High-end designer Terri Crittenden and her team Fredman Design is giving unused shipping containers a new lease on life while helping to eliminate landfill waste. CBS Chicago reported on the trend that Crittenden and her team are exploring as a means to build homes and cottages in Michigan. 

The movement of using shipping container material for your home extends far beyond the Midwest. In fact, you can purchase a shipping container home from Amazon. However, Crittenden is not creating a space within the shipping container, but instead using its parts to create a living space. 

According to Crittenden, there are no guidelines on how to build with shipping containers. The eco-friendly and affordable solution is also easy because the pieces fit together like legos, she said. The containers are typically eight feet wide, nine-and-a-half feet tall, and 40 feet long. The pieces can be put together in a variety of ways, and Crittenden has worked with several setups. 

The first shipping container home used four containers. It had three bedrooms and three bathrooms. The second home used 11 storage containers and was 2,400 square feet big. It was complete with a 1,200-square-foot guest house as well.

For those who aren’t working with a designer who can build their shipping container home, MODS International, a third-party seller based out of Wisconsin, sells fully converted shipping container homes on Amazon. According to ArchDaily, these tiny homes are 320 square feet and cost $36,000 with a flat shipping rate of $3,754.49. Within six weeks, a tiny home can be all yours.