Unseen passage for Class 9 - Passage 01

Unseen passage - Over the past 70 to 80 years, the household lifestyles of middle class Americans have been getting increasingly more extravagant. In 1949, the average size of a single-family home was 909 square feet. By 2021, the average size of an American single family home had reached 2,480 square feet! Not only do some people find the size of these homes excessive; for many they are also unaffordable. For most people, purchasing a home in America today comes with a mountain of debt, a sinkhole of interest, and at least 30 years of working to pay for it all, often in a job that homeowner doesn't even really want to be doing. One form of resistance against this lifestyle which began in the 1970s has become known as the Tiny House Movement.

A tiny house is a dwelling space that averages between 160 and 200 square feet. Tiny houses are small enough and light enough to be towed by a pickup truck, yet they still contain areas for cooking, living, and sleeping, as well as a bathroom. Today, singles, couples, and even families call tiny houses their home.

They not only have the advantage of being portable. They are also significantly less expensive than a conventional single family home. Depending on how handy you are with construction and the availability of materials, a tiny house can be built for as little as $8,000, though they typically cost the new homeowner between $30,000 and $60,000. But even $60,000 is a fraction of what people are paying for single family real estate in many areas of the country.

The decision to go tiny requires some radical self-evaluation. What do people really need to live comfortably? In many areas of the world, people still live far simpler lives than those lived by Americans, who are continually assaulted on television, radio, and social media with advertisements designed to make them think they need more and more personal belongings to be happy. In reality, the basic needs of a human being are simple: shelter, food, and water, and all three can be provided by a tiny house, without the financial burden that comes along with a conventional home.