Living Small: Tiny-House Lessons Everyone Can Use, From People Who Live in Them
Downsizing to a tiny house isn't for everyone—no more spare bedrooms, walk-in closets, or the space to host a large dinner party. But for those who have chosen to forgo the McMansion for a living space that fits on a flat-bed trailer, life is simpler, finances aren't as tight, and traveling with all of your belongings is very possible. For crowded city-dwellers, the under-300-square-foot home is not far from reality. But if you're currently reading this from your bonus room/sunroom/home office/large sectional sofa, you might be thinking, These people are nuts geniuses.
We could all do with a little less stuff, right? And while we might not be ready to downsize in quite the same way tiny-home owners have, we could all take some lessons from the people who live in homes where every square inch has a purpose. Click through for lessons and photos from three women who call a tiny house their family's home, and prepare to be amazed at how well designed, laid-out, and organized these tiny-but-mighty homes are.
1/17Living Altogether Comfortably
When Macy Miller first started designing her own Tiny House in December 2011, she was single, but anticipated it might be a home for two down the road. Nearly four and a half years later, Macy shares her 232-square-foot-home with her partner James, their two kids (the family has grown since this photo was taken!), and their Great Dane (!!!). This June will mark three years living in their Tiny House in Idaho, and Macy says living small aligns perfectly with their lifestyle choices.
2/17A House on Wheels
We're guessing this doesn't look like any mobile home you've seen before. Macy's home is built on a trailer, but she and her partner don't anticipate moving much. The ability to pack up and travel whenever is a big draw for some Tiny House families, though.
You can read about Macy's journey to building and living in her Tiny House and see more pictures of the construction and finished product on her blog, minimotives.com.
3/17The Art of Downsizing
"I feel calmer with less things so [downsizing] wasn't a huge challenge," Macy says. "It is hard to part with nice things that you buy with hard-earned money when you only get pennies on the dollar but it was so freeing emotionally!" For a lot of us, getting rid of the things we even know are unnecessary can be hard (looking for some purging tips? Check this out).
In some ways, having a limited amount of storage space forces you to prioritize the things you want to keep in your space. And taking inventory of all your things regularly reminds you of all the stuff you've been accumulating. "It's far easier to collect things naturally over the course of time than it is to get rid of them naturally," Macy notes. "Providing lots of scheduled events to downsize is necessary; we do 'spring cleaning' three to four times a year and have major downsize/donate parties."
4/17What to Not Compromise On
Yep, that's a full-size fridge you're looking at. For Macy, mini-size appliances weren't really an option, so she prioritized certain items and worked them into the design. "I want my home to feel normal and standard which is hard to do with convertible 'things,'" she says. "I just choose to be very careful about what items I bring in my house, and I make sure they will perform their task well and maybe work for more than one thing."
Even in a larger home, having furniture that serves multiple purposes is a smart move. Check out our round-up of eight versatile pieces of furniture that are worth the investment.
5/17Attention to Details
One thing you'll notice in all three of these Tiny Houses: They treat wall space like the valuable resource it is. Anyone with minimal kitchen cabinet storage can take advantage of hanging storage, like open shelves, hooks, and even mounted baskets. There are some things that can't be hung, or that you don't want on public display—Tupperware, for one—but for the things that are shiny or pretty and easily hang from hooks or knobs, you can clear out a lot of drawer and cabinet space by moving things onto the walls.
6/17High-End Design on a Dime
One design bonus when you're decorating a smaller space: flooring, fixtures, and upholstery for 200 square feet of will be a lot cheaper than those same products for 2,000 square feet. Which means you can justify going for the higher-end—and more expensive—options for both construction and design without blowing your budget.
So for Macy, having a smaller space didn't limit her ability to design and decorate to her taste; if anything, the challenge of a smaller space enhanced her creativity and enabled her to finish her space the way she wanted. "You [get] exactly what you want without the 'value engineering' that typically gets done on bigger places," she says. "Most of my finishes were actually reclaimed though—also something that is easier to do in small quantities."
7/17Temporarily Tiny
This is the former Tiny House of Hari Berzens, her husband, and their two kids. They designed and built their 168-square-foot Tiny House in Florida before moving it here, to a 3-acre plot of land in Virginia where they anchored down the house to stay permanently. Hari and her family lived in their Tiny House for a little over four years while they built a larger (1,400 square feet) home on the same property.
Why live in a Tiny House instead of an apartment or smaller house, you may ask? Because now, Hari and her husband are living mortgage-free in their "full-size" home. That's right, by living in a tiny home (that they also built and owned without a mortgage), the family was able to build the bigger home they wanted without going into debt.
8/17Full House
If just thinking about living with your own family in an under-200-square-foot space gives you anxiety, you're not alone. Tiny House family members don't have the luxury of going off to each of their own rooms and closing the door, so they have to adjust, both their mentality and their habits and activities. But cabin fever can set in for anyone, no matter the size of the space you're sharing with your roommates, partner, or family.
"The best part of limited personal space is it forces one outdoors," Hari says. "We live outside just as much as inside, and there is plenty of room for everyone outside." Whether "outside" is a bustling city or a garden in your backyard, it's always smart to venture out and not become a shut-in, no matter how amazingly comfortable and spacious your home may be.
9/17A Place for Everything
Another tip we could all benefit from following? Making sure everything gets put away. "We definitely had to keep on top of putting things away," Hari says. "Each of us had our own 'junk' drawer, so when tidying up, we could quickly file scattered things into the right spot." And just like Macy said, Hari and her family also would regularly sort through their belongings to get rid of things that had little value or purpose. And guess what? They still do that even now that they're living in their larger home.
