Whatever your views, one thing we noticed is that just about everything about tiny living will challenge you to think differently about the space you live in, which is a big deal.
After rent or mortgage payments come bills. There’s nothing pleasant about them, except maybe when they’re pleasantly lower than you expected. But tiny houses use far less energy than you’re used to. With less space to heat, cool and light up, you could even be like Jess from Canberra whose dad noticed no change in their bills when they hooked her little home up in his backyard.
The attic and garage are luxuries you’ll need to say goodbye to. In their place? It’s your new friend innovation. Tiny houses don’t miss a single opportunity to squeeze a bit of storage out of something else. Your stairs are now drawers (or are your drawers stairs?), your walls are shelves. Your bed is a couch and a horizontal storage unit – unless you keep it in the roof. In which case your roof is a bed.
How many times have you thought about buying something and thought ‘oh no there is literally (and by literally we literally mean literally) no room in my house for that.’ It’s a pretty everyday part of tiny house life. Minimalism isn’t a choice, it’s thrust upon you like a bowl cut before the first day of school. Which helps you think more deeply about the things you really need.
Toilets take up a lot of space for something you only sit on for a small portion of your day (some more than others, but the point remains). Dedicating a whole room to one feels a little indulgent. Why not hide it under the basin, or into a window bench? It’ll only feel weird the first few times.
The tiny house scoffs at houses that have living rooms as well as sitting rooms, or one dining room and one slightly fancier dining room. In the room where you can sit, dine and live at your own discretion, there’s something for even your most unaccommodating friend.
Bad neighbours, be gone. Kind of. You’re the one who’s moving, but when The Joneses get too hard to keep up with, it’s nice to know you can take yourself somewhere new – as long as your tiny house has reasonably-sized wheels. Why this isn’t the status quo is a mystery to us. Everyone needs a neighbour who’ll, in the immortal words of Andre 3000, lend them some sugar.
Saving up for years to buy a place that you spend many, many more years paying off has managed to weasel its way into something we call ‘a part of life’. Tiny houses turn this concept on its head – if a precursory search on Gumtree for tiny houses tells us anything, it’s that a decent home deposit could buy you a decent tiny house instead.
Replace the challenge of paying off a mortgage with the challenge of finding an appropriate speck of land to put one on and tiny living might just change your life.
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