From repurposed airstreams to tiny houses, get inspired to head out on the road with one of these drool-worthy vacation rentals.

Apps like Airbnb, HomeAway, Vacation Rental by Owner, and more are making it super easy to get away from it all and find quirky vacation rentals. Not too long ago one had to be a super sleuth with a lot of time on their hands to find places that went beyond the mainstream motel and hotel chains when traveling. Now, if you’re looking for someplace off the beaten path or someplace that is uber-sustainable, it’s a cinch. It’s super simple to find unique places to stay whether you just to get away for a night in the next town over or stay a month on the other side of the country.

Get inspired to get away from it all by these quirky and sustainable vacation rentals and plan your next trip!

7 Unique Vacation Rentals

1.  El Cosmico

El Cosmico is a 21-acre nomadic hotel and campground in Marfa, Texas. The vacation rentals include renovated vintage trailers, safari and scout tents, Sioux-style tepees, a Mongolian yurt, and tent campsites. The property also offers several communal spaces including a hammock grove, an outdoor kitchen and dining area, and a stage. There are also wood-fired hot tubs, as the burn ban allows, and bikes for exploring the town of Marfa.

2. Tiny House Vacations

Tiny House Vacations is a website devoted to connecting owners of tiny houses with travelers who want to find and book tiny and small vacation rentals throughout the world. This tiny Texas home is a beautiful Victorian house that comes complete with a hot tub and is custom made from period-reclaimed building materials. There’s even an herb garden!

3. Net-Zero Passive House

Located in Portland, OR, and featured on Airbnb, this rental is certified as one of the most energy-efficient homes in the United States. As a passive house, it is heated primarily by the sun and day-to-day activity. What little energy is used is offset by rooftop solar panels, enabling the home to be net-zero energy. It’s also super chill inside.

4. Tipi Hideaway in the Catskills

Found in the Catskills in southeastern New York State, the Bellfire Tipi is on a 10-acre property bordering open land and miles of forest. Designed with privacy and tranquility in mind, the tipi is nestled between a seasonally-running creek, maple trees, and a wildflower field for the ultimate in glamping.

5. Off-the-Grid Lava Viewing Tiny House

This totally unique 400 square foot 2-story off-the-grid house is just 1500 feet from the ocean (with no structures between the water and the house), It is also part of a neighborhood comprised of mostly tiny houses that sit on some of the newest land formed in the country–a lava field in Kalapana, Hawaii.

6. TreeHouse Point

Located just 30 minutes from Seattle along the Raging River, TreeHouse Point offers an opportunity to sleep amongst the trees. Turn off the technology, escape from everyday stress, and enjoy the rejuvenating powers of the Pacific Northwest high above the ground!

7. El Capitan Canyon

With a goal of protecting and sharing the beauty of the California coast by nurturing the environment and the history of the Canyon while allowing guests to enjoy a relaxing Santa Barbara beach camping experience, this camp offers a variety of accommodations.  The camp provides what is called “Southern California Nature Lodging” in the way of cabins, safari tents, and yurts.

Related on EcoSalon

5 Best Eco Island Dream Getaways
Do You Need a Post-Vacation Detox Diet Plan? How to Say Bon Voyage to Vacation Weight!
Tiny House Living Goes Waterfront: Think Houseboats

Tent with Bike Image via El Capitan Canyon

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Tiny house living goes the way of the water.

In much the same as a portion of the population is disgusted by super sized meals, giant SUVs, and Costco shopping, those yearning to live simply are also turned off by mega-mansions dotting the suburbs of our cities. It’s a social movement that refutes a common stereotype claiming that we all want bigger, faster, and more. Now, in the hopes of waterfront views and inexpensive living, houseboats are the latest in the tiny house trend.

Tiny homes are used as weekend cabins, backyard office space, as well as full time residences. Tiny houseboats have all the advantages of tiny house living including lower utility bills and the reduced need for junk to fill unnecessary space. Not to mention that they’re moveable and if you’ve ever wanted to live on the water, houseboats are the jam.

This guy lives in a cheap, 481 square foot houseboat in San Francisco. Fiver Brown converted a World War II lifeboat into a houseboat. Can you imagine how much he saves for rent every month?

