Tag Archives: tiny house

Life on the Road? Not for Me

By Claire Posted in Clutter, downsizing, Personal, Retirement, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , ,

I’m still fascinated by women who are spending their retirement years hitting the road in a van or RV, or living in a tiny house with only the minimum of necessities. But I could never be one of them.

Why? I have too many interests. One of them is cooking and baking. I’ve been unable to break the habit of preparing large quantities of food after many years of feeding a large family. But I’ve found that cooking or baking in quantity lets me freeze things so I don’t have to cook or bake as often. However, it requires every bit of the small counter space I have to use my giant mixing bowl, my 11” X 15” baking pan, or my big crockpot; if I’m using two of those three, I could never live with less counter space than I have now. I couldn’t do what I do in a tiny home, much less an RV. No way!

I also love to sew and quilt. I have two sewing areas; the upstairs room is for sewing and serging, and for piecing quilts. The basement, with two large tables pushed together, is where I quilt my quilts, and also cut out clothes. How would I do that in an RV or tiny house? Not happening. There are some women who vacation in their RVs and also sew in them, but they prepare their projects ahead of time at home and just bring the cut pieces, a small iron and a sewing machine along. Waiting back home are their large stashes of fabric along with the areas where they cut everything out ahead of time.

Just about the only interest I have that would work with life on the road is reading. I can imagine filling my tablet with eBooks, which would hardly take up any space. But I’d get bored reading all day. I like a variety of activities each day, not just one.

Could you spend your life on the road, or in a tiny house? If you’ve wondered about it, check out YouTube for some fascinating stories of people who do just that.

Preparing for Smaller Living Quarters

By Claire Posted in downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living, Uncategorized Tagged ,

I read an article that suggested if you’re planning to downsize to a tiny house, you should reduce the possessions in your current home to the bare minimum so that you’ll be acclimated to living in a tiny house before you get there.

On one hand, I can see where that’s true. Living with the bare minimum is going to be a necessity for you. On the other hand, I don’t think anything can really prepare you for going from a large house to a small one. You just have to jump in with both feet and do it.

Once you get there you’ll quickly realize that not all of your furniture will fit, and that you don’t have as much storage as you once did. That’s not a bad thing, though: it’s like being given guidelines for how much you can keep. You can only fit so much in and the rest has to go. So bring in your favorites and keep everything else out in the garage, or in a storage unit if there’s no garage, and then filter through everything.

There’s also no way to prepare for the feel of living in smaller quarters. In some ways, it will be tough. When you’re used to a large kitchen, a small kitchen feels almost claustrophobic at first. You’ll need time to learn to work in it. If you’re used to a huge bedroom, your new cozy one will also feel different. But since most of your time in there is spent asleep, it quickly becomes a non-issue.

Ultimately, these things can’t be experienced until you’re actually there, so I don’t think you can really plan for them. If you’re heading for a tiny house, you might consider renting one first to see if it’s for you.

A Great Reason for Building a Tiny House

By Claire Posted in Debt-Free, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , ,

I’ve posted many stories about tiny houses on this blog. But this is one of the best tiny stories I’ve shared, not because the tiny house is so fantastic (though it’s certainly nice).

The beauty of this particular tiny-house story is that the college student who built this tiny house is using it to save himself a small fortune, which is what it costs to live in a college dorm. (Residence halls can cost five figures a year, depending on where you go to college.) Since he’s debt-free, the money he saves on dorm costs is pure profit.

Since this video was made, he’s begun renting out his tiny house on Airbnb while he tours the U.S. on his motorcycle. So his tiny house is earning an income for him. This young man is one smart guy!

 

Six Reasons Why a Young Family Might Want a Tiny House

By Claire Posted in Debt-Free, downsizing, Simpler Living, Small-House Living Tagged , , , , , , ,

Many of the commenters on this article wonder why a family would want to live in a tiny house. I can think of several reasons why; they all hinge on the fact that doing so would not be on a whim, but because it makes the most financial sense for a family that’s trying to stay afloat financially in an environment where many jobs are disappearing:

  1. Children need stability. If you have to keep moving to find work, it will be stressful on your children. But if you can take your house with you, as you can with a tiny house, they’ll always be able to sleep in their own beds at night.
  2. Living in a tiny house may be too much togetherness for some, but it beats having one parent with a job living in one state while the rest of the family lives in another. This is an increasingly common scenario and means kids only see one parent on the weekends. But a tiny house can be moved near the parent’s job so that the kids see both parents on a daily basis.
  3. Financially strapped families looking to lower their expenses dramatically (to get in balance with lower incomes) find that their expenses are slashed by moving into a tiny house. No more five-figure property taxes, no more high utility bills, no more expensive home maintenance; it makes a huge difference in your bottom line.
  4. A tiny house can be parked on land owned by relatives or friends; if the family pays a little rent for use of the land, they’ll provide extra income for the landowner. If the family can’t pay rent due to job loss, the landowner can help out the family by letting them live on his/her property until they find work again.
  5. As rent prices go up (an ongoing trend), a family with a declining income must struggle to keep a roof over their heads. But the family that buys a tiny home will never have that problem.
  6. The young couple that wants to start a family but can’t afford a mortgage will find that investing $30,000 in a tiny house (less if they do the work themselves) allows them to get started on raising a family when they want to, instead of waiting who-knows-how-long until they can afford a house.

Some commenters ask why the family doesn’t just buy a used R.V. Yes, used R.V.s can be cheaper, but a well-built tiny house will last far longer than an old R.V. that likely has (or will soon develop) a leaky roof, mildew, or cracked water or waste tanks.

Many of the commenters seem to think that moving to a tiny house is something a family would do for the novelty. But a tiny house is a great alternative for anyone who is struggling with unemployment, underemployment or a dying business. It can dramatically reduce shelter expenses until the breadwinner(s) can get back on their feet again. And it sure beats maxing out your credit cards so the whole family can eat on a regular basis!