The average home size in the U.S. doubled in the past century but happiness levels stayed flat. Serial entrepreneur Graham Hill argues that we should take note of this and cut, cut, cut. He calls his mantra LifeEdited and he believes we’ll actually be happier if we cut the size of our homes, cars, collection of stuff and even our number of friends.

“We really have a culture of excess, we have excess we’re not any happier and what you’ll see again and again are people who really cut back and really edit their lives and that’s why it’s called life edited will find themselves much happier. They have more mental clarity. they end up having more time and it’s often better financially.”

To take the conversation public, he’s bought a tiny apartment in New York’s Soho and he’s preparing to crowdsource its redesign. Right now, it’s a bit of a mess- not to mention there’s no shower (the previous tenant took sponge baths or used a community shower)-, but Graham, who holds a degree in architecture, believes that with the right design less square footage can truly be more.

“We don’t want it to feel like it’s about sacrifice. Part of the brief is a sit-down dinner for 16 so we want to have some elements of luxury. It’s almost like you’re just designing a massive piece of furniture it’s so detailed and you cut down all of your stuff and really thought about what you need in there and that will just make it an amazing place to live.”

In this video, Hill shows us the “before” of his 420-square-foot mini apartment and talks about his vision for a wall-less “jewel box” where smart multifunctional furniture can transform the space depending on need.