Hari follows the same guidelines for streamlining her wardrobe: She admits that since she works from home most of the time, it's not necessary for her to have a large wardrobe. Even so, "I found downsizing my wardrobe quite liberating, actually," she says. "I get rid of anything that doesn’t make me feel good when I wear it." We hear that!
10/17A Focus on Function
Every cook dreams of having a spacious kitchen with a large island and extensive cabinet storage. Few of us actually get that kind of space, though, and as you can see, Hari makes it work in a kitchen we're betting is smaller than yours. And she actually prefers less storage, even now, living in her larger house. How? "I am a big fan of narrow shelves," she says. "We line the kitchen walls with shelves, so that we can see what we have. I don’t care for deep cabinets because it’s too easy to lose stuff and forget what we have."
Hari also says she likes keeping dishes and glassware on open shelves where they are not only easily accessed and stored, but also serve as some pretty decoration. "We got rid of all gadgets and rely on simple, quality tools to do our cooking."
11/17Little People Do Eventually Grow
When Hari and her family moved into their Tiny House, her kids were 6 and 8, and at that point, the whole family could sit on the couch to watch a movie. By the time the kids were 10 and 12, things were a lot tighter. "We didn’t account for their bodies getting bigger and it was quite noticeable in such a small space," she says.
The kids also had a hard time downsizing their toys and other belongings when the family first made the move. {Hey, most 8-year-olds don't understand what a mortgage is, so why would they understand the benefits to moving into a smaller home?} But Hari and her husband made the transition as easy as possible for them: "It was hard for our kids to let go of some of their toys, so we gave them their own area at our yard sales. They set their own prices and collected their own money. We helped them understand that by letting the toys go, they would have money to do something fun, like going rollerskating or to the movies. We helped them understand that experiences are more fun than toys." Not bad advice, right?
You can read about Hari and her family's journey from big to small, and back to big again, at her website, Tinyhousefamily.com.
Meg MacG12/17Everything's Bigger in Texas
Except this Tiny House, that is. North Texas–based Meg MacG, her husband Brand, and their 4-year-old son probably have had the most dramatic downsize of these three Tiny House families. "Our 172 square-foot tiny house (plus about 56 square feet in the loft) would fit inside the master bathroom and closet of our old [3,200-square-foot] Big House. Quite a difference!"
Meg and her family initially pursued building a Tiny House on wheels as a means to travel around North America before their son was tied to a normal school schedule. Their end-goal is to eventually settle in Washington State, where they'll live in the Tiny House while building a more permanent, and slightly larger, home.
Meg MacG13/17A Work in Progress
Meg and her family only moved into their Tiny House in October of 2015, and they're still working on cosmetic and design elements in the house now. In a space this small, it's easier to finalize things once you interact with the space in a real way, and see where improvements could be made, Meg notes. When looking for Tiny House-appropriate home goods, Meg and Brand sought out items that would not only complement their personal taste but also serve a purpose. And often that meant customizing their own products. Not a surprise here, but one major shopping resource for living small and making the most of your space? Ikea.
Meg MacG14/17Free to Wander
You might think decorating a smaller space could be limiting, even in the options available to you, but for Meg, it actually opened up a whole new world of decor options for her. "If anything, I'm more worried about getting bored and wanting to redo the whole place like I used to do with the Big House, though thankfully it would cost about a tenth for the [Tiny House]," she says.
Meg and her husband's bed loft houses a king-sized mattress—and windows to boot!—and since the house has a steeply pitched roof, they have a bit more head-room than if the roof had been flatter. They also made room in the design plan for their son to have his own room. It's at one end of the house, and is four feet deep and the width of the trailer their Tiny House was built on. Not huge, but perfect for a little boy. Although it's not an option most of us have, it's clear from these Tiny House owners that designing and building your own home affords you the luxury to completely customize it to your needs.
Meg MacG15/17Tiny House, Tiny Bathroom
Meg says the bathroom was the hardest room to make "tiny," mostly because her 6'4" husband is not exactly the average-size customer these products are designed for. And unfortunately, redesigning a bathroom is not the easiest fix to make once it's built. "Have the tallest/largest person test out everything in the house before you break out the drill and screws," Meg says. "It’s much easier, more aesthetically pleasing, and definitely more cost-effective to fix mistakes before they happen!"
The family's bathroom is split into two rooms (composting toilet in one, and a wine-barrel shower in the other), and even in a small space like this, they were able to implement some personality, like with this fun narwhal and unicorn wallpaper.
Meg MacG16/17Efficient and Attractive
In the kitchen, you can notice some of the practical-yet-pretty design choices Meg and Brand made, like their mini copper sink, the butcher block countertop, and a vintage-inspired accordion lamp. If your kitchen lacks the counter space you want, let us suggest the Russian doll-like cabinet hack this family has come up with. The cabinet under the window is actually hollow, and houses an Ikea island inside it. The island can be pulled out, and with its fold-up countertop leaf, this kitchen suddenly has three times the amount of cook-prep surface without having a permanent island footprint in the tiny kitchen area. Talk about an Ikea hack!
Meg MacG17/17Define Your Space
When talking about their Tiny House, Meg speaks about each area, or "room" within the house as having a specific function and use (or two!) for her family. To the right of the front door is a reading/game nook, outfitted with cushions on top of a cedar chest where the family stores their shoes. The full-size grey sofa sits on top of more storage and across from where their iMac is typically mounted for family movie nights. No matter the size of your home, it's wise for the furniture and decor in each space to define its use for a cohesive and multifunctional home. And when your home is Tiny, it's pretty necessary to use every square inch of livable space for the things that are important to you.
To keep up with Meg and Brand's Tiny House updates, check out their blog, Tinyhouse43.com.
