Living in tiny houses can be a fantastic and freeing experience, but it does come with some lifestyle requirements you should be aware of. For someone who’s always lived in regular-sized houses all throughout their life, adapting to these changes can be a bit difficult. However, unless they can fully embrace these changes, they won’t be able to enjoy the tiny home experience to the fullest.
If you’re someone who’s only lived in normal-sized houses and are planning to shift to this newer way of living, here are 7 things you need to know about tiny houses.
1. Every square foot counts
A tiny house will offer you only a few hundred square feet in floor space, which is very less compared to a usual house or apartment. Thus, you have to make full use of this space. Every square foot of floor space is a luxury for you, and you can’t afford to waste it. And to fully utilize what you have, you must come up with a plan of how you’re going to set things up before you start moving into your tiny house.
2. You need to let go of certain things
Given the limited amount of space you’re going to get, you can be sure that you’ll have to let go of certain belongings when you move into a tiny house. This is possibly one of the hardest things you’ll have to do as you venture into this new lifestyle. You’ll have to sacrifice everything that won’t serve an important purpose at your new tiny home. Thus, you have to decide what you want to keep and what you have to let go of. Try to make more room for useful things and throw away the stuff that you hardly use or touch.
3. Aesthetics and functionality need to go hand in hand
Tiny living requires you to follow a minimalist lifestyle, where aesthetics and functionality need to go hand in hand. This means that while you can get creative with the interior and exterior design of your tiny house, you’ll still need to ensure their functional aspects as well. For instance, if you want to add a table in one corner of the house, it should be used for a variety of purposes, like reading, working, or even dining. You shouldn’t have a table there just to hold a flower vase; that’d be a waste of valuable space.
4. There will never be enough room
No matter how many things you get rid of, you’ll realize that you’ll never have enough room or space for most of your stuff. Hence, you’ll have to get creative with the storage spaces as well. If you find a hollow space anywhere, whether it’s under your bed, sofa, table, or someplace else, you should consider turning it into a storage cabinet. The key is to utilize every bit of space that you can find.
5. Keep things small and light if you want to move around
If you plan on adding wheels to your tiny house and moving it around, you have to keep it small and light. Usually, tiny mobile houses should be around 500 square feet and weigh no more than 10,000 pounds. The lighter and smaller the house, the easier it is to carry it around.
6. Having guests stay over could be a problem
Making room for more people can get extremely difficult. Hence, the idea of having guests over to stay at your place can be quite daunting. In case you can’t fit them all inside the house (which is quite likely), you might consider setting up tents on the porch or area in front of the house.
7. There will be a lot of critics
There will be a lot of people who’ll criticize your decision to move into a tiny house. They’ll present strong arguments to support their criticism, and you’ll feel like they’re probably right. However, don’t let them get to you. If you want to move into a tiny house and opt for the tiny lifestyle, it’s completely your decision. You shouldn’t let them influence you into thinking that you’ve made a wrong choice. If anything, you should do your best to prove them wrong. So even if anyone criticizes you for your choices, you shouldn’t pay any heed to them.
Once you’re able to accept all these changes in lifestyle and living conditions, you’ll be set to start your new life in your new tiny house.
