A ladybug on the redwood siding of our Tiny House. (Quote by Isaac Newton)
It’s taken us awhile to get to the place that we are today.
Over the years, we have lived in a variety of homes, from a studio apartment of 130 square feet to a home of over 2,000 square feet. Before we moved into our Tiny House we lived in a space of 503 square feet (not including a 345 square foot unfinished basement). Although a substantial downsize from our previous apartment of 1200 square feet, it still felt too large for us. When we actually paid attention to our usage of space, we realized we only needed a kitchen, a bathroom, and a bedroom – the rest was wasted space which we filled up with unnecessary “stuff”.
We’re going tiny for many reasons, including:
- to help simplify our lives
- to create a more proportionate balance of household size to space
- to lower utility/energy costs
- to use as little resources as possible (both in the structure and through our daily living practices)
- to save more money
- to create more time & energy
- to reduce clutter
- to better represent our values/beliefs
- to give us more flexibility in location of our home
.
Another Big Reason :: Examining what is ‘enough’
In the United States, the size of our homes have expanded over the years, despite the fact that household size has decreased.
In 2013 the average house size was 2,600 square feet for an average of 2.6 people. That’s ~1000 square feet per person!
In a world of economic and environmental decline, not to mention the moral implications inherent in such blatant representations of wealth in a majority-poor world, these statistics are appalling to us. After thirty years of continually expanding home sizes, at some point we need to ask ourselves the question: When is enough going to be enough?
