Downsizing

Seventies DIY Pioneer Publishes Book on Tiny Homes

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 05.10.2012

Lloyd Kahn's Tiny Homes: Simple Shelter is a nod to the current "grassroots movement to scale things back," and in it he profiles about 150 builders who have created homes under 500 square feet.

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WATCH: We the Tiny House People: Documentary Trailer

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 04.19.2012

I continue to discover people who aren't even aware of this movement: iving in shipping containers, houseboats, tool sheds, former pigeon coops and treehouses. These stripped-down shelters reveal for us the essence of home.

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12 Sites To Help You Cash In On Your Spring Cleaning

Posted 05.23.2012

Read More: yardsellr.com, Organize, Tech post50, Declutter, Downsizing, Spring Cleaning, Spring, Selling Online, Cleaning, karmagoat.com, Clutter, Fifty News

For some, the ritual of spring cleaning can be stressful and chaotic, not to mention a source of guilt. Who wants to throw all that old, unwanted stuf...

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PHOTOS: The 52-Foot Yacht They Will Soon Call Home

The Huffington Post | Ann Brenoff | Posted 05.23.2012

Read More: Baby Boomers, Fifty, Pack Rats, Downsizing, Downsizing Expenses, Hoarding, Retirement, Downsizing Your Life, Living on a Boat, Hoarders, Pack-Rats, Fifty News, Fifty News

Downsizing is more than just a popular midlife slogan for Ginger and Steve Penny. Recently, the pair -- both 61 -- decided to give up their 2,700-squa...

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WATCH: 96-Square-Foot Tiny Home Handbuilt Inside Century-Old Sheep Barn

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 05.26.2012

Read More: Loren Amelang, Handbuilt Home, Downsizing, Small House, Craft, Diy, Microhome, Handbuilt House, Small Home, Small House Movement, Off-Grid, Home Size, Simplicity, Simple Life, Downshifting, Hand Built Home, Diy Home, Video, Green News

The only real shelter on the property was an old sheep barn, leftover from when the property was homesteaded a century ago, so he decided to build a small shack inside the structure as a home.

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'Unassisted Living': Beautifully Ageless Homes For Post 50s

HuffingtonPost.com | Laura Rowley | Posted 03.14.2012

Read More: Aging in Place, Baby Boomers, Unassisted Living New Book, Downsizing, The Monacelli Press, Wid Chapman, Slidepollajax, Relocating, Unassisted Living, Reversible Destiny, Jeffrey Rosenfeld, Affordable Housing, Fifty News

If you’re considering moving, downsizing or building a home in retirement, you’ll find plenty of inspiration in the new book “Unassisted Living:...

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Housekeeper Builds Garage-Sized Home on a Tiny Salary With No Mortgage (VIDEO)

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 04.28.2012

Johnny Sanphillippo has never made more than $20,000 per year (working mostly as a housekeeper), but he knew like "any other American" that he wanted to own his own home.

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Another Big Bank Plans To Hand Out Out Pink Slips

The Huffington Post | D.M. Levine | Posted 02.24.2012

Read More: Layoffs, Wall Street Job Cuts, Bank Layoffs, Video, Wall Street Layoffs, Wall Street, Credit Suisse, Downsizing, Swiss Banks, Banks, Big Banks, Credit Suisse Layoffs, Business News

Wall Street keeps shrinking. Credit Suisse will begin laying off employees in New York the second week of March, according to a company filing with...

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In Praise of Inefficiency

Carl Safina | Posted 04.22.2012

Read More: Farming, Efficiency, Natural Resources, Downsizing, Economics, Inefficiency, Economy, Agriculture, Law of Thermodynamics, Democracy, Music, Fish Hooks, Junk Food, Facebook, Culture, Art, Unemployment, Jobless Rate, Long-Lining, Nature, Fish, Robber Barons, Logging, Dance, Gardening, Fishing, Boats, Fisheries, Green News

Some people get rich by creating good things, and they support many people. But some people -- they used to be called robber barons -- succeed at others' expense. So just as wealth isn't necessarily bad, "efficiency" isn't necessarily good.

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Vehicles as Housing: 27-Square-Foot Mobile Home Bicycle and a Rowboat Shelter

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 04.13.2012

Read More: Camper Boat, Downsizing, Craftsmanship, Diy Car, Cars, Diy, Mobile Home, Electric Cars, Camper Car, Car-Home, Handmade Car, DIY EV, Green Cars, Tiny Home, Video, Green News

"I don't know if I could have a car without a bed in it." San Francisco artist Jay Nelson has put beds into nearly every vehicle he's ever owned, including a semi-totalled Honda Civic (bought for $200) and a tiny rowboat (found on Craigslist).

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The Post 50 Plan to Declutter Your Life . . . For Good

Barbara Hannah Grufferman | Posted 04.04.2012

Read More: Julie Morgenstern, Downsizing, Declutter, Fifty News, Clutter, The Best of Everything After 50, Barbara Hannah Grufferman, Organization After 50, Organizing, Downsizing in Midlife, Organization in Mid Life, Decluttering, Organization, Fifty News

When I turned 50 a few years ago, I was overwhelmed by the stuff that had accumulated over the years, and I realized that it wasn't just physical clutter but mental clutter, as well.

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Where Everything's Waiting for You (Downtown)

Wendy Gordon | Posted 02.05.2012

Read More: Downtown, Compost-Tea, Walkability, Energy Efficiency, Downsizing, Ecological Footprint, Farmers Markets, Green News

The open-style house had five bedrooms, two and a half baths, and a loft-turned-rumpus-room that was the ideal rainy-day space for the couple's three active boys. But as soon as the youngest had gone off to college, they sold the place.

