Sustainability: Simplicity

This house embodies many of the ideas involved in the move to simplify our lives.

"The current pattern of building big to allow for quantities of furniture with still more room to spare is more akin to wearing a sack than a tailored suit. It may offer capacity, but at the cost of comfort and charm. Spaciousness, although it can look appealing in a photograph, just isn't conducive to comfort. Many of the huge rooms we see in magazines today are really only comfortable to be in when they are filled with people. For one or two, or for a family, they can be overwhelming. And when they feel overwhelming, they don't get used."

"How can we change our culture's perceptions about what constitutes a good house, and convince our friends and neighbors that we are not crazy for building smaller, more tailored homes, that in all likelihood will cost just as much as their larger ones? I believe that the more people who start to put their money where their hearts are, the more others will realize the validity of building for comfort, and not for prestige."

--from The Not So Big House by Sarah Susanka

The Not So Big House, with its emphasis on recognizing what you really need and building only that and no more, is related to the Simplicity Movement which is gaining in popularity throughout the country. These Simplicity sites will link you to other similar sites.

www.simplelivingtv.net
Simple Living With Wanda Urbanska is a television show that offers thoughtful ideas to inspire each of us to make adjustments to possession-cluttered, time-starved lives.

Simple LivingAmerica
The first national, nonprofit membership organization for the general public centered on simplicity. Learn how to find the satisfaction of enough with Carol Holst's book, Get Satisfied.

www.nwei.org
Featured on the PBS documentaries "Affluenza" and "Escape From Affluenza," this organization offers community courses exploring lifestyle values through discussion of earth centered ethics.

www.newdream.org
A site filled with good ideas about how to reduce consumption, simplify, and improve quality of life.

Affluenza: PBS Program on the Epidemic of Overconsumption
An entertaining and informative website from PBS, based on their special.

The Simplicity Resource Guide
A website from Linda Breen Pierce, includes information collected for her book Choosing Simplicity: Real People finding Peace and Fulfillment in a Complex World (Gallagher Press, 2000).

The Simple Living Network
Extensively simple, with almost 3000 pages of simple living.

www.simplyliving.com
Connecting you with people, products, and ideas that allow you to live more simply.