Tiny houses

 

People who know me know that it is my dream to travel and see the whole world. But I have another dream… having my own place again. And not just a random place, no my own tiny house. Self-designed.

 

Now that I’ve had the experience of two years living out of my backpack, a tiny house is for sure a huge place for me. So, a tiny house because I know I don’t need much and because it feels nice and cosy and has more freedom feeling for me.
A tiny house, a place where I can return, that I can call home, where I have some stuff and especially where it feels familiar. A place where I can pull myself back and relax. Because I also need that once in a while.

 

So what is a tiny house?

It is a growing phenomenon and you see them more and more. The concept “Tiny House movement” comes from America.
It is a small house that is built on a trailer, it is more than a caravan, it is a complete functional house but then small-sized, tiny. Most of the time it is the primary house of the residents.
Maybe it’s mostly about the philosophy that we can be happy with ‘less’, only living with what we really need. It is not especially the same as minimalism but it has some similarities. Minimalism can still be in a big place which is not the same as ‘tiny’ of course. what applies to both is that it is about only having what you need and what you find important. A tiny house is also about space, how little space do you need to live a happy life without extra ballast. This extra ballast, what a lot of people have too much of, often takes a lot of energy without you knowing it.
But a tiny house is also very personal. They are often designed especially for the person that lives in it. So the space and the stuff in the tiny house are made to fit perfectly to the needs of the resident.

 

Sizes of a tiny house?

The maximum sizes are (these are the European sizes but they are quite similar as the American ones); 12 meters long, 2,55 meter wide and 4 meters high (this is from top till the bottom of the wheels). With a maximum weight of 3500 kg.
You can buy a special tiny house trailer which is a little lower than a normal trailer so you can create more living space and a sleeping loft for example.
 
I understand that often the 12 meters is way too long. First of all, it is not easy driving with a long vehicle like that and second if you make it that long you will be increasing the weight a lot and most likely go over the maximum weight. I would recommend (from everything I heard and read about it, not my own experience yet) to make one from about 8 meters long.
If you have a tiny house from 8 by 2.5 meters you have around 20 square meters living space and you can make this slightly bigger by making a nice loft.
Some tiny houses have sides that can expand to make a bigger inside area.
Optical you can make it look bigger from the inside by using the right colours, check out my blog about this.

 

How many people can fit in one tiny house?

This depends totally on you. I have met people that lived alone, a lot of couples but also a family of four. They all are very happy with the way they live. As used as we mostly are to more space, you have to learn to live in a tiny space especially if you are with more people. But to be honest when I saw a tiny house from the inside for the first time, it was the tiny house of the family of four, I was surprised how much space they had!
Of course, it also depends on the climate you live in. If it is nice weather most of the time and you live mostly outside, small will feel different than if you only have your inside space to stay.

 

Why a tiny house?

Well first of all because of the reason what I mentioned above in ‘what is a tiny house’. Not having extra ballast and living just with what you need. This gives a lighter feeling and more freedom. 

A tiny house is a not especially a goal, it is the means of a life you wish to have. For example for me, I like to travel a lot but I also want my own space. But not all the extra ballast. A little bit more than my own backpack would be nice. I need a safe environment that is completely me. In a big house, I get ‘lost’ after I come back from a long trip and that feels so empty, while a tiny house is just enough and feels like my second skin.
But this, to be honest, this is what I expect it to be, I don’t have my tiny yet. I have lived in a small apartment (35 square meters) and even that there was space I hardly used. I gathered a lot of stuff there and I didn’t use most of it. But unconsciously somehow it kept using my energy. When I lived only out of my backpack, with less stuff, I felt much freer and ‘light’.
So I want a tiny house to have something that I can live in that feels like my own area that is a little bigger than my backpack where I only have what I really need.

 

Useful space

Important in a tiny house is that you are creative with space. If you have a loft you can make storage under the stairs. Use every centimetre of your house. Sometimes you can have two purposes for that space or that object. You often see beds that are hidden under couches or fold out of the wall. I personally am more fan of the sleeping loft so that your bed is always ready, but a foldable bed for guests is a good option.
 

Some ideas

The three things that I’ve seen in tiny houses that surprised me a lot:

  1. A nice double bed that you could pull out under the couch. Behind the couch was a cabinet so that made the space deeper, where the rest of the bed was hidden when it’s not in use.
  2. A double cabinet. A cabinet that you could pull forward, turn around 180 degrees and push back on the original position. Both sides had different stuff inside. They had one side for hobby stuff and the other side was a bookcase.
  3. Dining tables. You don’t use them the whole time and they are quite big, but you can hide them everywhere. I have seen small wall tables folded out to a complete full-size dining table. I have seen them folded behind a cabinet and I have even seen a big drawer turning into the top of the dining table.

So also in these things invite your creativity and use every space centimetre.
Do you want to live in a tiny house but still to much stuff read my blog about decluttering your life.

 

My dad is already enthusiastic to help me build my own tiny house, and soon I will start designing it; so the only thing left for this dream to materialize is to save some money.

 
 

*On the picture me and my brother with our first tiny house…