Last week I talked about how to live simply and decrease your carbon footprint living in a tiny house. Even better than buying a tiny house is making your own, and Michael Janzen is blazing a trail with his free tiny pallet house. Not only is his house made out of recycled shipping pallets, it isn’t costing him anything to build. And lucky for us, he’s sharing his plans so you too can build your own tiny free house.
You can save money, sharpen your DIY skills, and further decrease your environmental impact by following Janzen’s example of building a free pallet house.
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Keep pallets out of landfills
Here are some disturbing statistics about shipping pallets:
- Approximately 40% of all hardwood harvested in the U.S. is for making shipping pallets
- About two-thirds of pallets are used only once before being thrown out
- 1/4 of all wood in landfills is from used pallets
You can help prevent deforestation and keep pallets out of landfills by finding creative alternative uses for them, like building a house. Pallets can be found everywhere. Once you start looking for them, you’ll see them scattered all over your town or city.
Contact a local warehouse, supermarket, or any business that receives large shipments, and get permission to pick up their used pallets. Most companies are happy to give their pallets away.
Plans for a free pallet house
Janzen has made plans for building a free pallet house available on his website. These plans are a guide for building what he calls a disaster preparedness and emergency shelter. Janzen says:
As hurricane Gustav plowed across Cuba headed for the gulf coast of the United States memories of Katrina and the potential displacement of thousands got me thinking. I wanted to do something to help. It occurred to me that someone else might find what I now about building with shipping pallets useful in the coming weeks and months.
With some creativity, you may find that shipping pallets can be reappropriated in other ways to build your own free tiny house. For example, I have a friend that has disassembled shipping pallets and used the wood to build roof trusses for his straw bale building.
Ultimately, you can help prevent deforestation and keep pallets out of landfills by using them to build creative housing.
Think tiny and free!
(Image credit: flickr via KGBKitchen)
Yeah, this is practical. I see homeless people welding all the time to build a house out of trash. I always find a ton of peanuts lying around to fill my precut plastic bags as well.
What a joke of a contest.
His invention is pretty good but the sad thing is that it has nothing to do with building something useful out of trash not one single bit of the material used to creat his full scale product could be found or manufactured out of normal trash. Finally the plastic and foam are some of the most harmfull products for the enviroment. Unfortunately some child out there probably made a real good invention out of real trash and lost.
This just goes to show you that kids today CAN have a positive effect on society. If only more would work toward what the can do and not put their energy into how they can avoid doing the right thing.
Parents! Stay active with your children!
This kid should be meeting with Television ppl to promote the idea as well as get someone in Gov to acknowledge this idea and help him promote it as well as fund this!
Spectacular — I love it! Eco-friendly is a gimmick itself. The boy certainly found a niche. I think it’s very kind on his behalf!
HEY MAX!!!!
I feel proud about You men, and You can bet that your family does it too.
I wish God guide You trough the live, and lead You to the places where Your imagination could help the people.
Go on Max…. You are “The Max”
i love what you are doing it very beautiful coming from your heart very nice keep up the good work
Get these into production… Amazing Kid. Thanks, Max.
I think it was a great idea for the boy to come up with a home dome made out of trash. However, I believe his values are offset. This boy should be thought that it’s not a shelter made out of garbage that homeless people need. The true reason behind homelessness is the way our capitalist system is set up. In order to have the rich we need the poor. Also, most homeless are on the street due to severe mental illness and need help. I hope that someone teaches this kid the root causes of homelessness and he can learn how to truly help them!
Great Idea…but why didn’t they make it out of actually “trash”? Everything they used was preconsumer/preindustrial.
There is hope!!!
Just wondering if he took wind in to consideration since he did get the idea while visiting Chicago. Don’t hate people- I’m just asking not clowning on the poor kid. We all know what they say about Chicago so I was just wondering what he did to ensure that the homeless are not “flying homeless.”
Dear young Max;
God Bless you, son.
