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What's in the box?

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Whatever it is must be pretty important,

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because I've traveled with it, moved it,

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from apartment to apartment to apartment.

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(Laughter)

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(Applause)

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Sound familiar?

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Did you know that we Americans

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have about three times the amount of space

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we did 50 years ago?

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Three times.

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So you'd think, with all this extra space,

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we'd have plenty of room for all our stuff.

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Nope.

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There's a new industry in town,

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a 22 billion-dollar, 2.2 billion sq. ft. industry:

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that of personal storage.

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So we've got triple the space,

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but we've become such good shoppers

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that we need even more space.

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So where does this lead?

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Lots of credit card debt,

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huge environmental footprints,

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and perhaps not coincidentally,

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our happiness levels flat-lined over the same 50 years.

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Well I'm here to suggest there's a better way,

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that less might actually equal more.

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I bet most of us have experienced at some point

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the joys of less:

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college -- in your dorm,

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traveling -- in a hotel room,

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camping -- rig up basically nothing,

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maybe a boat.

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Whatever it was for you, I bet that, among other things,

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this gave you a little more freedom,

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a little more time.

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So I'm going to suggest

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that less stuff and less space

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are going to equal a smaller footprint.

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It's actually a great way to save you some money.

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And it's going to give you a little more ease in your life.

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So I started a project called Life Edited at lifeedited.org

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to further this conversation

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and to find some great solutions in this area.

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First up: crowd-sourcing my 420 sq. ft. apartment in Manhattan

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with partners Mutopo and Jovoto.com.

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I wanted it all --

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home office, sit down dinner for 10,

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room for guests,

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and all my kite surfing gear.

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With over 300 entries from around the world,

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I got it, my own little jewel box.

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By buying a space that was 420 sq. ft.

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instead of 600,

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immediately I'm saving 200 grand.

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Smaller space is going to make for smaller utilities --

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save some more money there,

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but also a smaller footprint.

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And because it's really designed

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around an edited set of possessions -- my favorite stuff --

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and really designed for me,

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I'm really excited to be there.

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So how can you live little?

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Three main approaches.

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First of all, you have to edit ruthlessly.

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We've got to clear the arteries of our lives.

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And that shirt that I hadn't worn in years?

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It's time for me to let it go.

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We've got to cut the extraneous out of our lives,

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and we've got to learn to stem the inflow.

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We need to think before we buy.

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Ask ourselves,

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"Is that really going to make me happier? Truly?"

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By all means,

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we should buy and own some great stuff.

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But we want stuff that we're going to love for years,

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not just stuff.

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Secondly, our new mantra:

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small is sexy.

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We want space efficiency.

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We want things that are designed

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for how they're used the vast majority of the time,

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not that rare event.

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Why have a six burner stove

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when you rarely use three?

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So we want things that nest,

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we want things that stack, and we want it digitized.

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You can take paperwork,

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books, movies,

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and you can make it disappear -- it's magic.

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Finally, we want multifunctional spaces and housewares --

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a sink combined with a toilet,

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a dining table becomes a bed --

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same space,

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a little side table

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stretches out to seat 10.

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In the winning Life Edited scheme in a render here,

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we combine a moving wall with transformer furniture

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to get a lot out of the space.

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Look at the coffee table --

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it grows in height and width

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to seat 10.

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My office folds away,

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easily hidden.

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My bed just pops out of the wall with two fingers.

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Guests? Move the moving wall,

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have some fold-down guest beds.

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And of course, my own movie theater.

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So I'm not saying that we all need to live

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in 420 sq. ft.

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But consider the benefits of an edited life.

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Go from 3,000 to 2,000,

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from 1,500 to 1,000.

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Most of us, maybe all of us,

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are here pretty happily for a bunch of days

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with a couple of bags,

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maybe a small space, a hotel room.

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So when you go home and you walk through your front door,

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take a second and ask yourselves,

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"Could I do with a little life editing?

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Would that give me a little more freedom?

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Maybe a little more time?"

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What's in the box?

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It doesn't really matter.

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I know I don't need it.

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What's in yours?

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Maybe, just maybe,

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less might equal more.

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So let's make room

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for the good stuff.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)