Does reducing your expenses, downsizing your life, getting rid of all the useless stuff, saving energy and easing your impact on the environment interest you? When first faced with the idea of tiny house living, most people think, “I could never do that.” However, those who’ve tried have often said that it’s easier than you might think, but there are definitely challenges and sacrifices involved with cutting your living space down to the size of some peoples’ master bathrooms or walk-in closets
Could you live in a tiny house this size?
Whether you’re thinking about living in a tiny house the size of Tumbleweed’s Elm or you don’t think that you could ever live in something half the size of your first apartment (or smaller), let’s see what it takes to do it. You might be surprised at how easily you could give up some of your space-hogging “luxuries” and how fulfilling living in a tiny house might be for you.
A Few Challenges
After living for 6 months with her husband in a tiny house, blogger Jane Dwinell talks, in a guest blog post for Tiny House Talk, about some of the challenges involved in the experience. For example, she loves working out at home, but there just wasn’t enough room in her new home’s tiny space. Fortunately, if you’re like Jane and you live in a temperate climate, you can just step outside your door and do your exercise, while enjoying some fresh morning air at the same time. Just like that, she found a great way to overcome her limited space and discovered a more enjoyable place to workout.
Nice entrance, but what about the rest?…
Storage was also a pretty major factor for Jane and her husband. She talks in her article about how she hates grocery shopping and would rather do a bigger trip every two weeks or so, but it’s just not possible in a tiny house. Most tiny house residents will do better with more frequent, smaller trips to the grocery store, local markets, or you might just get inspired to start your own fresh vegetable garden.
The Sacrifices of Living Tiny
Tiny house enthusiast and eco-village founder Leah Atwood lives in a tiny house that takes up only 90 square feet. What sacrifices has she made to live this eco-friendly and conscious lifestyle?
In an article by Linda Frederico-O’Murchu for CNBC’s Today Home, Leah admits that she does miss having guests over, something she could easily do in a bigger house but no longer has the room for, in her tiny house. With little room inside and only one set of utensils, plate, fork, etc., it’s hard to entertain a lot of guests because the storage space just isn’t there to cook a big meal or feed a whole party.
If you’re thinking about going tiny, you should also consider whom you’re going to be living with and how much space you each really need. Do you work from home? Does your child need a desk for homework? Which items can you sacrifice and which do you really need?
The Benefits of Tiny Living
Living in a tiny house isn’t all sacrifices and challenges, though. While Leah Atwood does point out that it requires you to be very conscious of your possessions and which ones you’re really attached to, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, it can be the best benefit of tiny house living.
Think about packing for an exciting trip. You bring only the clothes you’ll most enjoy wearing, the shoes appropriate for your destination, and the essentials for making it a successful trip, right? Well, living in a tiny house is a lot like being on an exciting trip for the rest of your life. Read about more of the benefits of tiny house living in our article, What’s So Good about Tiny House Living?
When you have to sacrifice a lot of your belongings, you learn which ones are really important to you and why. In the process, you learn a lot about yourself, the things that you truly appreciate and how you can live in such a way as to have the least impact possible on your environment.
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