My husband and I have been obsessed with tiny home living since we heard of it years ago. We always wanted to try it out, but then we had a kid and the thought of living in 200sq feet with a toddler sounds horrendous!
But there are still “tiny” homes out there that are just big tiny homes! I’m talking under 1000sq ft for a family. It’s not something people in the home-buying process usually look for, but it definitely intrigues us!
Would you move to a 960 sq foot house?
@kirsten.cherry Hi we moved from a 2000 + up and down home
with a double lot. To 1007 foot home and land. The house is 707
square foot and the land 300.
It is a 1920 home and i’m really enjoying it. Its small and does take
time to get use to but i like it.
We have our son who 27,daughter 24 son 16th husband myself plus
3 dogs that live with us. It has an upstairs with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom.
Has a living room kitchen bedroom down stairs laundry and bathroom down
stairs.
I’m just trying to go threw things that i don’t need still. It was a quite
chose we made to move here. But we been looking at small houses
for awhile or an rv. I didn’t care to much for an rv i think it would have
been to small for us. But i’m happy with the place we moved to.
i hope this helps you some. Oh all so if you watch youtube videos
they have family with small kids living in tiny homes.
I had a 978sf house … which included 2-Br/2-Ba, eat-in kitchen, living room, dining room, W/D, attached garage, attic, and a front and back porch. It was a lot more house than I really needed, but I bought it anyway because the price was right and the location was great.
Right now, I live in a 480sq.ft. Studio Apartment, and its a little crowded, but still liveable, even luxurious at times. I could adjust to a 200sf Tiny House with little problem, but what I’d really like to have is a Tiny House on a truck platform, so I could rock out that RV-Lifestyle on a miniature scale.
My wife and I live in a 3 bed 1 bath apartment and it is way too much space for us. We find we only actually use our room and the other living areas in our house.
I think I would be fine with a house with 1 bedroom 1 bathroom a small kitchen and living room area.
I have found that the more space you have, the more stuff you end up having. I am already ready to downsize!
My boyfriend and I lived in a van for a few months while traveling around Colorado. Now we live in a 720 1 bedroom apartment and we’re considering downsizing to a studio because we just don’t use that much space - even considering our two big dogs.
Living in a small space made us be more mindful of our possessions and of keeping our space clean and organized - because we had to. It also made it easier to refuse unnecessary purchases because we simply didn’t have the space for it, and we didn’t feel like we needed to fill unnecessary empty spaces. We’re still mindful about the things we purchase because we know we’re going to go back to traveling in our van as soon as possible, so if we won’t use it in our van, and there’s no point in owning it for less than 2 years, we won’t buy it.
If you’re considering downsizing, maybe consider renting a small apartment for a few months or a year just to see if the size feels cozy or confining before committing to a tiny home. While this might help you adjust to the size, the rent should also be cheaper than your current rent/mortgage which would help you build up your savings for your deposit for your new not-so-tiny-tiny-home!
Bonnie Squires posted:
@kirsten.cherry Hi we moved from a 2000 + up and down home
with a double lot. To 1007 foot home and land. The house is 707
square foot and the land 300.
It is a 1920 home and i’m really enjoying it. Its small and does take
time to get use to but i like it.We have our son who 27,daughter 24 son 16th husband myself plus
3 dogs that live with us. It has an upstairs with 3 bedrooms and a bathroom.
I couldn’t imagine living in 700sq ft with 5 adults and 3 dogs!! Eek! I’m so glad you are able to make it work and are loving it!
David P Miller posted:
I had a 978sf house … which included 2-Br/2-Ba, eat-in kitchen, living room, dining room, W/D, attached garage, attic, and a front and back porch. It was a lot more house than I really needed, but I bought it anyway because the price was right and the location was great.
Right now, I live in a 480sq.ft. Studio Apartment, and its a little crowded, but still liveable, even luxurious at times. I could adjust to a 200sf Tiny House with little problem, but what I’d really like to have is a Tiny House on a truck platform, so I could rock out that RV-Lifestyle on a miniature scale.
That sounds like a great size for a 3 person family! If it’s just you, the 480sq ft sounds even better!
I love that people these days are adjusting more to living in spaces smaller than 20 years ago. It seems that everyone thought bigger was better and that’s not necessarily the case! Thanks for sharing, David!
Moore Income posted:
My wife and I live in a 3 bed 1 bath apartment and it is way too much space for us. We find we only actually use our room and the other living areas in our house.
I think I would be fine with a house with 1 bedroom 1 bathroom a small kitchen and living room area.
I have found that the more space you have, the more stuff you end up having. I am already ready to downsize!
With our family of 3, our third bedroom just seems unnecessary. We have used it maybe once a month to house visitors, other than that, it often becomes crowded with the extra bedding we keep for visitors.
We lived in a 1 bed 1 bath before kids and it was our favorite place every! It was 500 sq feet and every room had a window so the space was light and airy. We loved it.
