This article at Grist features many people who have discovered more happiness and a different attitude toward possessions after moving into tiny houses, as small as 100 square feet. Here’s a short article I wrote in 2007 describing houses as small as 40 square feet.
Indeed, America’s love of ‘bigger is better’ has made the average size of houses nearly double in the past 50 years. It’s one reason why America’s energy consumption has exploded — motor vehicles only account for about half of total energy use; most of the rest is needed to power our buildings.