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Who Are the Joneser Boomers Keeping Up With?

Bernard Starr | Posted 12.11.2011

Read More: Foreclosures, The Brady Bunch, Leave It to Beaver, Baby Boomers, Social Change, Social Security, Jones Generation, Bankruptcy, Downsizing, Television Ratings, Economy, Boomerang Generation, Economic Crisis, Adolescents, Mortgage Crisis, Pensions, Jonathan-Pontell, Recession, New Wave, Disco, Television, Marriage, Young Adults, Saving for Retirement, Jonesers, Watergate, Jfk, Fifty News

If you think the Wall Street protests are formidable, watch out when the boomers fully wake up to their plight and mobilize. Then you will know: It's one solid generation to reckon with.

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WATCH: A Man With 5 Tiny Homes in His Backyard: Micro-Architecture as Punk Rock

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 12.04.2011

He builds small and he works with a micro-budget. His Gottagiddaway AKA "$100 homeless hut" was built for about that.

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The Upside of Downsizing

Janice Harper | Posted 11.21.2011

Read More: Job Loss, Downsized, Downsizing, Apartment Living, Economic Crisis, Economy, Downsized Living, Third World America, Business News

As most of us know by now, the American Dream has been in so many respects an American Nightmare and it's kept us fast asleep. But the moment we wake up and think of ourselves in the context of the whole wide world, our perceptions of our place in it are radically altered.

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Manhattan Shoebox Apartment: A 78-Square-Foot Live-In Closet (Video)

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 10.01.2011

Read More: Downsizing, Green News, Green Building, Fold Away Furniture, Home Size, Downshifting, NY Real Estate, New York News

Luke Clark Tyler is in a serial relationship with tiny homes. His last New York City apartment was just 96 square feet. His current place is even smaller.

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The Great Downsizing Debate Continues

Jennifer Schwab | Posted 09.18.2011

Read More: Sustainable Design, Eco Home, Green News, SierraClubGreenHome.Com, Downsizing, Dwell, Sustainable Architecture, Architecture, Eco Housing, Inhabitat, Sierra Club Green Home, Green News

What is an appropriate number of square feet per person to live comfortably yet sustainably?

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Space Saving Furniture That Transforms One Room Into Two or Three (VIDEO)

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 08.30.2011

Read More: Space-Saving Furniture, Downsizing, Green News, Murphy Bed, Transformer Furniture, New York City, Small House, Small Space Furniture, Transformable Furniture, Wall Bed, Small Space, Tiny Homes, Urban Living, Home Size, Tiny Apartments, Pull Down Bed, Retractable Furniture, Style News

At a time when many of us -- due to finances, the environment or increasing urbanization -- are trying to put our homes on a diet, there's one obvious place to cut: our bedrooms.

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Downsizing -- A Thousand Square Feet Per Person, A New American Standard

Jennifer Schwab | Posted 08.09.2011

Read More: Architecture, Sustainable Design, Jenny Lazar, Dwell, Eco Housing, Sustainable Architecture, Downsizing, SierraClubGreenHome.Com, Inhabitat, Sierra Club Green Home, Healthier Greener Home, Green News

I know many successful boomers who are now moping around their 8 to 12,000-foot monuments to capitalism. But has America's long-standing love affair with this type of -- not very green -- home finally run its course?

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The Myth of "Rightsizing" the Federal Workforce

Steve Ressler | Posted 08.03.2011

Read More: Contractors, Jobs, Downsizing, Federal Government, Rightsizing, Layoffs, Retirement, Budget, Politics News

President Ronald Reagan was no fan of big government. But would the man who famously said, "As government expands, liberty contracts," agree with the latest efforts to contract the federal government?

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Tiny Handmade Home Built with a Little Help from the Internet

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 07.27.2011

Using the Internet as their guide, one month -- and a lot of sawing, sanding and shellacking -- later, they had their first home, dubbed Homemade Spaceship.

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Separated at Worth

Marian Salzman | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Verizon, Ge, Worth, Wal-Mart, Downsizing, Harley-Davidson, Trends, Compensation, The Fed, Emo Bling, Goldman Sachs, Executive Compensation, Wall Street, Gender Gap, Trendspotting, Tax Cuts, Emotional Wealth, Job Creation, Business News

This is the eighth in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide...

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Simple Life Manhattan: A 90-Square-Foot Microstudio (Video)

Kirsten Dirksen | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Manhattan, Small Apartment, Small Space, New York, Downsizing, Home Size, New York City, Simplicity, Simple Life, Tiny Apartment, Tiny Home, Downshifting, NY Real Estate, New York News

While the average American is still living relatively large, there is a growing group of Tiny House People who are choosing to live in trailers, RVs, yurts, boats and very small houses.

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Can We Really Afford to Hire Another Supreme Court Justice in This Economy?

Tim Siedell | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Downsizing, Supreme Court, Recession, Red Bull, Economy, Elena Kagan, Justice John Paul Stevens, Comedy News

Nobody's buying supreme these days. As we struggle to climb out of a devastating recession, Americans are being forced to make due with less. Times are tough.

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Dionne Mack-Harvin, Brooklyn Public Library Head, Resigns

nydailynews.com | By Elizabeth Hays | Posted 05.25.2011

Read More: Brooklyn Library, New York Library, Firing, Downsizing, Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, Dionne Mack-Harvin, New York News

The head of the sprawling Brooklyn Public Library system abruptly quit last week after a plan to lay off 13 employees backfired and ended in a very pu...

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