According to MNN:

The boat itself is moored at the historic Galilee Harbor Coop in Sausalito, a once-folksy, now-chichi Marin County, Calif., burg where average prices for the town’s hillside homes hover around $2.2 million but where the cost of living on the water in one of three houseboat communities is far less (and a fun factoid: Otis Redding wrote “Sitting on the Dock of the Bay” while living in a Sausalito houseboat).

Related on EcoSalon

20 Tiny Homes We’d Be Happy to Squeeze Into

4 Tiny Homes More Awesome Than a Mansion

5 Shipping Containers You’d Give Up Your House For

Image: Michael Coghlan

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Do we really believe in minimalist living or do we just like how cool the concept looks?

A friend forwarded me an image recently that someone had pinned on Pinterest. The caption read: “Cute shack!”

The image was in fact a shack. Like a Depression-era Hooverville shack. The kind that someone, somewhere in the world probably lives in, with very little money and very little access to the necessities for living. But on a blank, white background, removed from the realities of its actual setting it could only be one thing: cute. Quaint. Rustic. The perfect setting for a photo shoot with neutral colored clothing and models holding steaming mugs of coffee while wrapped in wool blankets.

In an oversized world, we have tried (often forced) to downsize, and our efforts are commendable; McMansions are simply ridiculous any way you look at them. But we’ve also come to over-romanticize small and minimalist living, the majority of us continuing to live in multi-thousand square foot homes where the only thing minimal about our space is the design magazine that lies on the coffee table. We love minimalist living for the image and the image only.

Tell me: how many “Check Out This Gorgeous Tiny Kitchen!” articles have you seen lately? Our minimalist living obsession is at an all time high. But while the obsession is there, the practice isn’t. We hoard. We buy more stuff. In an effort to downsize, we buy a new couch and rug and tell ourselves it will help de-clutter our space.

Our connection to minimalist living has gone haywire, in which small spaces are idealized but no one has them, and shabby chic makes the well-off yearn for a second (or third) home (it’s ok because it’s small!) that someone in a different socio-economic status would be happy to call their primary address.

The reality of small living: it’s really hard. It takes work. It means sacrificing certain things. Like a couch.

I have a lot of respect for people who live in tiny houses. Have you ever tried to have your living, eating, sleeping and work space essentially all in the same area? Your college dorm room doesn’t count.

Some people live in small spaces by choice, and some people live in small spaces because it’s their only option. Both of them should be reminders that we can live with less. A reminder that we should take to heart, not just take a photo of and put it on our mood board for inspiration.

I read an article in a lifestyle magazine (I won’t say which one) about downsizing. It profiled a couple that went from a very large house to a slightly smaller loft space. A loft space with high ceilings and a floor plan to make anyone drool. Now granted, choosing this loft space certainly made the couple give up some square footage. They had to get rid of a few things. But ultimately, this was nowhere near small living.

What do we do about our problematic obsession? Change it from obsession to action.

If we want to truly downsize and live lifestyles where we consume less, then we actually have to downsize. Talk does not cook rice and pinning small kitchens on Pinterest does not make you a tiny space dweller. You don’t need an interior decorator to tell you how to maximize your space. You just need to do it.

Related on EcoSalon

The New American Dream: 7 Different Definitions of Success

Tiny: A Story About Living Small

30 Best Quotes on Living Small

Image: cjuneau

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The tiny home movement has been well-documented over the last few years. From Ikea-cized shipping containers to groovy green treehouses, folks are pro-downsizing, as long as the digs are stylish. One company in Luling, Texas, is making tiny homes.

It’s not just the urban hipster crowd who’s into tiny homes. Brad Kittel, founder of Tiny Texas Houses, has done more than just create a demand for his salvaged material custom homes; he’s built an entire community and culture around them. (For starters, TTH accepts barter for specific goods including video production equipment and computer software for their online tutorials.)

Texas-based Kittel’s ethos of “pure salvage living” means using “materials that are 99-percent American-grown, -mined, -smelted, -formed, and created when we had such in our craftsmanship, and built to last for centuries.”

