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Would you/Could you live in a tiny house if it meant no mortgage?


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My husband and I have been in love with this idea for a long time...less is definitely more. I think a small space forces you outside more (which we think is good) but in a cold climate we may get cabin fever a little worse when it's particularly cold. LOVE LOVE LOVE it, though! It's a ton of fun planning the house to be the most efficient use of space. Plus, when a house is small, you can afford to do some expensive "extras" that you wouldn't be able to afford if you were outfitting a huge house. Quality over quantity.

Huge bedrooms nowadays are my biggest beef. IMHO bedrooms are for lying prone in, not running laps. :)

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In all seriousness, we could probably live reasonably comfortably in half the space we have now. (currently 1800 square feet for two adults and two small boys) Major considerations: we live in Arizona, so .. going outside is not always a practical option, esp. in the summer. My main thoughts on extreme small space living, other than the "can't.breathe.must.get.air" aspect of it, is that I can't imagine living in that space when someone (or everyone) has a cold. Ick. I believe bedrooms need windows, and natural light. We currently have four bedrooms, and as long as child #3, if we have one, is also a boy, I don't see why two bedrooms wouldn't suffice.

 

The layout of the home would have to be extremely well-planned, and of course storage solutions (to prevent visual clutter in small spaces). For instance, I wouldn't be willing to get rid of every book we have just to have a "clean, uncluttered look," but I might consider closed-bookshelves/bookcases if we had to live in a much smaller space.

 

My preference, if we did have a smaller home, would be for small bedrooms and larger communal space. Right now we live in a suburban home with what might be called wasted space ... the master bedroom is 1.5 - 2x as big as it needs to be, and the master bath also. We could do with 1 bathroom, though I'd prefer at least 1.5 for those times when everyone needs to go at the same time. ;) So 2 bedrooms, a large open living/dining/cooking area, and a bath and a half would do nicely, as long as we cut some things and have sufficient storage (a garage? yard storage unit) for the other things. Under 400 square feet, though? Yeah, no. As an experiment, sure. Or even in crazy Japanese high rise buildings... but willingly, when there is plenty of space to build/breathe? I just don't see the point.

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I've enjoyed reading everyone's responses :) I wasn't particularly impressed with the house itself (in the video). I remember reading a blog on another board (MDC) about a small family who had a tiny apartment in NYC. I liked the way that was laid out much better....it seemed to have quite a few windows.

 

We've lived in smaller places than where we are now. I think we have like 1800 SF here (we rent). We had the same amount in our last house but we had less living space (we had an extra bedroom).

 

Our condo a few years ago was 1064 sf...we had 5 kiddos at the time and it nearly drove me insane.

 

I think for me, it's not so much the space as it is the stuff in the space. I was going through my house today and wondering what I could truly live without as far as "stuff". We have a closet in our hallway that houses that extra carp that you really don't even realize you have. There are some puzzles, some craft supplies (yarn and such), the attachments for our carpet cleaner, extra picture frames and so on. It's those types of things that drive me nuts! I would love to use that closet for our clothes hampers but I don't know where I'd put the other stuff...and I'm not sure if I should get rid of most of it or not?

 

Anyway.....I think going smaller is good but within reason and relative to your situation :)

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I think for me, it's not so much the space as it is the stuff in the space. I was going through my house today and wondering what I could truly live without as far as "stuff".

 

Anyway.....I think going smaller is good but within reason and relative to your situation :)

 

:iagree: Absolutely the truth!! I am in a phase where I'm wondering if we could live without a LOT of what we own... at least, we could cut down on things that aren't essential or that we don't truly love. I get to a point where our house feels cramped, but as I said before, there's no reason we need a bigger house. We need to make better use of our space and organize better, if anything.

 

I do think a lot of people just automatically go for the bigger house at a certain life stage, without really considering what it means or if they truly need or even want it.

 

On a semi-related note... when we play Life, I drive DH and DS nuts. I insist on a house rule that you don't *have* to upgrade to the bigger house when the board says so. Because I just don't want to sometimes. :D

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I live in 1100 sq home with 7 people. I consider that living in a tiny home. I haven't figured out the not having stuff. I've got rid of a ton when we downsized, but I still have too much for our space. Part of it is that I didn't get rid of our big furniture. I have a few nice pieces--such as a dinner room table that seats 12-14. Our space would be bigger if that wasn't in it, but I love being able to have people over. We also have a small patio that I use a folding table to sometimes seat children.

