What No One Ever Tells You About Tiny Homes

a laundry basket taking up too much space, things wearing out more quickly and smells? that's some seriously tough things to conquer...

like, um, use bags which can double as pillows (should you have that many clothes anyways?) or wash the really stinky items in the sink and air dry until they can be laundered.

worn out items? buy better quality stuff. flooring? rugs/carpet suck. have wood floors.

stinky cooking. get a hot plate or crock pot and cook the stuff outside. or have a better exhaust fan. isolate your kitchen prep and cooking area more so things can't disperse before the fan gets them outside (use a shower curtain if you really find this too hard to manage).

etc.

i think tiny living would suit me well as i am already mostly living in the one room here anyways. garden space is where i want to be anyways when the weather cooperates.

songbird

She is in one of the larger places. Many are less than 300 feet. I don't see tiny homes as a good thing for most people. The McMansion trend was a bit over the top too, but I don't want to spend my life confined to a cigar box.

I've lived in a smaller space that 492 square feet for close to thirty years. Even when I was married and we had a two story three bedroom house, we gravitated to living in the kitchen and living room. Going upstairs was sort of like an expedition to darkest Africa. The cats loved it; each had their own room.

I look at the McMansions and wonder what people do with a house that you need a GPS to navigate. I suppose if you have a large family it is different.

I read Thoreau at an impressionable age and it stuck.

"I used to see a large box by the railroad, six feet long by three wide, in which the laborers locked up their tools at night, and it suggested to me that every man who was hard pushed might get such a one for a dollar, and, having bored a few auger holes in it, to admit the air at least, get into it when it rained and at night, and hook down the lid..., and in his soul be free. This did not appear the worst, nor by any means a despicable alternative. You could sit up as late as you pleased, and, whenever you got up, go abroad without any landlord or house-lord dogging you for rent. Many a man is harassed to death to pay the rent of a larger and more luxurious box who would not have frozen to death in such a box as this."

Walden

No matter how big a house is, most families do seem to really us only a small portion of it. Out house is 2100 sq. ft. and it was quite enough for four of us. Now that it is just the two of us, I could easily lop off a big chunk of it.

Bedroom is about 150, family room is about 350. That is 95% of our use aside from cooking in the kitchen and bathroom use. My son was visiting for a few days so more space was used but that was for four days. We have also accumulated a lot of "stuff" over the years that could go and not be missed.

Whoa! That's the biggest privy I've ever heard of. And a four-holer at that!! Congrats!

My house was just over 750 square feet, one bedroom, one bath, one

When I moved in I had central heat and air installed and I lost 2 feet of that closet space for the fresh air return. Didn't really matter as I couldn't access the full closet with such a narrow door.

Ten years ago I had a hackberry tree removed that opened up my back yard for a 600 square foot addition. This addition includes the room, an 8x10 bathroom, and an 8x10 walk-in closet. This area also includes a linen closet! This area is a combination sewing/craft/ bedroom with a Jefferson Murphy bed; some dealers call them Library Murphy beds. A 10x15 three seasons porch was also part of the pro- ject as well as opening up that closet in the original part of the house. The area above the 2 feet I had lost in that closet when I moved here turned into a perfect, although narrow, linen closet in that 5x7 bathroom.

This project came with a new roof as well a new sidewalk from my yard down to the city sidewalk. I do not regret my decision in the least and I felt like I had lived in a 'tiny house' for the previous

Yeah, first one in sat up wind.

On Sat 10 Jun 2017 12:42:06p, Ed Pawlowski told us...

I have never lived in a really tiny space. Our current co-op is 1500 sq ft. that I consider modest. There are 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, living room, dining room, and small kitchen. The largest bedroom is where we sleep. Each of the other 2 bedrooms we use as personal offices. We don't use the living room or dining room that often, but they are necessary if we want to have company. I'm not sure where we could cut back on space and maintain our lifestyle.

Check out this tiny house. The designer came up a large number of innovative ideas for storage and multi-multi-use objects.

My only comment is that all of the movable and convertible things she came up with work really, really well in a house with no "stuff" in it yet. When I picture it filled with belongings, I foresee lots of things in the way of some of her really inventive ideas.

Let me know if you agree.

That's the advantage of a small living space. 'Stuff' is self limiting although I'll admit to having too many damn books. And maybe a couple more guitars than I really need.

No books, no CDs, no computers, no printer, no guitars, no guns ... Yeah, it is cool looking with nobody living in it.

Agree.

Well, obviously the books, CD's, etc. will go into some of the storage areas she built. A laptop and portable printer (10" W x 2" D x 2" H) don't take up much space. Heck, they've developed robotic printers that are small than a coffee cup:

I think those are issues than anyone who wants to live in a tiny house has to deal with.

What I meant was that she came up with lots of innovative ideas which results in probably more storage and adaptability than many other tiny homes, but utilizing it might be inconvenient.

Take, for example, the access space for the washer dryer. She shows the kitchen cabinet rolling into the bathroom. All well and good. But then she mentions that the bathroom cabinet can still be slid out so you can hang up the clothes you just washed. Pretty cool and well designed, except for the fact that will probably be a coffee maker or other items on the kitchen cabinet that will have to be removed before the bathroom cabinet can be pulled out.

It's things like that that will be an issue with many of the multi-use things she designed. Heck, I can't even sit down at the kitchen table without moving a day or two's worth of mail, a stack of magazines and, right now, a tape measure and screwdriver. :-)

A double decker livestock trailer would have more floor space.

Yeah, but they're damn cold in the winter.

And you shouldn't not expect it...

I have enough clothing to run two weeks without having to do laundry, in the event that becomes necessary. YMMV.

Better quality stuff will buy you more time, but, it's still going to see more use in a confined space. It's a much smaller area, after all.

Heh. Have you ever had the pleasure of living in one of these tiny houses? I attribute them to living in a tiny camper. sq ft might differ slightly, but you have the same issues as you would in the camper. Do you plan to cook outside when it's freezing temps, or ensure you're in a geographical place where it never really snows and ices over? Those are things to consider as well. Since the author lives in MA, they aren't escaping what I like to call, the frozen tundra during the winter. They won't be doing much 'cooking' outside in some of those temps or in some wintery conditions. They'll be doing good to get their car/truck/whatever to start if proper actions weren't taken the night before.

It may work for you. It wouldn't work so well for me. I have various equipment that by itself would consume all the space a 500qt ft dwelling could offer me; even if I got creative. That doesn't include toolboxes, clothing, etc, either. Things I actually need to make a living, you see.

If I can't make a living, not much point in going the greatly overhyped tinyhouse route. Oh, and you have to consider the cost of one of those 'tiny houses'. I think you'd be in for a bit of sticker shock.