Tiny houses

A while ago I wrote THIS blog post about tiny spaces.  There must be something in the nations consciousness about wanting to retreat to a small space because there have been two programmes on TV recently on such a topic.  First was Kevin McCloud's Man Made Home, where he builds a small portable shed from trees on his own land and furnishes it with a bespoke chair and bed.  He is able to cook on a hob which is supplied from methane gas gathered from an outside toilet and bathes in a bath made from aeroplane parts.

And then there is George's Clarke's Amazing Spaces.  Clarke investigates other people's small spaces and builds his own from an old 1970's mobile home.

What is it about small spaces that we are all craving?  Is it that we are all becoming over whelmed by the bigness of our lives these days?  We live in a global community; we eat food and consume goods from the other side of the world, our friends and family are scattered across the country, sometimes the world, many people don't even know their neighbours.  

The expectation is that as we progress through life, we will get more money and more stuff, then we need more space for all our stuff so we buy a bigger house which we fill with more stuff.  But all this extra stuff and space is not making us happier is it?  I remember reading that, as a country, we are far richer than we were 50 years ago, and yet cases of depression and increased. 

It seems to me that there is something clicking in people's subconscious that is driving us to crave a simpler way of life, one where are needs are met simply and practically.  The smaller space also encourages us to venture outside and become closer to nature where we are cleansed and healed from the constant bombardment of information, images, sounds and things that is the modern life. 

I already live in a fairly small space, but I still crave a little shed or caravan where I can escape from...what?...Life?  I am not sure, what I want to escape from, perhaps it is just the chaos and confusion of life which you can shut out more readily in a small space, or rather there is no room for it to come in!

So lets fantasise a little about tiny houses and little spaces and pretend we can shut ourselves away and be alone with our thoughts just for a while before we have to face reality, messy, chaotic, big, reality.

What to do when you feel like you don't belong?

Today I received a text message on my phone saying I could get 20% discount on my purchases from New Look if I gave them a particular code at the checkout.  So I took myself and my bubba off into town, him in his pushchair and headed to New Look to see if I could scout out a few bargains. I haven't actually shopped in New Look for probably a few years, but didn't think I was so past it that it wasn't a shop for me.  Top Shop maybe, but not New Look.  How wrong was I?  Not only was it patently clear that the staff rarely came across a shopper with a baby in tow (lots of faffing in the changing rooms), but the clothes were most certainly targeted at a younger age group that my own!  Seriously, unless you enjoy wearing leggings and a denim jacket with the sleeves cut off, there was nothing in that shop for you.

I meandered around town for about half an hour after this and left feeling a strong sense that I didn't belong.  Talking on the phone to my sister later I said that it wasn't that I felt too old but just that I wasn't part of that world any more.  I had very little desire to buy anything, in fact the only thing I saw that I was even remotely interested in buying I decided I could make myself.

Is it just me or do you sometimes feel like you aren't part of this world?
Sometimes I think I just want to pack it all in, sell the house and buy a shack or mobile home or something with a little bit of land, grow my own veg, have a goat and not worry about the rest of the world, just my own little patch with my husband and baby where I don't have to constantly compare my body to those of the over stuffed teenagers tat are forced in front of out faces every time we open a magazine or see a billboard, where I don't have to think about the latest trends in fashion, or the newest age defying face cream.

Do you ever feel like you want to reject the modern day world?  How do you satisfy this longing when you really can't escape the life you have to live?