If you happened to catch Oprah, yesterday, then you saw a one hour episode of the luxury of living in a small space. Not just from a design perspective created by Nate Berkus, (cutie patootie) but the actual pleasure people are getting from living in smaller spaces is giving the word "minimalism" a new meaning.

As little as 96 square feet is what Jay Shafer, founder of Tumbleweed Tiny House Company, is actually living in and he loves it! Jay says,

"This place has more storage per square foot than most houses would"

Makes perfect sense because when you own a house this small you have to get creative with the storage issue. This is exactly what Nate Berkus did for Martha, owner of a 250 square foot apartment in midtown Manhattan. He saw her small space as a challenge and rolled up his sleeves and got to work. The result? A regal space with storage galore.

The interesting thing about these folks and their itty bitty digs is that each one is living in these small spaces by choice and they don’t consider themselves to be "suffering" by any means. Sure they could find something bigger but they love having everything at their fingertips (literally) and their primo locations.

Hattie, at Motherpie, says, "small might be the next big thing".  Whereas years ago a small home represented poverty,  the NY Times says, today’s small homes are becoming a trend, such as this 120 square foot home in California that sits on 160 acres.

Trends are fun and it does sound tempting, but Hattie brings up another very good point, "where do the children play?"