The continuing quest to be able to live in a tiny house

In the past year or so, I have become obsessed with Tiny Houses.

Tiny Houses are homes less than around 650 square feet (the exact numbers vary depending on who you talk to), and started becoming popular during the Recession as people were being foreclosed on their giant homes they couldn't afford, and starting to turn to more sustainable forms of shelter.

Now there are entire sites like Tiny Happy Homes, and the Tiny House Listings site that focus on Tiny Homes, and you can have hours of fun on youtube looking up Tiny Houses.

I first discovered them via the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, a company based in Sonoma that sells plans for tiny houses.  My dream is to have so little stuff that I could live in a place like this, hooked up to a truck, and the three of us could drive around the country and make our home wherever we are.  I'm not sure what I'd do with Christmas decorations, but I guess if that was the only thing I had to think about, I could figure it out then.

So in other Simplifying News, I've been going through my books (again), culling more and more.  Mostly because we're starting to babyproof the house, and Hannah is at the point where she can start to reach up on the bookshelves, and I've heard horror stories about babies trying to climb bookshelves and then having them crash down.  So I've been taking out the lower shelves on my bookshelves.  

Here's how I'm deciding what to do with my books.

- Am I reading it now?  If so, it stays.

- Am I going to read it in the next month?  If so, I look to see how much it is on Amazon for my kindle, or if my library has it.  If it's less than $3 on the kindle, I'll buy it.  If it's available as an ebook through my library, I'll borrow it.

If it's one of those books I've been hanging on to, thinking I'm going to read it, I look it up on Amazon and add it to my wishlist.  I can always get it later from the library, and in the meantime, it's not taking up space. 

Now, that doesn't address the 3 dozen or so books that I'm emotionally attached to.  The books with Borders price tags, for example.  Or from the UK and not available here.  I'm still working my way through them.  At some point, maybe our next move, I'll decide I'm not as attached to them as I think I am, and I'll either sell them, or donate them.  In the meantime, they're still taking up shelf space, which I don't like.  Baby steps...