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Get Smaller Stuff: Technology just keeps making things smaller

Part IV of Learn how to live big in small spaces

Lloyd Alter

By Lloyd Alter
Toronto, Canada | Sun Dec 09, 2007 10:50 AM ET

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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

I wrote earlier in Huffington Post: "I have come to believe that we need another movement, a new Small Movement, where less is truly more. In everything we do, smaller is cheaper, more efficient and has a lower carbon footprint."

One of the great things about modern technology is that it is all so much smaller than it used to be; where a big TV used to need a cabinet and took up serious real estate, now it can simply be mounted on the wall. Or maybe you don't even need a TV at all; you can watch it on your computer. Other options:

Use a notebook instead of a desktop computer: There used to be a big premium in price, durability and longevity of the technology, but the pace of upgrades has slowed dramatically as the internet becomes our computer, and the price differential has dropped significantly.

Digitize your music: If it is on CDs it already is digital and no quality is lost if you put it onto your computer.

Develop a taste for small things: A fun example is the art of photographer Michel Bayard ; he uses home-made pinhole cameras because "now that digital is here, there isn't much point in using regular cameras anymore." Apartment Therapy reviewed them and noted "Michel's photographs are small (really small!) and sweet—perfect art for a small apartment—and in the classic mold of mythical New York streetscapes and views. The joyousness of the small and the handmade."

In the Huffington Post I noted that we should be thinking about smaller homes, cars,food, fridges and towns.

Read the next page "Multitask Your Furniture Image: Like a Swiss Army Knife, furniture can do lots of things at once."

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