SAINTLOUIS63
How is this helping the homeless? they will still be living on the streets! Or, now they have a little dome to protect them.. from what? I am surprised this won a contest prize. This is a very simple-minded and surfaced solution to a very complex social problem. Oh, well, he’s just a kid.
Shipping peanuts are hardly free and blow badly in any wind. This kid must pay the judges to get the check.
Somehow I think that suggesting that homeless people live in plastic garbage igloos isn’t going to go over very well. Especially since we already have around 10% of all homes vacant due to foreclosure, and readily available for them. The problem isn’t lack of housing, but rather the skyrocketing costs of living. You’ll help a whole lot more homeless people for instance, by breaking up these utility monopolies that hike the cost of gas and electricity 15% per year every year for the past 60 years, despite costs or income. Seriously, one year they raised the price of power because “we were using too much”, and this year everybody cut back their usage, so the power company raised our rates because “we were using too little”. How in the heck does supply and demand being manipulated in both positive and negative variables yield a gain in price, EITHER way?!
The 2nd greatest way to help the homeless would be to reverse Ronald Reagans gutting of the mental health social services. A good portion of these people on the streets are, lets admit it, bat**** crazy, and need professional help. Many could lead normal lives if they had access to medications that can be made for just pennies a bottle, but the FDA sees fit to price-fix and regulate their products so that only the wealthiest or best insured can afford medication. If we medicate these people, then they can work, and if they can work, then we can tax their wages and they won’t be costing us tax dollars to feed or imprison. There should be a 7-15 year limit to how long a pharmaceutical company can profit off of one medication, and thereafter its formula should be fair use for any company to market. Let’s bust up these drug czars and viagra-kings, and the peasants shall prosper.
As for sticking homeless people under ventilation-free plastic bubbles, nice try kid, but no cigar. It’s more insulting than effective, the pervasive “out of sight-out of mind” tactics of a country unwilling to use its tax dollars for the good of the people.
I don’t know if Max will ever read this but, GOOD JOB!!! Keep it up!
Hi Max,
I just wanted to say congradualations on your achievement that you are doing. It is a very good thing that you are wanting to help people that are homeless continue to keep striving for your goals, and don’t give in or quite. I’m glad that you are doing something that you love to do, and that is good that you are going after your dreams and continue to strive higher. I know that you are going to make it very far in life. God Bless You and Your Family
Great invention, but a poorly written article. I mean, does anyone proof-read this stuff? I had to read some sentences twice as there was no logical flow.
Terrific job, Max!
Keep it the good work.
Way to go Max. It is ingenuity like this and caring people like yourself that will help to pull us out of the hole we are in.
Not big government with out of sight spending. God bless you.
Kudos to Max and his wonderful invention. This is an excellent example of what humanity really is…Feeling deeply about someone or some cause and living it like it is your dream. It is good to know that there are still a few people around us who are like that. Keep it up Max…The world needs more people like you. best Wishes for a very bright future!
And yet ACORN and the rest will still complain while a 12 year old comes up with solutions
Any homeless person in the world could build something like that to live in. Except that it’s not up to “code.” So the police would come and destroy it. This is why homeless people don’t just literally, build places to live. Because our govt stops them.
For it to be in “code,” first the banksters must bankrupt the American economy and foreclose all of our houses. Then they will sell us little paper houses and domes to live in, and it will be acceptable then. And then they will only beat us when we protest.
If I was a millionnaire, I will reward this kid with a schoolarship, and I hope that he will choose Architecture or Engineering as major. Like the president said, this country needs change, and kids like him are the future.
The invention is not bad but if he thinks that homeless people are going to carry this around with them and put it up then he has a bit of growing up to do still.
A great idea for a kids play tent, or other novelty ideas. Homeless that live on the streets who choose not to go to shelters are not going to be wise enough to request a dome, sober enough to assemble it and so on and so forth.
Not to burst his creativity and wish to help people but his inentions although well meaning are ill placed.
Now for many of the street “citizesns” if you could come up with the never ending glass of whiskey- you might get their attention!