 

More than half our space is bedroom/laundry/bathroom space. Three bedrooms---one for hubby and I, one for two boys, one for three girls. We live with 1 1/2 bathrooms. Over-all I like the space. We do have a garage that stores lots of stuff---bikes, food, books, games, christmas decorations, extra freezer.

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Our previous home was smaller (1500sq ft vs 1800) and had no garage...and yet we had the most fantastic built in closets in each room (an entire wall). I think a small house that is intelligently designed (the architect of this house was an apprentice to Frank Lloyd Wright) can pull off MUCH smaller spaces, but so much of what passes for "design" these days is atrocious.

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I probably could with 3 kids. The one downside is there would be absolutely no privacy for husband & wife :001_huh:. That could be a smidgen awkward.

 

The one pre-requisite I would have is land & secure fencing, elsewise, no. Thats the trouble we are facing here, the stumps need to be replaced, but we also have to work on the fence (our massive dog is an acrobat, DH has been thinking of borrowing the commercial video camera his work has (for being able to slow footage down), to use to get a shot of Roxy going through the fence, its literally a piece of performance art. Our other dog is 2/3's the size and can't get through, but this dog takes a flying run, leaps into the air and at the same time as shes leaping, she spins, contorts and makes her spinning way through the dog fencing that should not physically be able to happen (its like a broken chicken spin) does the full 360 leap and lands on the other side on all fours. I went a bit bogan the other day (after she came back with more surprises the other day) we have no fencing left (except dog fencing, and thats obviously so useful :001_huh: ) so I went and attached bird netting around the fence. Its secured tightly at top and bottom, but loosely through the middle, thus making it nearly immpossible to rip,scratch, chew her way through, so far (3 days later) its working....it looks impossibly trashy though, we'll have to replace it next month. Probably put latticing up (can grow beans up there too, then.)

 

Once we get the yard secured, stumps fixed, we'll be outside a lot more. I couldn't handle a small home without secure fencing/privacy though, I'm a big privacy person. Its do-able, but at my kids ages, and with their current dramas, it would probably drive us impossibly loopy though. We currently live in a "small" house, not tiny, but small compared to the average aussie house, and parts of it were added on without thinking about the common areas (its a farmers settlement house, so really just meant for a husband & wife living simply, but they added a few other rooms on (study, 2 other bedrooms, opened certain areas, added a sunroom) so the layout of the house is very awkward, they took away the walk in pantry to add more walking room (a walk-in pantry would of been more useful), the bathroom is also the utility room, thus making it a side-shift squish "hall" to walk through to get to the shower/toilet. And the "lounge" is a very skinny small "L" shaped thing. Even adding DH's single armchair in there impossibly crowds the room, the kids share a room for the moment and theres no closet, if we added a closet, there would be no room to walk (thus they have all their clothes in a linen closet outside their room, and use a utility closet out the back for linen.

 

It would certainly make you keep on the essentials, which would be good for a natural curriculum hoarder :lol: I think the privacy issues would just be a bit too much. Husband & Wife need an area thats private that they can be alone together ;)

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I am in a phase where I'm wondering if we could live without a LOT of what we own... at least, we could cut down on things that aren't essential or that we don't truly love.

 

What I wish were available was a service where you could borrow certain household items from time to time. Kind of like ZipCar but with small appliances and other kitchen stuff, tools, and so on.

 

We've moved a LOT over the almost 14 years we've been married and during various moves, I've gotten rid of a bunch of stuff that I hardly ever used (especially during the move where we downsized from ~1200 to ~650 sq ft.) But then occasionally I will regret getting rid of a certain item. That's where this kind of service would come in really handy.

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Well, actually, I am getting ready to do this! It is just myself and my daughter, so no bulky men to take up real estate. We will be downsizing from 1700sq ft, to 370 sq ft. Ideally, I would prefer 500-700sq ft, but we will have enough. The best part is that I own it, and the acreage that it sits on will be paid off next year. It is only supposed to be short-term, with the goal of building a more typical home in a few years. We'll see how it goes ;)

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