Shelter has been in the small housebuilding conversation for decades, and we've recently posted about small housebuilding in the news. Reducing one's living footprint makes sense ecologically and financially.

I recently came across a story on Salon.com that details another facet of reductionist living: shedworking. The piece highlighted a British blog with the same name, edited by Alex Johnson, that shows some fascinating examples of working and living in small buildings.

The Salon writer, Simon Mackie, wonders...

if shedworking is primarily a British or European thing — we tend have smaller houses with less room to devote to home offices than our American cousins, and it’s not something I’ve heard mentioned by friends in the States. Is it something that could spread across the pond as more people work from home, though?

Shedworking is definitely Stateside. Writers on this side of the pond have been drawn to shedworking for decades. I've dreamt of having an isolated writing shed ever since I saw the photo of E.B. White in his spartan writing quarters on the cover of One Man's Meat. Another Maine writer, Lawrence Sargent Hall, wrote in a converted codfish drying shack. (Hall's fishouse still stands, and it inspired the From the Fishouse poetry organization.)

If you have shedworking dreams, you don't need to find a drying shack or tool shed to convert. Shelter has books to show you how to build your own, or we can design and build one for you. See some examples of small buildings we've created over the years.

We'll help you with the shed. The poetry and prose is up to you.