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The small house movement is gaining ground around the world with its vision of living simply and sustainably in small spaces. Jane Shields finds out how one of the movement’s leaders, Dee Williams, learned to live with less.

By her own admission, Dee Williams was living the American dream. She had a three bedroom house in Portland, Oregon, a backyard and a 30-year mortgage. But everything changed when she fainted in the grocery store one day.

Ultimately, all that has helped me see that I've got plenty. I've got everything I need and I'm not really wanting.

‘I'm an outdoor person and I'm a runner, a climber, a very athletic person,’ says the writer and sustainability advocate. ‘One morning I woke up in an ICU room in the hospital and I had had a heart attack, and shortly after that was diagnosed with congestive heart failure.’

‘I couldn't relate to almost anything in my life. Getting up and going to work and having this 30-year mortgage and all of this debt when the thing I really wanted to do was sit back and relax and enjoy my friends and family and how beautiful everything was.’

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Whatsapp The living room of Dee Williams' tiny house

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Whatsapp The kitchen space

Then, while she was sitting in a doctor’s office, Williams read an article about tiny house advocate Jay Shafer. Intrigued by his house, which looked like the tree house she’d always wanted as a child, she started doing her research.

‘All of a sudden, it seemed to make sense in the way that everything would somehow be manageable and simple,’ she says. ‘I could take a bit out of life in the way that I wanted. I wouldn't have a mortgage, I wouldn't have a debt, I would have more time to explore the life that I really wanted.’

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Listen: Small house design

The next thing she knew, she’d booked tickets to go and meet Shafer to learn how build her own house.

‘The thing that struck me is that he's a normal guy,' she says. ‘He's not a big, burly carpenter-like guy. He's a designer, an artist. So I thought, "Well, if a non-carpenter can build such a beautiful house then maybe I could build a beautiful house".’

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Whatsapp Dee Williams' sleeping space in her 'tiny house'

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Whatsapp The backyard of Dee Williams' tiny house

What Williams ended up with was a small, cedar-clad house the size of a parking spot. That’s meant that she has had to downsize her life and her number of possessions (which currently stands at 305). She’s also given up on a few creature comforts.

‘I don't have running water, so I don't have a shower unless you count me washing in a basin,’ says Williams, now author of The Big Tiny. ‘I shower at work or at the neighbour's house or I shower at the gym. I don't have a refrigerator, I use a cooler. I buy perishables in small quantities often. I don't have a lap pool, I don't have a billiard table, I probably couldn't fit a keg of beer in through the front door. There's lots that's not in there.’

Listen to author Dee Williams talk about her transition from big house to tiny at Life Matters. The Big Tiny: a built-it-myself memoir Listen to author Dee Williams talk about her transition from big house to tiny at Life Matters.

‘Ultimately, all that has helped me see that I've got plenty. I've got everything I need and I'm not really wanting. And when I do find myself kvetching because I don't have a shower, for example, that's a part of life.’

‘There's a certain myth that we should be 100 per cent happy all the time, but in fact if we really believe that, we're going to be pretty miserable at least some of the time because life isn't meant to be perfectly comfortable. A good solid B average, 85 per cent happy, that's a pretty good mark in life.’

This article was originally published 30 April 2014.

Life Matters charts and analyses contemporary Australian life, with a special focus on social policy, personal stories, and listener contributions.



