When we first moved out when we were 18, we moved into a very tiny house. Technically, it was not a “tiny home,” but to us it was.
It was extremely small home at around 400 square feet (less than that if you don’t count the basement), but it was cheap, had a backyard and was located very close to the college I was about to start attending.
Also, as a reminder, last year Jordann also posted about how she used to live in a 400 square foot house. I also recently published the interview I Live in a 175 Square Foot Tiny Home – Sailboat Living. I highly recommend you read these two posts!
I recently became interested in tiny homes again when I was watching a documentary on Netflix (we’re starting to find cable less and less worthwhile) called Tiny: A Story About Living Small. This documentary followed a man building his very own tiny home, and the documentary also showed others who lived in their own tiny homes.
I find tiny homes very interesting. They make great use of their space, they are usually very cute, and they are very affordable. Even with the positives below though, I don’t think it’s something I could do.
For me, the negatives greatly outweigh the positives. I think we could do something smaller than what we currently have, but a 200 square feet tiny home is just too extreme for me.
Below are the positives and negatives of living in a tiny house:
Pro: Your housing expenses will be cheaper with a tiny home.
The average tiny home costs less than $30,000 to build. You can also buy a tiny home for very cheap. That price before includes the exterior and interior of the home. That is very cheap! That is much cheaper than the average home.
However, I do think you have to remember about where you are going to place this tiny home. Yes, you can buy land for cheap, but land can also be very expensive in other areas.
Your home will also be cheaper in that your utility bills will be cheaper. It’s much cheaper to heat or cool down a 200 square foot house than a 2,000 square foot house.
Repairs, maintenance and replacements will also most likely be much cheaper in a tiny home.
Con: I think it would be difficult with children and pets.
We don’t have children yet, but we would like to have them in the future. With all of the people I’ve seen and read about who live in tiny homes, I don’t think there’s been a single one who had children or pets.
I think it would just be very difficult with a family. People need their space… Or, maybe that’s just me?
However, I think if it were just one or two people living in a tiny home, then it would probably be much more doable. When we lived in our 400 square foot house (let’s keep in mind that we haven’t lived there in a very long time), it wasn’t completely bad. The size didn’t really bother us at all at the time. I think it really helped that there were multiple small rooms to escape too, and there was also a front and backyard and porch.
Pro: You’ll spend less money on material items.
I am a bit of a hoarder. Just ask Wes and he will probably want to cry just thinking about how much stuff I have.
My closet is jam packed to the ceiling with stuff, and then I also have things in the guest bedroom and in our basement.
Moving into a tiny home would probably be a lifesaver in that I would be forced to think about each purchase I make. Since there’s only so much room in a tiny home, you will buy fewer items.
Con: Having guests over won’t be comfortable.
I remember watching in the documentary when the main person being filmed had guests over.
He invited his family over to see the home he just built and it was extremely cramped. It was almost like everyone had to bend over in order for their to be room for everyone.
Now, I’ll be honest, I don’t throw raging parties or anything, but I would like the option of having people over when I can. This is especially true since we plan on moving to a new state and we would like people to visit us occasionally.
Pro: You may be able to bring the tiny house when traveling.
Okay, this doesn’t apply to every single tiny house, but there are some that are small enough where you can actually travel with it.
You can bring your tiny home to where you want it to be, and you may even be able to do some road trips in it as well.
This makes the list of possible places to live pretty much endless.
Con: Not a lot of personal space.
This is no surprise. They are called tiny homes for a reason. According to the documentary, tiny homes are homes that are 200 square feet or less. That is extremely small.
That’s smaller than my bedroom, and my bedroom is not huge by any means.
Since I work from home 24/7 now, I would like to have more space since I’m at home more. I think I would get a little crazy if I was in the same exact room hour after hour, day after day.
Would you ever live in a tiny home? Why or why not? How small could you go? How big is your home currently?
Also, if you live in a tiny home (less than 250 square feet preferably), I’d love to hear from you and possibly conduct an interview for this blog. Please send me an email if you are interested.
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you can travel with the tiny house? that is really cool
Yup!
That house is pretty cute, although certainly not enough space for us. When our first daughter was born we lived in a small 2 bedroom flat which was bigger than the house you talk about in this post.
If I was a single person then I probably would consider it. Especially as the costs are so low.
Do many people actually live in tiny houses like this or is it the minority?
– Ricky
It’s just a minority, but I do think it’s becoming more and more popular.
I’m a few months late on this post but I watched the documentary and it was INSPIRING! I’m not sure if I would purchase a tiny home because of the future children and puppies I want but I would DEFINITELY love to rent one for a few months and get the experience of living in one.
I wonder if there are any websites that focus on renting tiny homes.