Congrats bud and keep the creativity going.
I don’t know About you. but i don’t see a whole lot of homeless people with blow torches or plastic sealing machines.
hope that dome doesn’t blow away on you after all the efforts you put into it.
Go Max! It’s so refreshing to hear news like this. Your thoughtfulness and inspiration will get you far in life!
Wow!! Super, smart boy. That is what is all about it, CREATIVITY!
I wish that more parents would teach their kids how to be creative minded person, never mind that WII and other silly games and TV.
This is cool. thought you’d like it1
Love, Mommy
this is a fantastic idea!!! this would be a cheap and easy way to recycle and help out the homeless…plus building these would create a small job market to help in this thriving economy…this is gotta be the best invention i have seen. what a bright kid!!!!
This is awesome!~ If I could invent something like that I would to as well especially to help people!~ Go Max that is hardcore! Helping people is awesome and not bout money thats hard to find these days!~ You are awesome keep it up! And hopefuly you read this realizing that life isn’t bout money either believe me I already know that piece of information lol!~ Keep up the great work Max we the people that care bout other people, are important and the people you are helping it appreciate it to as well. I can say words cannot express more what they think so thank you!~ Your friend
Trunks aka The Jokester Jackler!~
Just when I start losing hope for this generation, I stumble upon an article about a kid like this. I’m glad to know you are around, Max. This world is a much better place for it.
thats a great start in life for him im proud of him and don’t even know him but surely would be glad to meet him hoooray good job and please please i say keep it up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I find it all amusing. Yet another marketing stategy for environmentaly un-freindly corporations to appear more earth friendly. ‘The surface (the building) is LEED certified, so everything they do inside must be good..!’
I’ve just been a part of designing (being built currently) a potential LEED platnum building, and find even the platinum level is still lacking in being truely environmentally ‘freindly’. We still have so far to go as a society!!! I’ll get excited when I get to be a part of a zero impact building for a corporation, business, school or any building other then a home!!!
This has to be the best idea that anyone has ever come up with. It is real surprising that a 12 year old boy can come up with something that can help others more than an American government with billions of dollars and over 50 years could ever do. It will be someone like this boy who will change this country and make the difference.
Some talent!
Way to go Max! With all the corruption in the world today, it is very nice to hear that there are still great people! This made my day!
Wow…What an amazing story. I hope your parents are very proud of you, very proud that they raised a son, with great morals, vaules and love. The world needs more creative and compassionate people like. Thank you for helping to make our world a better place.
It’s about time you guys published something positive.
The White House doesn’t care about the homeless.
This kids really rocks!!!!
looks awesome i like how its a 12 year old kid how loves to help people
YOU ROCK OUT LOUD
It doesn’t look like he really made it out of trash. It looks like all new material to me. Also, the kid didn’t build it on his own??
Pretty cool
wow….what an amazing child, that he felt sympathy for the homeless he saw when he was just 6 years old! it’s refreshing to see that there are still good kids in the world, and it’s refreshing to see this headline, instead of “12 year makes baby in hut”! lol
Its just stupid idea. how much it will cost to build? how long it will last? we might end up creating more trash…
This kid is awesome. It’s great to see someone young who has some compassion for those less fortunate. May we all live up to this standard.
someone needs to send this to obama. this is revolutionary stuff
No offense, although the idea is great and is of good intention, it is just not efficient, where is every homeless person going to get metal wiring, peanut packing and plastic wrapping, let alone internet showing them how to do this. It would require someone to pre-make them, and there is just too much homeless people out there, and it takes up so much space. This creation should be only made for maybe a science project or for fun.
This is really neat!! I love it when people desire to help others. Good job, Max!
while i think that the shelter that he built it a GREAT idea, there is a problem that i see. homeless people have nothing because they can have nothing. what i mean is if you have a nice blanket and are homeless more than likely you wont have it for long. someone will steal it from you. so if you have a shelter it will be gone in no time. also they(homeless) have no place to keep it. that would be a huge problem.