At the beginning of a new year, many of us have intentions of paring down, getting rid of the clutter, and living leaner. But that typically means cleaning out closets or maybe holding a garage sale. If you're more ambitious, maybe you're cleaning out one room a month until your house is tidy and organized again.

But are you ready to really cut back? Chuck most of your stuff? Forgo space for a smaller footprint (and we mean waaaaaay smaller)? If so, you could find yourself as part of the tiny house movement.

"The tiny house trend is on the rise with more and more individuals, couples, and families choosing to trade in space for simplicity," said Huffington Post. "It's a lifestyle change all about living with less and decreasing environmental impact over time."

What is a tiny house?

Tiny homes lie in stark contrast to the megamansion ideal, with "modest quarters" measuring "as small as 90 square feet complete with bedrooms, kitchens, bathrooms and living quarters," said Design Boom. Many tiny homes are built on wheels—the new RV—but many are fixed on a piece of land, acting as a small-scale guesthouse and also a year-round home for some.

While the homes can and do include all of the basic features, living in a tiny home means that bedroom space is often relegated to a sleeping loft accessed by a steep ladder, the kitchen is miniscule, and bathroom facilities leave something to be desired.

Who lives in a tiny house?

"To inhabit a tiny house, you have to remodel your sense of what success is and how important it is to you to convey to the outside world ‘Hey, I have a big house and big car and I'm successful,'" said Tiny House Blog. "A tiny-house builder describes this group as including people who ‘want to live off the grid. A lot of vegans. The younger people are idealists. They're big into off-the-map and sharing their experience.'

That includes Dee Williams, whose memoir about building a tiny 84-square-foot home in Washington state,The Big Tiny, was excerpted in Slate.

"The only major unknown was the shower," she said. "There wasn't any room for it inside the house; there wasn't an easy way to heat up the water, deliver it to a showerhead, and dispose of it safely. I was stuck, and after staying up till three in the morning one night, thumbing through the Lehman's catalog, a book that included photos of all the ways the Amish and off-grid settlers bathe, I decided to buy a membership to a gym. I figured I could get a membership at one of those big national gyms, so wherever I went from town to town, I could shower as much as I wanted."

Still interested in the idea of owning a tiny house? Check out a few of our favorites.

The Cypress from Tumbleweed "makes use of the most interior space, by incorporating a corner porch and utilizing the extra room as interior space." It can include a full—albeit small—kitchen, and a full bathroom with composting toilet. This home is offered as a "build your own" with plans or ready made, and is built on wheels.

The modern shepherd hut from Güte Shepherd Hut "contains painted pine wood floors, beaded paneling or veneered plywood on the walls, thermal pane glass windows" and detailed woodwork finishing including a Dutch door fashioned of solid white oak and custom modular furniture. The huts also include a cast iron wood burning stove or a contemporary ventless ethanol fireplace plus a solar panel system.

The luxury tiny house from Chris Heininge is 280 square feet and uses innovative design to create an upscale feel in a micro space.

For those who want to go small but still want their favorite things, Tinywood offers the Tinywood Three, with two upstairs bedrooms plus multiple sleeping areas downstairs, granite kitchen countertops, a foldaway, five-seater dining table, and a hot tub. Yes, a hot tub.

Who says a tiny home has to look like a cabin? This modern version built by couple Andrew and Gabriella Morrison has a full kitchen, an actual staircase, and a spacious loft bedroom in 221 square feet.