Jules posted:
My boyfriend and I lived in a van for a few months while traveling around Colorado. Now we live in a 720 1 bedroom apartment and we’re considering downsizing to a studio because we just don’t use that much space - even considering our two big dogs.
Living in a small space made us be more mindful of our possessions and of keeping our space clean and organized - because we had to. It also made it easier to refuse unnecessary purchases because we simply didn’t have the space for it, and we didn’t feel like we needed to fill unnecessary empty spaces. We’re still mindful about the things we purchase because we know we’re going to go back to traveling in our van as soon as possible, so if we won’t use it in our van, and there’s no point in owning it for less than 2 years, we won’t buy it.
If you’re considering downsizing, maybe consider renting a small apartment for a few months or a year just to see if the size feels cozy or confining before committing to a tiny home. While this might help you adjust to the size, the rent should also be cheaper than your current rent/mortgage which would help you build up your savings for your deposit for your new not-so-tiny-tiny-home!
My favorite place we ever lived in was a 500 sq ft 1 bed 1 bath apartment while my husband was finishing grad school. I loved that it kept us from buying unnecessary things as well. I think that was the best part of a tiny space.
Honestly, the tiny home we are thinking of is the same size as our current rental, and the mortgage would be the same as rent! So fingers crossed it all works out! Thanks for sharing your experience! When you downsize, you should share a post on how you make a studio apartment work for you!
@kirsten.cherry its not that hard. Our dogs are small does so
they don’t take up allot of room. The 2 things I miss is having
a big bathroom and kitchen counter space and cup boards to
put things away.
We have lived in a 3 bedroom mobile home before and with
10 people most was kids or teens at the time. All so had 2 dogs
So i guess living small doesn’t get to me.
Yes, I would, if it were just me and my (2 teenage) boys. We lived in an apartment smaller than that, but they were smaller then as well. I don’t have a lot of ‘stuff’ but I do like privacy and space to myself. With adding my man to the mix (a 50 man who has never lived with anyone and doesn’t have kids), I think the transition will be much easier if we all have some space 
My parents lived in a small cabin (600 sq ft) for years after my brother and I left home. I had a small house (900 sq ft) for about 10 years.
One consideration in choosing a tiny home is function. Currently we’re renting a smaller three bedroom, because it’s in a safe area, good rent, and was recently redone. It allows us to have people over, something we value. If we just needed space for ourselves, a one bedroom, one bath, would work. Another is how attached you are to your stuff. Maybe this will change, but I love my grandparents bedroom set, the big overstuffed antique sofa we salvaged, and our 1930’s china hutch. None of those work in a much smaller space. Build ins would make better sense.
I would! We lived in a 3 room tent with 3 kids and a dog for a month when we made the big move from Florida to New Hampshire and couldn’t find a place to stay! It was very liberating to not rely on so much material stuff and be resourceful when you didn’t have access to the usual daily luxuries of life. I felt more mindful and calm of mind.
FREEBIEPHARM you went from a warm place to a cold place.
That must have been a big adjustment for all of you. I miss NY
but not the cold. I only want snow Christmas eve/day that’s it lol
Some ways I miss the bigger house and other ways I don’t.
Like my kitchen i’m like where do i put this same with the
bathroom. But the nice thing is not allot to clean here.
All 5 of us ironically LOVE the cold! We love the 4 seasons, too! I get the whole kitchen thing. We are renting now and there is only one small cabinet that we use as a pantry…so hard! We are looking forward to all the drawers and storage of our new kitchen.
Small living… I suppose you must utilize more vertical storage concepts!
FREEBIEPHARM this house was built in the 1920
and the 1 closet i thought would be real good to hold
our can goods and things is small. To who ever did
work on this place changed ever thing around. I seen
pictures of the kitchen but they was old and where the
stove,refig,counters was in the pictures i really like it
but once we moved in it was totally different. No gas
stove its electric and the refig not where it was in the
pictures and cuber painted blue in the it was like a black color.
But i like it.
Kirsten, my family of seven (two adults, 5 children under 10) lived in 900sq feet. Two bedrooms, 1 1/2 baths. 5 acres. Detached garage.
We moved to 1600 sq ft ranch style house w 17 acres and added a chicken coop and a pole barn, and baby but subtracted an adult within the first year.
The bigger space means we have to be more aware of adding clutter. Seven people can have too much, especially since we also homeschool. We clear down to the essentials when we reach an obvious too much stuff point. We are about to do it again!
I miss my tiny house. The space was better utilized. I had more kitchen cabinets. There was occassionally excess stuff without a spot. But only temporarily. We could be close but apart.
@aoife coming from a big family myself, I agree that when you have more people, it creates a lot more clutter. Having a smaller space is a great motivator to get rid of excess junk!
It certainly is! New England is home to old homes with super tiny closets. I make a point to keep all my clothes in the closet- I mean that I don’t want to store off season clothes. keeps my clothes down to a reasonable amount. Kudos to the smaller homes with lots of kids. I love the idea of a small home, but want to wait till the kids are gone. I have awhile.