Kittel has more than 30 years of experience in salvage mining and building, so he knows his stuff. TTH uses reclaimed—and usually antique—doors, flooring, windows, hardware, windows, stained glass, claw-foot tubs, pedestal sinks, lumber, siding, roofing, cabinetry, railings, porch posts, and other decorative add-ons. The wood is usually yellow pine, old-growth fir, cypress, long leaf pine, oak, cypress, walnut, or mesquite. Low-voltage wiring for solar power options means your tiny house can even be wired off-the-grid. The goal is to create a sweet custom home, cabin, or retreat that offers a “sub-zero carbon footprint.”

While that may be overstating things a bit—siting a home, no matter how small, even if it’s on wheels, still leaves a footprint, however minimal, but there’s no doubt Kittel has created the anti-pre-fab pre-fab. As its name implies, TTH designs are generally rustic, with a distinctly Western vibe. Whether you fancy a miniscule Victorian “painted lady,” Craftsman bungalow, nano-barn, modern “homesteader,” or mining shack, TTH can design your dream.

TTH’s services range from plans and shipping of materials to building and relocating your new home. Kittel also offers workshops and the aforementioned tutorials. Expect to pay at least $50,000 for a 10’x12’ home, but with quality materials like this, you won’t be slapped with sticker-shock a few years down the road, replacing worn-out materials. When it comes to tiny homes, don’t mess with Texas.

View more Tiny Texas Houses.

All images: Tiny Texas Houses

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We’re trained to think that bigger is better, but the development of uber-cute, ultra-efficient homes of 500 square feet or less, have some questioning this wasteful assumption.

Our homes are our castles. Inside their walls, we grow, laugh, cry, cook, work, play and sleep. Before the housing market crisis, homes were getting massive. Dubbed “McMansions” these cavernous dwellings sucked up energy at an alarming rate, despite being empty more often than occupied.

But the economic crash appears to have been a reality check: builders and architects are seeing more request for small homes that make more efficient use of space and electricity. In recent years, designers have taken the idea of tiny homes even further, proving that a few hundred square feet is all we need to live in comfort. Don’t believe it? Here are four tiny home designs that will make you want to downsize immediately.

1. Micro Compact Home

Measuring only 91 cubic feet, Micro Compact Homes (pictured above) somehow manage to include room for two double beds, a bathroom, lobby, dining space for 4-5 people, a fully functional kitchen and top-notch entertainment technology. Made mostly from aluminum, Micro Compact Homes can even be recycled if worn or damaged beyond acceptable use.

 2.Rollit House

OK, I’ll admit that this one’s more experimental than practical, but it was too cool not to include. This cylindrical design is a modular prototype that provides flexible space within a minimum housing unit, explains Arch Daily. Three different sections are dedicated to different functional needs: there’s a bed and table in section, an exercise cylinder, and a kitchen with a sink. To change the functionality of the house at any given time, you simply “roll it” by treading down the center pathway, just like a hamster wheel.

3. Nano Living System

At only 200 total square feet, the Nano Living System is billed as “the world’s smallest sustainable house.” Despite its diminutive size, the designers claim the house can contain a family of four inside its convertible rooms. Solar panels on the roof provide electricity while a rainwater catchment system enables grey water recycling. A green roof and argon-filled windows or solar heat pumps can be added for enhanced self-sufficiency. Inside are all the basic necessities of a home, including the kitchen, bathroom, closet, dining room as well as two king size beds that are built into the ceiling and drop down to rest on the dining room table and the sofa and coffee table.

4. Tumbleweed Homes

The beauty and clever design of Tumbleweed Homes almost makes you forget that they’re smaller than the average apartment! The Zinn, featured above, is a mere 99 square feet which means that you can ignore the permits required to build a house in most towns. The Zinn is one of the company’s Box Bungalow designs, which means you pick the shell and then customize interior options according to your needs. You can purchase the building plans for $49. Buying the kits start at $12,999 or you can get it assembled for you starting at $14,999.

Images furnished by companies/designers mentioned.

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Potentially NSFW: tiny getaways from the big, bad wolf called life.

Clearly, we have an issue with downsizing, as in we can’t get enough of it. We acknowledge that minimizing, tiny-fying and compartmentalizing has its limitations (space being one of them), but the myriad incarnations and manifestations of the tiny house movement are boundless.

From modernist bunkers to treetops on high, tiny is popping up everywhere – most notably on sites like Tiny House Swoon and Tiny House Blog where we sourced a few of our itty bitty dream homes. Without further ado, twenty we could squeeze into right now.

