In 2014, Mary Caley, a retired JCPenney manager living in a condo in Laguna Hills, California, turned to her husband, George, with a proposal. Mary and George were addicted to Tiny House Nation, the reality TV show in which mediagenic people downsize, theatrically, into 200-square-foot cottages. What if they were to rid themselves of the …
The version of tiny living that is glamorized on TV and that appears in curated Instagram accounts features images of young, yogic, flannel-wearing couples lazing about in delicious little spaces. The lifestyle encompasses camper vans, tree houses, sailboats, RVs, and yurts, but the tiny house is its original, and most appealing, form. If you live in a trailer or a cramped apartment, you’re assumed to be indigent; if you choose a tiny house, which costs about the same amount for less space, you’re making an aesthetic, even moral, statement about living well in an age of excess.