Life in a garage?

Regarding the changing circumstances of people who opted for houses and now face problems with mortgages I can offer some solace in the recommendation of garages as living spaces. Just one of an endless number of ALS (alternative living spaces) that we should have the guts to explore.

It is possible that on legal paper there are complex issues here (I have been unable to find out) but reality isn't made of paper and having tested it for more than 2 years I can say that this is actually a good idea.

Firstly the cost is absurdly insignificant compared with an official living space of the same size.

The only physical problems lie in sanitation and waste disposal. Sadly in urban areas the obvious recourse used by every other living thing on the planet is not available to humans, and we need to use public lavatories (20p a time, a pint in the local pub etc). Waste disposal can best be done by not creating any, which is a good environmentally friendly idea anyway. The tiny amounts created can be recycled manually in local recycling bins, a trip to the dump if its large, or for small amounts (the odd plastic bag) I'm sure this can be disposed of in public waste bins without annoying the council guys too much.

Next problem is not having a fixed address. Its an unbelievably naive feature - of UK at least - that we have become so fixated upon the issue of houses that the council has only this means of registering human beings without one. Regarding council tax hopefully we won't use any of the services anyway (except the occasional use of bins which should be kept to a minimum anyway for environmental reasons). Certainly without a house; police and fire brigade aren't really issues. Like with waste disposal , use of these services should be avoided.

For central government (and its few remaining services esp. NHS - most have been privatised so what do we still pay for?) we do still pay through income taxes etc, since not having a "house" does not interfere with work and that part of our life. However it is sadly a necessity to know someone whose address one can use to receive land-mail. In my case I am still registered at my mothers and receive mail there. (Really the government does need to wake up to the restrictions that its lazy processes enforce upon us). Hopefully that is the tedious (and irrelevant) higher social stuff dealt with. It is certainly educational though trying to live outside the "box", it highlights a lot about the world that gets missed normally.

Having done a lot of camping it is easy to see how living can be perfectly comfortable and sustainable with very little input. A warm sleeping bag is the most important part. Feeling cold for long periods of time is unpleasant. Solve this! about £80. Why people need any heating, expensive bills and the elderly die each winter when they only need buy a 5season sleeping bag for £80 has always escaped me! Get some jumpers also - its cheaper and better for the environment!

I tried tenting for a few months but I'm not sure what the government says about this. There is a sense that it isn't accepted and this pervades the whole experience with uncertainly. Altho I can't see why our existence on the land should be prescribed, there is this sense that it is. (Really I say again the government need to start looking at things with fresh eyes). There is also the issue of personal possessions, you can't keep these in a tent! So the garage does work out the best middle ground. People keep their cars in there, so its must be ok for storage!

Food is always available from shops. Cooking is a problem since we must be very aware of carbon monoxide poisoning. Ideally we can cook outside, but again (in UK at least) there is the sense that this is not acceptable so we must cook inside at risk to ourselves. A good fuel camping stove £120 does the job (not for indoor use it says so b v careful). A simple carbon monoxide meter can be bought for £5 for Woolworths (replace every year). Better than that though is knowing what to look for. A throbbing headache signals the presence of Carbon Monoxide. Ventilate if this happens, and never sleep with a flame on! Only use for 10mins at a time ideally anyway. A yellow flame = carbon monoxide producing - keep it blue! We aren't paying for the fire brigade and we don't want to trouble other people - so extreme caution with flames anyway!! We're not allowed to store fuel in garages ... which had me puzzled since the average car stores 10s of gallons?

The next big problem is moisture. I have recently solved this. Watch for where water collects (around metal normally), it will begin to drip and create wet patches. Work out where the main ones are and then rig up lengths of plastic to collect the water and channel it into cups for disposal. This way moisture is actually removed by the process of condensation that creates it! Sealable storage boxes may be necessary to keep mildew off things - it forms in cold and moist places.

Lighting is simple. Batteries are environmentally unfriendly. Rechargables can be bought for use with ED head torches. These can be recharged anywhere, but this is emergency and not sustainable. Solar panels can be fitted and run to deep-cycle batteries which can supply all the electronic energy we need. Again the problem of social acceptability limits the amount of exposure. I'm running 4 low energy LEDs from a £20 car battery recharging cell linked to a £100 deep cycle battery which gives me enough light to get around with. What cannot be done with solar is heating of any sort (uses way too much energy - its the major major portion of the house energy bill) hence the fuel stove above.

Clothes are cleaned in a laundrette which is good for these reducing local services. Personal hygiene is courtesy of the local pool, which encourages a swim as well as getting clean.

Ideally a rain collection butt would solve water problems, and a solar water heater built into the roof would solve hot water problems. But again these are high exposure installations and there is this annoying sense that many people won't accept such alternative living. Water must be bought or taken from taps and carried in.

It may take a time to adapt, and the key to comfort is organisation and planning. But with a bit of thought there is no reason why using a garage as a living space should interrupt ones life. Clearly its a batchelors lifestyle - altho my last girlfriend lived there for 6 months and said she quite enjoyed it. I'd imagine that children would love it, but again the social taboos make this so much harder than it should be.

There are many benefits. It is certainly amongst the lowest carbon foot print lifestyles, with only 12 litres of fuel used a year for everything. It naturally encourages thought and care to be taken about ones lifestyle, nothing is for granted and it enables a much deeper understanding to be formed of the components of life and what is really important. One of the highlights is going to sleep to the hypnotic sound of the rain and the wind outside, and waking to the sound of the birds in the morning - simple pleasures that the now dominating "house" experience has all but completely obliterated.

Certainly I stand for a radical rethink in the way we exist on this tiny island. A certain mode of existence has become so dominant that we can't seem to think outside the box anymore. But living in a house has been only a luxury for most of the world for most of history, and it is only here that it is considered the norm. Given the projections in population for this century, the shortage of space, the absurd cost of housing and the endless destruction to the environment that this mode of living brings - in my mind at least - it is already unsustainable and irresponsible, and especially since other much simpler alternative already exist as I hope I have explored.

Another feature of this lifestyle is the requirement to share. Certainly in transport I don't drive, and where I don't walk I share my transport with others (buses, trains). I share my personal hygiene space at the swimming pool. I share my toilet facilities in the local pub, or at work. Ideally I would share everything (share this island, share this planet) that is a good way to think, and the more I do it the more absurd it seems that it's not the obvious norm.

Anyway there are infinite possibilities, we just need people to explore them. Been thinking about Mark Boyle again today. Its a wonderful thing he does. I wish it was me, but I now know there are at least 2 of us in what I have been tempted to see as this prison of sterile minds called modern living: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/bristol/7217788.stm ... genius