UFO Tiny House…

Tiny house at the lake…

Tiny house on wheels…

Tiny Victorian…

Tiny double-decker cottage…

Tiny carport house…

Tumbleweed Tiny House…

Rustic tiny house…

Modernist tiny house…

Tiny bunker house…

Tiny piece of heaven house…

Tiny in Texas house…

Shacked up tiny house…

Floating tiny house…

Tiny house a-go-go…

Tiny tree house…

Tiny beach chalet…

Tiny creatively re-used house…

Grown up tiny house…

The “pretty please with sugar on top” tiny house.

Images: Toby Bradbury; Tiny House Swoon (3); Sharona Design; Apartment Therapy; Apartments Interior Design; Angry Unicorns; Tiny House Blog (4); The Stir; The Style Files; The Tiny Life; Tinyhousing.ca; Design Boom (3); Dwelle; Not Martha

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A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

IKEA addict? Maybe you should put all those blue bags with yellow lettered handles to good use. Like in a dress. [Via Inhabitat]

What is the definition of a “Real Woman”? Whatever it is, please stop calling me one. [Via Thought Catalog]

Haven’t joined a CSA yet? You should, and if you’re wondering how to go about it, here’s a great guide to help you navigate.  [Via Small Kitchen College]

Keeping an eye on the indie designer scene in Beijing? Here are nine to pay attention to. [Via Afar]

McMansions out and tiny homes in; we approve of this minimalist trend and will always take more micro-home eye candy like this one. [Via Curbed]

Finally someone has a good recipe for making gluten free sandwich bread at home. [Via Saveur]

Outdoor backyard movie night? There really can’t be a better way to spend a late summer evening. [Via CasaSugar]

The U.S. has no national vacation policy, how is this affecting productivity and why are we so bad at checking out? [Via The Atlantic]

A diet that’s high in sugar can lead to memory loss. [Via Organic Authority]

Image: Gewerbemuseum

The post Link Love: Making Dresses Out of IKEA Bags and How the Lack of U.S. National Vacation Policy Affects Productivity appeared first on EcoSalon.

Minimalistally speaking, the Murphy Bed turns every room into a living one.

The original Murphy bed was patented in 1900, but that doesn’t make it antiquated – not in the slightest. For all the touting we do of small (and smaller) living spaces, it bears mentioning that for this concept of the new scaled-down modern living space to literally fit, we need to not only reconsider the excess we’re holding onto but our concept of “living space” altogether.

There are living rooms, and there are bedrooms. Even in the tiniest of dwellings – tiny either by choice or budget – there’s generally a pretty clear delineation between what corner is meant for living, dining or sleeping. But The Modern Murphy Bed Manifesto brings into question a more existential question: should not all rooms be living?

William Lawrence Murphy thought so, anyway, hence he invented the bed that bears his moniker. Newly wed and living in a one-room apartment, he wanted to do away with the bed cramping his style so he and his wife could entertain like civilized people.

This scene was replicated recently in the grossly under-appreciated and hilarious flick Wanderlust. Of course, the punchline was: “Look at us. How lame? Feel sorry for us. We have a Murphy bed instead of a real one. Pathetic.”

It was comedic line borrowed from the silent movie era, in Charlie Chaplin versus the Murphy bed.

Very funny for Charlie Chaplin, Jennifer Aniston and Paul Rudd – none of whom deal with the kind of storage issues the rest of us do. The spatial challenge of the studio apartment is, for the studios, slapstick or romcom entertainment. Today’s studio dweller must reach back to the 19^th century for legit human empathy.

According to this fascinating historical account of the Murphy bed on Design Sponge, hiding the bed was all the rage in the 19th century, considered an art form borne of practicality. “The parlor was the defining room from 1850 – 1900 and signaled the social circle to which the family belonged.”

Nowadays our social circles are defined by if we tweet or not, the sophistication of our pins or whether we deign to visit Google+. The Murphy Bed Manifesto, meanwhile, declares that a room can be anything it wants to be. With a push and a pull and cleverly placed stools, it can be a parlor, a bedroom, a closet, a DIY room, a sex caddy, a room of her own, his own or its own.

The Murphy Bed is our past. And by God, if tiny is what tiny does – it is our future, too.