Kind of like when you rent peoples apartments or second home when you go out of the country versus staying at a hotel
I would not like to live in a tiny house. I think I would feel very hemmed in. The negatives for me would outweigh any positives. It might work for a tiny bit, but I believe it would get old very fast.
I agree!
Wow, that’s tiny, no way I could live so small. I like a minimum three bed two bath kind of place with spacious indoor and outdoor living for entertaining purposes which is what we live in now. When we decide to have a second child we’ll probably want something bigger though. I think a tiny house could work for someone who was single and spent a large amount of time away from their home or used it just to sleep in.
I agree. I think it would be best for someone who wasn’t home all the time, and for single people.
Cool. A tiny house that can travel around is really awesome. I wish I and my wife could try it even for a day. It would surely give us a blast and a way to having a quality time together.
I think you can rent them! 🙂
Our current house is 1100 sqft and it’s a bit bigger than we really need most of the time. We were totally fine in our 850sqft apartment before this, and weekends when we were together in my 400sqft studio before that.
We could definitely go smaller, but it would depend what it’s like outdoors since that’s where we end up spending a lot of our time.
Yes, I think a lot of it would depend on where the tiny home is placed. If the area doesn’t have fantastic weather year round, I think it would be very difficult.
Sure, I’d love to live in a tiny house. If it was just me and our Black Lab, I would prefer about 600sq ft. If it my wife, our son, and our lab, we’d prefer somewhere between 800-1000 sqft (depending on layout)…….which in my opinion isn’t a “tiny” house. Our current home is about 1400 sqft, and it’s all the space we can stand…..although, it would be nice if the layout was different.
We also watched the Netflix documentary, and wish that there had been more about how other (existing) tiny house dwellers lived…..because there are millions of options. The main character in the documentary was underwhelming to us.
-Bryan
Yes, the main character in the documentary was even slightly depressing. Am I the only one who felt that way? I feel like everyone else was much more positive about the whole situation.
I saw the documentary. I agree that the main character was depressing. The whole premise of tiny houses is weird to me- how is this different from just living in a trailer? Why are trailers maligned but tiny houses celebrated? The whole thing feels a little elitist to me.
Our house is 1300 sq ft for two adults, one toddler, and one dog. This seems plenty big to me. We are able to host a lot of big parties and so forth. I can imagine adding more kids and still having enough space for everyone.
Tiny houses came up at a kids birthday party I attended recently. Nobody wanted to live in one full time, though. But most of the moms wanted a Tiny House to park in the backyard of their Big House. They wanted one as a retreat. It would always stay neat and clean and no children would be allowed to enter.
I live in NYC, so I’m used to small spaces, but I couldn’t do 200 sq ft with more than just myself. I’m pretty minimalist, but even I have too much crap to share that small a space.
Yes, I have way too much stuff for it to realistically fit into a tiny home!
Now that I have two kids there is no way I could live in 200 sq-ft… 800 sq-ft would probably be about as small as I would really want to go.
My current house is 1900 sq-ft (it also has about another 1000 sq-ft unfinished basement too) and is bigger than we really need, but it was my grandmother’s house and we were able to buy it for all cash. The utility costs are reasonable and the schools are solid. So we probably won’t be moving for a while.
I probably wouldn’t move if I were you either. Sounds great!
That is one house I’d like to try. I mean, tiny and minimal is all the rage nowadays, so why not 🙂 However, its not something I would do for a long stretch of time.
Yeah, I think it would be difficult to make a 200 square foot home a permanent home. I’d get tired of it! They are cute though 🙂
My partner and I shared an apartment not much bigger than this for a couple of years. Eventually the space becomes a huge issue as you literally have no room to place basic items like a bin or washing stand. On the plus side: It was Cheap! And I can imagine being able to take this house with you would be awesome.
Yes, I think the main plus would be how cheap it is! I need more space though like you said.
My husband and I lived in a 400 square foot basement when we got married. It wasn’t so bad, but beware that the food smells from cooking can saturate your bed sheets (esp since we cook Asian food)! 🙂
Haha that is funny!
That documentary is everywhere lately. I need to watch it. I feel like I live in a tiny home now- compared to today’s standards anyway… But at 1500 square feet I can’t complain! Hehe.
Yes, watch it!
I love tiny homes and met the people who filmed the documentary about their tiny home journey in Colorado. I live in a 495 sqf. condo and I think that’s pretty small. It’s just perfect. I have seriously thought about buying a tiny cabin and an acre of land in Breckenridge. I’m actually pretty serious about that idea…will keep you posted.
Yes, you should do it! Sounds amazing!
i would absolutely do it…..IF i wasn’t planning on having children, wanted to live in the middle of nowhere, and never wanted house guests. that is not the case, at all. it is a neat idea, though!
Haha I agree!