you washed/bathed in the kitchen, with a tin bath.

A big house to me says space, and history. Of course a pile like Downton Abbey (could that ever have been just a house? Well apparently so) is highly unusual. Even by 'English county estate' standards, that place is HUGE!!!

Many of the fittings in eg a Georgian house are so beautiful, and in the 'modern' 60s and 70s, many of them were ripped out to make way for the pared down 'minimalist' look. What a shame.

I used to live in Japan so I know how to live in a very small space. When I graduated from college, it irked me that all these studio apartments in NYC were so big! I just wanted to sleep, eat and live in one little room and save on rent. Nowadays my house shares most of its space with my business (80% according to the tax forms) so I live in a small space even though the house is a total of 2200 sq ft. Clutter is something I cannot stand. I have it. Lots of it. But it makes me nuts. So the ability to go into a room without clutter is important to me. But the other thing that's important to me is conservation of energy. I don't want to heat a two story cathedral ceiling. Why? My house was built in the 1880s and many of the windows are on the south side, so it gets good passive solar. And that's important to me. Recently, we had a power outage for nearly a week, and we lived in one room (the room with the fireplace) to conserve our resources. It was okay, but I was really happy when the electricity came back on and I could go upstairs!

the hardest thing to me about this space is the lack or room to get in a decent workout. The treadmill won't fit! I have limited space for yoga, even. I do have the outdoors to get my fitness happening, so it's a fair share for the amount of money saved on utilities.

My books, of which i own many, just get stored in the unheated shed. My extra clothes go there too, among other things.

Well maybe this is one up for the Kindle - like you Jilly, my home is laden down with books.

Since getting my ereader, I realize how much space books take up. I now worry about what happens if my kindle breaks - I've got so much reading material on there! And if I was stranded on a desert island (as you do!) where would I charge it up?

You can't beat a good old book, but a regular clear out is always good. It's heartbreaking to part with them though, and I'm ashamed to confess that many of mine have gone mouldy in the damp cellar, so hopefully your shed is dry.

I actually have a solar power charger for my iphone, so I'd still be able to read my ebooks on a desert isle.

My shed is pretty dry, thankfully. All my books do get ruined when I move, as I do a LOT. Except now I have my own home and don't plan to move any more.

Lisa and I were talking once about how stacking books against the wall could be great as free extra insulation. I guess that's something you could do.

Here is a tiny house article about someone making a Molecule House.

And this house, at 84 square feet, even is tinier, with a hidden toilet and shower. The designer used trick from movie set designs to create his 'art' - Microhome.

This makes my 150 sq ft home seem luxuriously big!

ok, this is pretty cute - a shipping container home!

End of December, and I have to say I am LOVING how easy it is to heat my 150 sq ft home!

We only need one small space heater to use briefly in the morning and before bed, and it heats things up nicely. I did put in as much insulation as I could afford when re-walling this place (was an old shed).

I might want to draw up the plans for my tiny home in case there is interest in what I did here - this was not hard to do.

The actual 'real house' - an old,bad mobile on my lot - doesn't require any money expenditure at all. I treat it like a big storage unit.