Images: Eunju Namkung; Design2Share; Resource Furniture; The Fancy: Trendir; All Things Thrifty; Resource Furniture

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EcoSalon’s favorite quotes about minimalism, downsizing, and living small.

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. -William Morris

As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness. -Henry David Thoreau

Poverty is my pride. -Muhammed

With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy. -Lope de Vega

You know you have reached perfection of design not when you have nothing more to add, but when you have nothing more to take away. -Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Live simply so that others may simply live. -Elizabeth Ann Seton

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. -Edwin Way Teale

Small rooms or dwellings discipline the mind, large ones weaken it. -Leonardo Da Vinci

Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life. -Katharine Fullerton Gerould

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction. -E.F. Schumacker

The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. -Socrates

The simplest things are often the truest. -Richard Bach

Less is more. -Ludwig Mies van der Rohe

Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like. -Will Rogers

If one had taken what is necessary to cover one’s needs and had left the rest to those who are in need, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, no one would be in need. -Saint Basil

One can furnish a room very luxuriously by taking out furniture rather than putting it in. -Francis Jourdain

Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art. -Frederic Chopin

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. -Hans Hofmann

There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little. -Jackie French Koller

One of the advantages of being born in an affluent society is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will realize that having more and more won’t solve the problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions, or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves. If we can’t find peace and happiness there, it’s not going to come from the outside. -Tenzin Palmo

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. -Confucious

We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties. -Anna C. Brackett

You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied,’ you make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled. -Charles Spurgeon

Any half-awake materialist well knows – that which you hold holds you. -Tom Robbins

The intention of voluntary simplicity is not to dogmatically live with less. It’s a more demanding intention of living with balance. This is a middle way that moves between the extremes of poverty and indulgence. -Duane Elgin

If one’s life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. -The Dalai Lama

The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. -Elise Boulding

Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. -Lao Tzu

I bet most of us have experienced at some point the joys of less: college – in your dorm, traveling – in a hotel room, camping – rig up basically nothing, maybe a boat. Whatever it was for you, I bet that, among other things, this gave you a little more freedom, a little more time. -Graham Hill

Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life? -Mary Oliver

ALSO CHECK OUT:

40 Inspirational Quotes on New Beginnings

30 Best Quotes About Travel

50 Best Quotes About Love

40 Best Quotes About Solitude

30 Best Quotes About Being Present

30 Best Quotes About Nature

Classic Quotes from Hollywood’s Original Leading Ladies

All Creatures Great and Small: 30 Best Quotes About Animals

Images: D. Ferragamo, Tammy Strobel, Alexandre Dulaunoy, Baijg, Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, Johnrobertshepherd

The post 30 Best Quotes On Living Small appeared first on EcoSalon.

Small was sexy in 2011. 

The world’s population hit seven billion this year and is projected to reach nine billion by 2050 – a sure sign that we better start figuring out ways to maximize space. The average house size in America has more than doubled since the 1950s, forcing us to consume more utilities and resulting in a housing culture where bigger is better. We think just the opposite.

These Shelter posts from 2011 highlighted the small space trend and showed that less can definitely be more.

Not only are narrow homes more energy-efficient, they’re also genius and popping up in cities from London to Tokyo.

Artists, professionals, and sustainability activists like Graham Hill and Jay Shafer are turning extreme micro-living into an art, but can others follow suit?

When her partner starts building a 130-square-foot wooden cabin from scratch, Merete Mueller decides to document the process. The result is “TINY: A Story About Living Small,” a film exploring the couple’s turn to minimalism and the concept of small living across America.

Small living is one thing, but dumpster homes? Artist Gregory Kloehn debuted Elite Waste, a luxury urban home installation housed in a trash receptacle, at the San Francisco Fringe Festival in September.

Guests at the Tubohotel in Tepoztlan lodge in 6-by-9 foot concrete tubes set in an organic orchard. What they lack in entertainment and facilities, they make up in pure novelty.

Mirrors can instantly make a small abode appear larger. We loved these 12 eco-friendly ones.

If you’re ready to make the leap to little, you’ll need some innovative storage solutions. Try these.

SEE ALSO:

2011 in Review: The Most Offensive Ad Campaigns Of 2011

2011 In Review: The 10 Stories That Defined Shelter in 2011

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