But the pricks are running the asylum. And the movement, whether you like it or not, is a minimalist movement. And the judgement, whether you like it or not, is that more stuff is bad and less stuff is good and somehow, simply having space is opulent. Go ahead. Google image search "opulent." You'll see a whole bunch of overly-detailed empty space. The blogs? See, nobody else who moves blogs about it. If I move from a normal house to a normal house, it's called moving. But if I move from a big house to a tiny house, to somebody it's a spiritual awakening. And reality TV ain't reality but it rhymes, man, and you don't have to watch ten minutes of those tedious tiny house shows to see someone or other talk about how they feel guilty living in 800sqft so obviously, a composting toilet is what they need to achieve enlightenment. You're not an asshole for having a shed. You're an asshole for not including your outbuildings in your square footage purely so that your square footage is something to brag about. The earth-sheltered crew is just as judgmental. So are the domers. Or they were, until people started pointing out that the phrase "geodesic dome" is often preceded by "abandoned." Tiny houses are just the flavor of the month. Look. No less than Frank Lloyd Wright argued against closets. He figured anything you had to hide away was something you didn't need. But he was wrong, too.
You know, I read this exchange, and I agree with both of you. What I mean by that is that the square footage of one's house is a meaningless metric for determining much about a person's quality of life, but that I also believe having a lot of (rarely used) possessions tends to take something away from the possessor if they truly serve no purpose. A tiny house is an arbitrary constraint which is in no way needed to live an intentional life. On the other hand, as a pretty disorganized person, I could certainly use a dose of intentionality applied to my surroundings. And you know what would help with that, is a reason to throw a lot of stuff out. I don't need a tiny house to do this, I can do it for its own sake. But the act of thinking through and ordering your life is valuable in itself, I think. Also refining and simplifying your life is valuable, because it forces you to think about priorities. But once again, while perhaps a useful tool for some, a tiny house is not necessary for any of this. I think stick with trying GTD for now.
I agree with both of us, too. The crux of the disagreement as far as I'm concerned is the causality implied in having no space, and the morality assigned to that causality. That causality and morality isn't universal amongst the tiny house movement, but I've seen it enough to stereotype first and ask questions later.