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Living Simply in a Dumpster
Key Excerpts from Article on Website of The Atlantic


The Atlantic, September 11, 2014
Posted: November 23rd, 2014
http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/09/the-simp...

Tucked behind the womens residence halls in a back corner of Huston-Tillotson Universitys campus in Austin, Texas, sits a green dumpster. Were it not for the sliding pitched roof and weather station perched on top, a reasonable person might dismiss the box as just another dumpsterproviding this person did not encounter the dean of the University College Jeff Wilson living inside. Until this summer, the green dumpster was even less descript than it is now. There was no sliding roof; Wilson kept the rain out with a tarp. The goal was to establish a baseline experience of the dumpster without any accoutrements, before adding them incrementally. Not long ago, Wilson was nesting in a 2,500 square foot house. Now he says almost everything he owns is in his 36-square-foot dumpster, which is sanctioned and supported by the university as part of an ongoing sustainability-focused experiment called The Dumpster Project. We could end up with a house under $10,000 that could be placed anywhere in the world, Wilson said at the launch, [fueled by] sunlight and surface water, and people could have a pretty good life. Wilson, known around town as Professor Dumpster, recounted in another recent interview that he now owns four pairs of pants, four shirts, three pairs of shoes, three hats, and eight or nine bow ties. He keeps all of this in cubbies under a recently installed false floor.

Note: The article above includes many amazing photos of Wilson's unconventional home. Explore a treasure trove of concise summaries of incredibly inspiring news articles which will inspire you to make a difference.


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